The Importance Of Collaboration: Improving Leadership Practices

Physical activity has also been associated with positive psychological benefits of decreased depression, improved body image and increase in motivation (Austin p.98). Mind-body modalities can help reduce stress and increase relaxation; in addition they may be able to

After taking the values balancing test my score is higher for collaboration then personal. Which means my leadership values are capacity for collaboration. These values are feminine and personal initiative are masculine values. Because I have capacity for collaboration it means that I underestimate my personal initiative and if I had personal initiative it means that I underestimate my capacity for collaboration. My score between personal and collaboration were only 2 or 3 points away from each other. If I had to work with someone who had different values then me. I would have to use both leadership values styles like being or risk taker but also adaptable when working on a project. After taking the unconscious bias I scored a 3 which means

Organizational leadership builds on traditional theories in order to form new and exciting directions. Transactional leadership is a traditional theory, which has been used as a platform to understand leadership and further develop techniques for higher organizational performance. The three components of transactional leadership help shape and define the style, but are not always strictly adhered to. There are many advantages and disadvantages of transformational leadership. Knowing how and when to apply this style will prove useful for most successful organizational leaders. President Dwight Eisenhower was a good example of how transactional leadership could be used successfully.

In his article on the five big leadership ideas that he has summed over the years, Allio (2010) raises a few points that are relevant to a culturally diverse workplace when it comes to leadership, collaboration and team work.

In his recent article, “Can We End the Meditation Madness?” published in The New York Times on Oct. 9, 2015, Adam Grant wrote that he himself has nothing against meditation, but he feels that meditation is not for him. He writes that people try to push onto others like “They approach with the fervor of a football fan attacking a keg at a tailgate party. “Which method of meditation do you use?” Grant makes a statement that meditation is one way of many to fight stress but that it is not the only way. Which I have to agree with him because there are many other ways to help reduce stress and are several studies to prove that there are different ways. The list can go on for pages, I am not saying there is a 300 page book about the different ways to relieve stress, but you catch my drift? Right.

Once I began my student teaching placement I met with the principle, my collaborative teacher and the literacy coach for the preschool to discuss the event. I had to explain why I chose to highlight STEM to parents, the purpose of exposing parents to STEM and what my goals and objective were for the night. I was momentarily caught off guard by the questions I was being asked, but was able to quickly compose myself an articulate my reasoning professional manner. (Reflecting back on the meeting I have an idea of what type of questions a hiring

I would allow and encourage meditation in the workplace, I believe there are many benefits from meditation. For many of us work is a very stressful place, from dealing with unpleasant coworkers to the workload and due dates that is given. Giving employees a time to relax and distress from the things bothering them at work can be beneficial to all. The workplace would be a happier, more pleasant place to be and maybe people wouldn't dread coming to work as much as they do. It would increase communication and leadership skills, decrease absenteeism due to illness and also increase productivity. Taking a walk, listening to music, doing some stretching, engaging in prayer, controlling your breathing are all ways of easy meditation to do at work.

According to the article “Making Shared Leadership Work,” “shared leadership should also extend beyond the school walls. Parents, students, and community members provide important perspectives, particularly in discussing major school initiatives. They can also offer unique and valuable technical assistance…” If the high school council does not take into account parents and community members they are doing a grave disservice to their building and district. Parents ultimately know their own child best and would offer rich insight into the schools due to this factor. Furthermore, bringing the community into the schools benefits the entire city rather than just focusing on the high school as a separate entity removed from the rest of the surrounding

2010). Employees who participated in a meditation intervention reported significant improvements over the control group in their levels of work-related stress, job satisfaction, psychological distress, and job performance (Shonin et al. 2014). Richard Brady wrote, “My two teachers’ friends report that meditation, when they take the time to do it, gives them relief from stress they experience at work and at home” (Brady, R., 2004, p. 87). Thus, mindfulness practices may directly help alleviate teacher burnout in addition to indirectly decreasing teachers’ stress by improving students’ behaviors. However, this assumption about the effects of mindfulness practices for teachers has yet to be explored in a systematic way.

One of my primary leadership responsibilities as the Principal of West Shore Middle School is to developed a shared leadership model whereby professional development and major building based decisions are created and vetted through different members of the leadership team before it is introduced to the staff as a whole. For example, administration, curriculum leaders, and the reading coach meet to create professional development experience to support our School Continuous Improvement Plan. We then meet with the team leaders to present what is created. Finally, the presentation is announced to the staff. Utilizing this process fosters a sense of collaboration to provide meaningful professional learning and building based instructional decisions.

As discussions about the use of meditation have become more prevalent, patients are using this practice clinically and several studies have researched the benefits and limitations. One study found that Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) can serve as an effective treatment to reduce the anxiety and stress that comes from a chronic illness and everyday life (Praissman, 2008, para. 4). Not only are the benefits seen in chronically ill patients and/or those with psychological disorders, but practicing MBSR can be beneficial to healthcare providers that have a stressful workload and desire a way to non-chemically handle the demands of their job. Additionally, the text states a few other found physiological benefits including: reduction of blood pressure, decreasing the risk for hypertension, help cancer patient’s experiencing depression and anxiety due to their illness, be helpful in PTSD therapy, increase a patient’s productivity, decrease irritability and increase one’s sense of identity (Potter et al., 2017, p. 692). While

I have strong feelings and respect every individual, I am governed emotionally, by that; people will forget what you said, they will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. In Module.1 we were asked to form LLG groups of four people. I journalled (p.6 28/09/11) “people were reluctant to be in a group with me as my centres are miles away in Bolton ! I felt like the last person to be picked for the sports team”, I knew then there were people who had made me feel uncomfortable and it would be hard to come back from that. For me, I find looking after my staff and their Emotional Intelligence Goleman (1995) as paramount to their well- being; (Journal p45 02.11.11) “Some of the team are emotional and stressed. I am going to promote

stressed the feeling of being uncomfortable with ordering the students about. This would suggest it is something they are not used to (Field notes, 4th June, 2014).

I want to learn more skills and knowledge in menu designing, nutrition balance, dietary requirements and finance controlling within the restaurant industry area, so that in the future I can use these knowledge to open up my own restaurant using five years’ time.

Taking a risk is a very appropriate title for this assignment because I can definitely think of some principals that would have difficulty sharing leadership. The key principal behaviors and strategies according to Lunenburg and Irby (2006) I see as the starting point for any successful principal to implement a shared leadership approach. I especially like the points about creating a positive climate, removing barriers and creating a vision. When I become a principal I plan to be accessible to staff, parents and teachers. I don’t intend to have a heavy handed approach to decision making however I will make a decision when necessary. When I become a principal I will form a leadership team consisting of teachers from each grade level, support