reflective essay 1

8/3/2019 Reflective Essay 1

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BUILDING THE BEST 2

Abstract

Education requires leaders, followers, doers, and movers to bring their best everyday. Our

mission is to educate and eradicate negative stigmas that digress us from student achievement.

Because this is no small feat, as leader, I must bring my best before I can expect this from any

member of the team. Everyone brings something special to the educational setting. As a leader, I

must lead as though everyone is important. Educators must feel as though they are worthy of the

opportunity to educate our next generation. In addition, it is vital that I build confidence in the

culture. This requires a sense of confidence in my own abilities and the ability to nurture

anothers confidence. With t hese aspects of leadership I must instill a passion for change and a

culture of greatness.

Keywords: education, culture, greatness, build, confidence, worth, change, HR


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Building the Best

Inspiring others to be their best requires a rapport of trust between both inspirer and

receiver. While this task is beneficial and builds motivation for both individuals, it requires an

attitude of dedication and a spirit of perseverance. The communication process between sender

and receiver is a vital vehicle for achieving ones goal of inspiring fa culty and support staff to be

their best. These individuals, including myself as a leader, make up the culture of an

organization. The way we perform, operate (both informally and formally), and the way we do

things are concrete workings of our culture. In essence, I desire to consistently inspire others to

be their best. I have to create and sustain a culture that nurtures individuals to be performsuperior. This is unlike standards that are historically complacent with mediocre performance.

According to C ollins (2001), A primary task in taking a company from good to great is to create

a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be heard and ultimately for the truth

to be heard (p. 88). As a leader there are several commitments I must establish in order to build

a culture that supports the best performance from staff and faculty. As a leader, I must have

confidence in my team and myself; I must instill a sense of worth in every team member; a

passion for change and a culture of greatness must be established.

Confidence in Staff, Faculty, and Myself

Confidence is an essential quality found in leaders. Confidence could serve as a tool or

distracter for the success of an organization. When utilized appropriately by anyone, confidence

has a way of allowing people to believe in their possibilities. As a leader, I will instill confidence

in team members by being cognizant of each person. Even individuals who seem to be on the

right path or performing well require a sense of confidence. I realized that building confidence in

others is both beneficial to sender and receiver. I believe individuals emotionally profit from


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their own healthy esteem. Collectively, the team must also believe in each members ability and

dedication to carry the torch fo r the organizations missions. Foremost, it is imperative that I

communicate consistently with our team. This involves, having group meetings, frequent email

communication, and emergency meetings (if appropriate) for updates on vital issues. It is

important that employees feel they are an essential component in the organization, and not

simply just an employee who works for the organization. Collins (2001) has a primary, yet

intriguing message, which I will exercise for the rest of my days as a leader. Collins suggests to

1. lead with questions not answers;

2.

engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion;3. conduct autopsies, without blame;

4. build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored

(p.88).

These are all important concepts to leadership. Many people on a team desire direction,

confidence, and security from their leader. These traits shine brighter in leaders who are

knowledgeable, assured, and have the synergy to move others towards achievement. As a leader

and future Human Resource (HR) administrator for education, I reflect on my own growth and

realize obtaining knowledge is a key to cultivating confidence. For instance, laws and

regulations, and a schools policy and procedures, guide the HR profession. As a leader, I must

be versed in these guiding principles. I must have the skills to regurgitate this information to

faculty and other staff. They must also have the resources to reach higher in their positions. My

goal for the HR Staff would be to become more knowledgeable, more experienced, and confident

about the role of HR in schools. As I prepare myself and become more qualified as an HR leader,

I become more confident in my abilities to monitor, lead, and direct different programs. I


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BUILDING THE BEST 5

believe this will bring my team to higher levels of confidence as well. Team members are more

likely to have confidence in a leader who is knowledgeable about the profession. Individuals

who have a desire to excel and become more self-assured in their position often look to their

leaders for direction. If I put myself in a position where I cannot help others, I am no longer

satisfying the role as an educational leader.

Sense of Worth in Every Team Member

Cohen (1990) offers ways to make a work team feel they are the best. You want

everyone in your organization to know what a terrific outfit they are associated with (p. 105).

He suggests that leaders actually find a niche, something the team successfully performs, andpromote accordingly. As a leader, I have the responsibility of seeing beyond the current situation

in order to develop the organization. Followers make a leaders position necessary. This idea

alone, places a unique responsibility on me as an HR leader. This does not place me in a position

of power, but a position where I can provide the tools so that others can empower themselves. I

believe this will allow others to feel a sense of worth. I lead through a theory y lens of

management. I believe each person is gifted with a skill. These skills have the ability to build an

empire, but only if the empire is suited with a dedicated leader. Everyone on the team needs to

feel valued. I must acknowledge everyones efforts that go towards the mission of our

organization. In addition, I must take time to say thank you, great work, way to go! From

leading a sales floor team to being an HR team leader in a private organization, I learned there is

no formula to guide another to a higher level of self-worth. Everyone is different and is

motivated by a plethora of factors. As a leader, I help people bring their best by knowing them

first as an individual an then as a member of our organization. Disgust to people is to feel they

are being used. This becomes toxic to an organizations culture and can spread like an epidemic .


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This reminds me that the culture of an organization is vital not only to extend and surpass the

organizations mission, but also to cultivate the caliber of people who are empowered to bring

their best.

A Passion for Change, a Culture of Greatness

The culture of an organization is like puppet strings, attached to each employee. Some

people chose to cut these strings and operate under their own behavior patterns to achieve certain

results. On the other hand, most employees allow the cultures behavio r expectations to guide

their actions. These expectations are usually not written, but are guided by a leaders own

behavior. This behavior often reflects the behavior of employees. According to Morgan, (as citedin Gensberg and Bernstein, 2011), The idea of culture, which accepts a key set of ideas and

perhaps rejects another, conflicting set of ideas, is not something that can be imposed, but must

developed over time and with the support of continued social interaction (p. 2). From my point

of view, it is important for leaders to establish cultural boundaries and expectations. As a leader,

I do this by first displaying culturally proficient behaviors that are supportive of my companys

mission. A cultural proficient leader is one who embraces cultures, values, and ways of

everyone; these differences are used to unite, change, and make the organization more effective.

It is not enough for only the leader to be culturally proficient. Everyone in the organization must

understand the essential nature of embracing other cultures. Teachers, district/site

administrators, and parents/community all have an effect on the educational program. As an

educational leader, you can learn concepts and skills and translate these into new initiatives,

curricula, programs, and activities that will enrich school life for all students and staff (Lindsey,

Robins, and Terrell, 2009, p. 14). As exposed in the literature, culturally proficient leaders

display certain behaviors. To build the best team-the best people, my behaviors will be reflective


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of a culturally proficient individual. As described by Lindsey, Robins, and Terrell (2009), I must

assess the culture in the organization; value diversity; manage dynamics of differences; adapt to

diversity; institutionalize cultural knowledge and policies. I will value this process as continuous

and necessary so that all students can learn and all educators grow. I believe it is important to

understand culture; it is the heart of a person. An individuals culture is often viewed as sacred. It

is a dominant entity to be respected and valued. In order for organizations to produce effective

results, everyone must value these differences. As a leader, this will require me to communicate

with team members, organize and develop cultural proficiency training, introduce policies and

procedures that values cultural differences, and ensure my behaviors are truly those of culturalproficient leaders.

In conclusion, this reflective essay harped on my necessity to bring out the best in staff.

In an educational setting, it s vital for staff to have confidence in themselves and their leaders.

This provides the necessary energy to drive the school s mission. In addition, every person; from

the custodial staff, kitchen staff, maintenance, teachers, administrators, and other staff, should

believe their work is valuable. Their feelings of worthiness should show in their results, which is

ultimately student achievement. Finally, as a leader, I must cultivate a passion and culture that

reaches for greatness. This goal may appear as one suited for life in the stars, but thats exactly

what we as educational leaders should desire.


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References

Cohen, W. A. (1990). The art of the leader . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Collins, J. (2001). Good to great . New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Ginsberg, S. M., & Bernstein, J. L. (2011). Growing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

through Institutional Culture Change. Journal of The Scholarship Of Teaching And

Learning , 11 (1), 1-12.

Lindsey, Robins, & Terrell (2009). Cultural proficiency: A manual for school leaders . Thousand

Oaks, CA: SAGE Company.

reflective essay 1

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