Core Values Education, Essay Example

The old chair with four legs cannot stand on its own with several legs missing. However, a family needs several legs to support career, family, friends and growth. The family has several legs that are required to hold the family together such as relationships, learning and mutual respect. The years of leadership skills learned in the educational and home environment leads to the belief that leadership starts at home. The multitasking skill set was honed at home by handling multiple issues and distractions in times of crisis. I have learned that to create an effective leadership and learning climate that integrating my learned parenting skills such as multitasking, developing strong relationships, mentoring and integrity has helped my educational career. There are many volunteer hours that was spent on parent school committees and parent PTA’s which helped developed my educational leadership skills while learning to work integrity. The leader has to focus on what people believe and value which is a leader that has integrity, leadership skills and has the capability to deliver leadership training and mentoring (Larsen & Hunter,2014).

The stages of my life as a parent taught me the same core values that are necessary for an effective leader which are respect, integrity, mentoring, consistency, freedom, humility, courage, wisdom and humility (Ashborne & Andres,2015).   The same parent leadership skillset that took a life time to develop as a parent, I have learned to transfer those parent leadership competencies to the educational arena. One of the important core values is freedom because the effective leader empowers others to perform at the best of their abilities. The great leaders with strong core values use the halo effect, which is a way to motivate people to concentrate on their strong points while overlooking their personal flaws (McDowell, Williams,2013).

Respect

The lesson my children learned from me as a parent was a leader that establishes respect by their actions will be able to lead any team because their core values are embedded with dignity, compassion and strength of character. The respect that is earned translates into team members respecting the leader not because of the position title but because they are leading with actions. The educational leader that is consistent will earn the respect of peers and other personnel in the organizations (Cook,2014). The leader has to be considered a man or women that lives by their word and when they give it means something. The educational leader does not have to be predicable in their actions but they must not be seen as a hypocrite. The leaders need for respect is one the core values that ensure they succeed in leading any family, individual or group.

Integrity

The reason that internal and external customers will follow a leader’s direction because they feel the leader is a person they can trust. The best example of integrity is the executive leadership has planned a few days off with his children. However, the school has requested for the educational leader to finish a project deadline, that conflicts with the executive leader’s time off with his family. As result, the leader honors both commitments with integrity and staying true to his words of promise. This type of leader with integrity resolved the problem by staying late a few hours each night to ensure the project was done. The executive leader exhibited integrity by honoring his work and family obligations (Brown,2005). An educational leader will be a successful leader of people with a positive attitude and with strong core values that include integrity.  Integrity may not help you become a well-liked leader, nevertheless it really does help you become a reputable leader which has influence. The ISLLC Standards indicates educational leader’s primary goal should be to help promote a solid foundation of effective leadership by practicing and applying core values of integrity, positive influence and building relationships(Schwartz,2008).

Mentoring

One of the core values that was learned as a parent was mentoring and always presenting myself with integrity. The use of mentoring in the business and parenting world brings the best out of people. The parent spends much of their time mentoring their children to be ethical, moral, and live their lives as contributing citizens. The educational leader should have mentoring as one their core values because it encourages, empowers and leads others to perform at their best. The mentoring relationship gives the leader a chance to bond and build a mutual trust that allows both people to regularly exchange innovative ideas. Mentoring allows the educational leader to demonstrate how to lead a team while making a positive impact on employees, individuals, systems, and organizational positive outcomes. The mentoring of employees is a lost art because leaders have become so data driven that managers forget about mentoring activities. The parenting taught me not to forget the important of mentoring.

Relationship Building

As a parent, raising children allow the parents to master the art of building relationships which are core values needed as an educational leader.  The parenting background lead to learning to become a transformational leader that is fully aware and adept at developing personal relationships. The key to success was learned early in my parenting when I learned that body language, humility and being truthful can help build relationships. As result, my leadership skills included direct eye contact with exceptional listening skills which all contribute to building personal relationships. In order for an educational leader to be successful in building relationships they must be humble, exhibited wisdom, courage to make the right decisions, and demonstrate the ability to show ethical strength and trustworthiness(Page,2015).

Leaders can build relationships by being honest and forthright about their decisions concerning personal development and career development. Many employees often lose confidence in leaders when they exceed expect performance levels however they are never rewarded. One the core values that can help the leader build and improve relationships is personal feedback weekly or monthly. The traditional 90 days then 12-month review cycle is not the best way to provide feedback for employees. This does not allow the employee to make corrections to their performance in real time. The building of relationships requires daily, weekly and monthly interactions of listening to employees or teams. The leader that listens will become an expert at building relationships because they allow the team member to become active and engaged building an effective two-way communication channel.

Conclusion

The parenting skills learning during my life has been transferable to the educational leadership world. The school leader that promotes empowerment and personal success will build a team that will follow and accept all the core values exhibited by the leader. The educational leadership that has solid foundation of core values will be able to help individuals engage in building a strong working relationship. The leader that establishes respect as a core vale with their personal day to day actions will be seen as a leader with dignity and integrity. The educational leader should incorporate mentoring into the monthly routine to ensure they are constantly building a bridge to an effective ongoing working relationship. In order for an educational leader to be successful in building relationships they must demonstrate wisdom, ethical strength and integrity.

References

Ashbourne, D., & Andres, L. (2015). Athletics, Music, Languages, and Leadership: How Parents Influence the Extracurricular Activities of Their Children. Canadian Journal Of Education, 38(2), 1-34.

Brown, M. T. (2005). Corporate integrity: rethinking organizational ethics, and leadership. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Cook, M. (2014). Leadership and management challenges in addressing the dignity and respect agenda. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(2), 137-139 3p. doi:10.1111/jonm.12230

Larsen, D. E., & Hunter, J. E. (2014). Separating Wheat from Chaff: How Secondary School Principals’ Core Values and Beliefs Influence Decision-Making Related to Mandates. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, 9(2), 71-90

McDowell, J. B., Williams, I. L., & Kautz, D. D. (2013). Teaching the core values of caring leadership. International Journal for Human Caring, 17(4), 43-51 9p.

Page, M. (2015). Benefits of mentoring. Retrieved from http://www.michaelpage.com.cn/employer-centre/development-and-retention-advice/benefits-mentoring

Schwartz, J. (2008). Educational leadership policy standards: ISLLC 2008. Retrieved from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/view-latest-news/PressRelease/Pages/EducationalLeadershipPolicyStandardsISLLC2008.aspx

Wright, M. (2015). The integrity coach: Personal core values. Retrieved from http://theintegritycoach.com/personal-core-values