Leadership in Education Programs, Research Paper Example

Being a leader requires discipline and the ability to motivate others to follow certain paths or buy into certain concepts. Leadership is something that puts people into positions to gain the trust of followers. The question is often asked that pertains to the meaning of leadership. Many have attempted to define leadership and most definitions identify leadership by four common characteristics that indicate leadership is 1) a process, 2) involves influencing people, 3) relates to groups, and 4) involves common goals. These characteristics amount to a definition of leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (Northouse, 2012, p. 6). This can further be broken down to explain that becoming an effective leader is a process that leaders go through by being trained and by gaining experience, and then pass their leadership traits and styles on to their followers. This allows for interaction between the leader and the followers so that they are able to influence groups of followers to reach common goals. When leaders influence followers, they affect them in various ways and a good leader is capable of leading people in desired directions to achieve success and reach goals. The ability for one to lead people and influence them depends on specific leadership traits that one possesses.

Leadership Traits

When it comes to leadership traits, some people are natural leaders and people just automatically gravitate toward them and are willing to follow them. Natural leaders have certain characteristic traits that identify them as leaders, and this is why they are able to get people to respond to them. Some of these leadership traits include intelligence, ability to speak well, tactfulness, charisma, and authoritative personality. In addition, leadership traits show that a person has leadership power and authority and this is how they can easily influence other people. Examples of leaders that can influence with their power of authority are ministers, coaches, and teachers, particularly teachers in adult and community education (Northouse, 2012).

How Men Lead

Research shows that most people perceive men to be action-oriented and take a more focused approach as a leader. Men are known to take charge of leadership and take control in leadership situations, and have been known to influence people based on these traits. This concept is often based on stereotypes about how men are in leadership roles, which may often include authoritative and possibly dictatorship techniques (Riggio, 2010).

A recent Catalyst study (2005) highlights the main differences between men’s and women’s approaches towards leadership. The authors state that women “take care,” while men “take charge.” This statement indicates that men’s approach towards leadership is based on authority and position, while women are more successful in building relationships and communities. Looking at Lewin’s (Lewin et al. 1939) participatory leadership styles, the most descriptive model that meets general male approaches is “autocratic”.

How Women Lead

According to research, people perceive women leaders as approaching leadership with empathy toward others, as well as being nurturing and responsive. However, women are perceived as moody leaders, as compared to men. Instead of being more of a leader that takes charge, a women leader is more like someone that takes care in a leadership position (Riggio, 2010). Chandler (2011, p. 4) confirms that “socialization and culture influences perceptions of women’s leadership”. As women have a higher level of empathy and emotional intelligence, confirmed by previous studies, they are supposed to be better at negotiating, peace building and keeping teams, classes together.

Further, Fisher (2007) also states that collaboration and empathy are the leadership advantages of women. Their communication skills are significantly more advanced, as a result of their different language development patterns from men’s. This also means that applying Lewin’s three participatory leadership styles theory, (Lewin et al. 1939) women are more likely to apply the Laissez-Faire or the democratic approach.

Gender in Leadership

There is much debate that has taken place to determine whether or not there is a difference in the way men and women lead, particularly in the area of adult education. Many perceptions are stereotypical and see leadership positions as predominantly a man’s role and that men are perceived as more effective leaders. This is due, in part, to the fact that more men than women are in senior leadership positions. However, women in leadership positions are becoming more commonplace, and have been over the past twenty years, which means stereotypes are changing. This is true, even though the debate on whether men are better leaders than women, and vice versa, still exists.

Certain leadership traits and characteristics are shared between both men and women; however, studies show that women are often better leaders than men. This is particularly true with transformational leadership. The transformational leader has the ability to transform the behaviours of groups and focus on their followers to achieve success in reaching goals. Qualities of transformational leaders include that they are “inspirational, positive role models, concerned about followers, empowering, and push followers to be creative and take chances” (Riggio, 2010, para. 3). Research shows that women have more of these types of characteristics and qualities, which makes them potentially more effective at leading people than men. This holds true in all types of leadership environments, such as the education environment, particularly the adult and community education environments.

Moran (1992) confirms that stereotyping male and female leaders in education or the corporate world would be wrong. However, there are some differences in the two genders’ leadership and personality traits that make males and females approach leadership a different way. The author refuses to use clear leadership categories, he simply states that the dominant trait in men and women are likely to be different. He also confirms that the main differences are originated from the different socialization of men and women. Women are more team-focused while men tend to be production-oriented. That, translated to community education would mean that as women have a higher sense of empathy and more advanced communication skills in general, they would sit down with a student who is underachieving and try to find out the reasons. Men, on the other hand, would focus on improvement of results instead of understanding the problem.

Applebaum et al. (2003) confirms that there are several approaches towards examining the relationship between gender and leadership styles. The three main theories quoted are based on biological, socialization and complex determinants. (p. 48.) Still the authors confirm that while women’s leadership approaches are initially different from men’s, there is a tendency that men learn new and useful leadership skills from women and vice versa. Women’s styles are not less effective, though, this belief is based on social stereotypes. (Applebaum et al. p. 50)

Leaders in the Adult Learning Environment

A recent study shows that female leaders in the learning environment approach it with the idea of improving learning and are often instructional leaders in education. Women educational leaders focus on student learning priorities and are often motivated by being a part of student learning, as they often use collaborative learning techniques to help learners achieve. Women are also more prone to engage in relational leadership in the educational environment, which means they understand that the leader-follower interaction is a relationship that is non-hierarcial (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2010).

The same study reports that male leaders have a different conceptual approach to leading and teaching and women are more likely to be more inclusive to empower their learners. This is a way to influence people to change their behaviors to work together to reach a common goal. Furthermore, women are more likely to perceive power as a tool to develop relationships with people, while men may tend to use power to control people. Women are more likely to perceive their relationship with their learners as important (Grogan & Shakeshaft, 2010).

Conclusion

In today’s world, leaders need to be more people-oriented and focused on the needs of the learners, as research shows. This means that it is more likely that a transitional style leader is better equipped to handle learners more effectively. Regarding this, research also shows that women are more likely to possess the characteristics of transitional leadership, because of their natural nurturing and caring instincts. However, this is not something that men cannot possess as well, and it is important that both men and women develop the type of leadership qualities that facilitates better learning for the learners.

References

Applebaum, S., Audet, L., Miller, J. (2003) Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories Leadership & Organization Development Journal. 24/1 [2003] 43-51

Catalyst (2005) Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge.” Retrieved from http://www.rochester.edu/sba/100years/PDFs/Women%20Take%20Care%20Men  %20Take%20Charge.pdf

Chandler, D. (2011) What Women Bring to the Exercise of Leadership. Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 3 Iss. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 1-12

Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, K. (2003). Adult Learning. Retrieved from Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology: http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Adult_Learning

Fisher, H. (2007) The Natural Leadership Talents of Women. in: Enlightened Power. pp. 133-140.

Grogan, M., & Shakeshaft, C. (2010). Women and Educational Leadership (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.

Lewin, K., Lippit, R. and White, R.K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301

Northouse, P. G. (2012). Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE.

Riggio, R. E. (2010). Do Men and Women Lead Differently? Who’s Better? Retrieved from Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201003/do-men-and-women-lead-differently-whos-better