The heart of the head

Transcription

1 Research Associate Summary Report Wendy Allen Assistant Headteacher, Ulverston Victoria High School Resource The heart of the head The emotional dimension of school leadership Autumn 2009

2 Introduction This research report studies the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective secondary school leadership. In order to illuminate the role emotional intelligence can play at the heart of the head in retaining, sustaining, developing and recruiting school leaders now and in the future, it studies the research questions: What is emotional intelligence? What is the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective school leadership? What role can it play in sustaining and developing current and future leaders in the workplace? It falls into two main sections: 1. A review of the literature on emotional intelligence and its application to school leadership. 2. The development of a school-based emotional intelligence model of effective school leadership. Further research presently in progress will then test the credence of the developed model through a comparative study of a number of acknowledged effective secondary school headteachers. Findings 1. Literature review What is emotional intelligence? This is a difficult question to answer as there is no clear consensus about what the construct really means. Is it science or is it myth (Matthews et al 2002)? The literature indicates, however, the clear emergence of two cultures of thought: 1. Scholarly science-driven culture (Salovey & Mayer 1990). a mental abilities model. refers to a fixed inherent ability to recognise and to use emotion to enhance performance. has foundations in personality theory. 2. Popular practice-driven culture (Goleman 1996). a mixed competences model. refers to personal and social competences developed throughout life. has foundations in superior performance in the workplace. This present research study aligns itself with the practice-driven culture, resonating with a continuing research focus on the relationship between emotional intelligence competences and effective school leadership.

3 Leadership: realising the power of emotional intelligence How is it that some leaders are enervated by change while others are traumatised? The literature indicates that: responses to change may be influenced by very powerful nonrational emotional forces (James & Connolly 2000) the intellectually gifted but emotionally impoverished will not be resonant leaders who interweave intellect and emotion (Goleman et al 2002) the seamless blend of thinking and feeling may increase our chances of breaking through the new, more authentically collaborative ways of leading (Beaty 2005) Arguably, leaders who lack empathy are self-absorbent and out of tune with the group who unwittingly act in ways that set off negative reactions. Emotionally intelligent leaders sense the shared values and priorities of the group using this to guide them. Is this the x factor for outstanding leadership? Emotional intelligence: the impact on leadership in the workplace The ideal leader in the 20th-century workplace: tends to have strong but hard personal qualities, is inspiring but can be seen as arrogant. The ideal leader in the 21st-century workplace: demonstrates greater empathy and concern for people issues and does not rely on position or rank for status Why this shift? Ninety per cent of the competences necessary for success in the workplace are social and emotional in nature (Goleman 1998). Such competences are critical to effective job performance (Bar-On 2000). Emotionally intelligent leaders model the way, inspire a vision, challenge the process, enable others to act and encourage the heart (Kouzes & Posner 2002). This present research study suggests that developing emotional competence in organisations will be successful only if leadership is shown to value such competencies and is able to communicate the importance of emotional intelligence to its members. 2. The Allen model: building emotionally resilient school communities through emotionally resilient leadership Goleman s practice-driven, competencesbased model of emotional intelligence has underpinned and informed the development of a model, shown in Figure 1, for building emotionally resilient school communities through emotionally resilient leadership.

4 The Allen model for effective school leadership Building emotionally resilient school communities through emotionally resilient leadership. 1. Understanding own moral purpose which leads to: 2. Emotional selfawareness which leads to: Emotionally resilient leadership 4. Ability to flex emotional self with emotional self of others which leads to: 3. Awareness of the emotional self of others which leads to: Builds the capacity for: 5. Others being emotionally self-aware which leads to: 6. Others being able to flex emotional self with emotional self of others which leads to: Emotionally resilient communities 8. An emotionally aware and emotionally secure school community that is able to sustain itself which: 7. Emotionally resilient synergy at all levels of the school community that leads to: Builds the capacity for: Figure 1

5 Conceptualisation of the Allen model This model has at its heart the notion that one of the great strengths of good leaders is a strong sense of moral purpose (Fullan 2003: 20). The moral purpose of emotionally intelligent leaders is grounded in being: understanding of how emotions guide and shape thoughts and actions person-centred strongly driven by sets of personal values passionate about visioning and realising excellence in learning and achievement driven by high levels of emotional commitment able to manage tensions and dilemmas through capacity building in others Leaders use these competences to: set the emotional climate for the school showing the way for others to want to follow develop mutually empathic relationships across diverse groups that make for long-term success create emotionally resilient, dynamic and trusting learning communities engage others in their energy and are energised by the activities and accomplishment of the group spot, nurture and develop leadership talents in others to lead the school forward The Allen model strongly argues that it is the headteacher s role to enable the school community to see new possibilities and new ways of being. Part one: emotionally resilient leadership Leaders understand their own moral purpose and are emotionally self - aware. They know what drives and shapes them and the role emotion plays in this. Leaders are aware of the emotional self of others and how to relate to others. They flex their own emotional self with the emotional self of others while acknowledging the potential for conflict as a positive thing from which synergy will come. Leaders use emotional intelligence competences to build emotionally resilient communities. Part two: emotionally resilient communities The capacity for others to be emotionally self-aware is built and the way modelled by flexing the emotional self with the emotional self of others. Emotionally resilient synergy is created at all levels, resulting in emotional security. Leaders have at their heart the moral imperative to make a difference to the life chances of all stakeholders in the school community that in turn impacts positively on society as a whole.

6 Conclusion Does it matter what s at the heart of the head? It is argued that emotionally integrative leaders are far more likely to develop the kind of professional learning communities needed for onward progress. Effective school leadership requires high levels of emotional intelligence that should be acknowledged as being central to effective school leadership; further developed in current school leaders to retain and sustain them; developed and honed in those spotted as having future leadership potential. References Bar-On, R, 2000, Emotional and social intelligence: insights from the Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-I). In R Bar-On & J D A Parker, eds, Handbook of Emotional Intelligence, pp , San Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass Beaty, B, 2005, Emotional leadership. In B Davies, ed, The Essentials of School Leadership, pp , London, Paul Chapman Publishing and Corwin Press Fullan, M, 2003, Change Forces: With a vengeance, London, RoutledgeFalmer Goleman, D, 1996, Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, London, Bloomsbury Goleman, D, 1998, Working with Emotional Intelligence, New York, Bantam Press Goleman, D, Boyatzis, R & McKee, A, 2002, The New Leaders: Transforming the art of leadership into the science of results, London, Little, Brown Book Group James, C & Connolly, U, 2000, Effective Change in Schools, London, RoutledgeFalmer Kouzes, J M & Posner, B Z, 2002, Leadership: The challenge, San Francisco, CA Jossey-Bass Matthews, G, Zeidner, M & Roberts, R D, 2002, Emotional Intelligence: Science and myth, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press Salovey, P & Mayer, J D, 1990, Emotional intelligence: imagination, cognition, and personality. In P Salovey et al, 2004, Emotional Intelligence: Key readings on the Mayer and Salovey model, pp , New York, Dude Publishing Acknowledgments Particular thanks are due to Professor Brent Davies of the University of Hull for guidance and supervision of this research, and to Dr Alan Flintham for his editorial support.

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