Hello, Leaders in Training,

This topic of leadership for our field is an important one.  As other posts mention, we need leaders at all levels of our field. 

Here are some more thoughts on this topic.  These are based on direct study of and work in the area of adult learner leadership, on direct experience trying to be a leader in adult education and other areas of my life (e.g., soccer coach, dad, leader of parent-teacher organization and block association, etc.), on reading of a mix of books on leadership models (e.g., the business leadership book  "Good to Great,"  a recent profile of Barack Obama titled "Renegade" ....), and on observation of others who serve in leadership roles.

Our field needs leaders who:

1. Have a vision of a better system of adult learning for the people we are trying to serve.

2. Have the full range of Equipped for the Future skills.  (I think EFF pretty much sums up the basic communication, planning, teamwork, lifelong learning, and other basic skills all of us need.  These EFF skills are imbedded in the other qualities below.)

3. Have expertise (i.e., knowledge of the theory and practice, based on study and experience)  in how to:
....  plan and implement effective learning systems for various learner populations, purposes, contexts, etc.
....  deal with funding-related tasks (i.e., get funding, manage it well, deal with funders, . . . )
....  select, train, guide, mentor, support, coordinate, and otherwise lead the people who do this work.

4. Have positive energy and commitment needed to do this hard work, persist, and inspire others. 

5. Are willing to learn and to be flexible and humble; able to adapt to and take advantage of changing conditions; able to admit that they might be wrong, can do better, and might need to try a different strategy.

6. Are able to work with others, who will include others who might have different backgrounds, perspectives, and styles. 

7. Have courage, a thick skin, patience, and a personal support system, so they are willing and able to deal with resistance to change. 

At the start of the previous federal administration, I wrote about an article for CAAL titled "Adult Literacy Education: Leaders Wanted."  It said much the same as I say above.  

We have had many examples of great leaders in our field and we should learn from them.  It will be hard to find any one person who has high levels of every one of the above qualities.  Rather than think they can just go it alone (like the people we see depicted as statues in our parks), our leaders (i.e., potentially everyone reading this)  need to be willing to lead not just individually but collectively -- organized around particular issues or projects.  In unity we as leaders will have strength.

Paul Jurmo
Union County College
New Jersey


Hi Mary et al,

 

I'd like to take another crack at this.  What you write here is very sound in terms of leadership theory and on the ground practice.

 

What so much gets in the way is an overwhelming focus on the immediacy of the present in its many temporary pragmatic temptations and trade-offs. Among other things this short-circuits sustainable long-term organizational trust. When a sense of cynicism, skepticism or simply a sense of "this is just the way things are done around here," so don't rock the boat too much sets in, the cultural vision that is reflected in your post becomes the first causality, assuming it was ever a reality in the first place.  Sadly, it not need be so even as the pressures of funding, too much to do in too little time seep in, which in turn reinforce "realist" ideologies of organizational behavior that come to dominate more than a little leadership behavior with many sad consequences.  The self-fulfilling prophecy unleashed by such behavior in turn reinforces self-perceptions of power, control, "directive command management within often self-sealing managerial networks that interpret what you lay out here at best overly idealistic; at worst, self-delusional utopian pining that if enacted would result in organizational dysfunction.  The irony is that the reverse is so often the case in which the depicted "idealists" have a much more acute sense of effective organizational behavior at least from a more bottom up perspective, in which, in any event the "realists" have the capacity and often do destroy what could be so viable, which often does not even come to the fore because the potentiality is stifled before it reaches a level of sustained embodied enduring presence.  In short, the vision of organizational behavior described in your message often becomes stillborn before it even has a chance to become realized which is then viewed as unrealistic by those who kill it.  Etc.

 

George Demetrion
 


Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:14:43 +0000
From: mmingle at comcast.net
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 1390] Reflection on Leadership







As a professional developer for adult education practitioners, I have the opportunity to observe the different leadership and management styles of administrators in the programs I serve. Strong adult education programs tend to have leaders who engage in participatory decision-making, asking staff members working in classrooms and with individual adult learners for feedback, ideas, and opinions. These leaders are not afraid of opinions and ideas that differ from their own; in fact, they welcome differing opinions and seriously consider these new or different ideas to make better decisions. 

These strong leaders freely share administrative information that impacts the program and seek input from staff before making final decisions. Strong leaders are good communicators and support the flow of information and ideas throughout the organization.
I've seen regional programs that seemed "adrift" come to life again with the leadership of a new individual who does not rule the program from a position of power, but who rolls up his/her sleeves, admits when he/she does not know the answer (but makes the effort to find the answer), and works to develop the skills of his/her staff members (who are truly considered a "team").
Strong adult education programs also actively seek out connections and collaborations within the community. Leaders of these programs are good (and sincere) networkers who are not afraid to share power or funding, but recognize that collaboration is the most effective way to meet program and community goals. Once again, these leaders are able to work with others as a team and can facilitate team activities as well as participate while others do the facilitating.Mary








Mary Mingle

CIU # 10 Development Center for Adults

Central Northeast Professional Development Center
8 N. Grove St.  2nd Floor Suite 1
Lock Haven, PA  17745


(570) 893-4052
Fax: (570) 748-1598
mmingle at comcast.net
www.cnepdc.org 

 

New!   CNEPDC Technology Blog      http://cnepdctech.blogspot.com 





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