Module 2 - Anita Lambert

As I read over the assigned reading and assessments, I reflected on the host of leaders I have worked with over the past several years. While my teaching experience is limited to my student teaching semester, I worked for several years at the Braxton County Board of Education office. During this time, I worked with a many leaders who displayed just about every mentioned leadership style. The first set of slides defined leadership as "a major way in which people change the minds of others and move organizations forward to accomplish identified goals." With that definition in mind, the leader I chose to focus on was one of the former County Superintendents I worked with. During her time in the office, she lead a major push to change the way people thought about how our school system was organized and convinced citizens to pass the first levy in 40+ years. As a leader, she had the right combination of traits. Confident in her own abilities and extremely decisive, she presented a plan to deconsolidate the county's only middle school and place the 5th and 6th grades back into the elementary schools. While her plan was not popular with some employees and citizens, she listened to concerns, presented alternative solutions and ultimately convinced a majority of the county's voters to back her proposal. I think a great deal of her success came from her attitude and never asking people to do something she wouldn't be willing to do herself. One summer there was construction at a couple of the schools. A few days before school started, she was there in her jeans with the rest of us moving furniture back into rooms.

In my short time working in a school, I have seen collaborative teachers trying to promote technology integration. Usually, such integration is met with great skepticism by more experienced teachers.  However, in our county, we have a wonderful person who works trying to get more technology intergrated into the classroom. With many years of teaching experience, she has gained the respected of the experienced teachers and new teachers look to her for advice. Her knowledge is always welcomed and she is the "go to" person for any questions about implementing a new program.

On the "How Good are Your Leadership Skills?", I scored a 70, which puts me in the "Excellent! You're well on your way to becoming a good leader" category. However, some of the situations I've never had to deal with and just answered how I thought I would respond in the given situation. I scored highest (9 out of 10) on "Positive Outlook and Attitude" and "Being a Good Role Model". My lowest score was "Self Confidence". That really didn't surprise me. This is something I've been trying to work on for years.  On the Collaborative Leadership Assessment, I scored in the Stronger range on most of the assessments. I got the highest score on "Assessing the Environment."

Good leadership skills are essential for every job. I have been lucky enough to work with some strong leaders and have learned some of what it takes to be a good leader from them. In addition, I have worked with some poor leaders and that experience was just as enlightening.