Servant-Leadership in ELT: feeble drivel or natural fit?

Barbara Craig

Specialist Teacher, Student Learning Centre, Flinders University

Sandra Pitronaci

Associate Director ELC Programs, Macquarie University English

Language Centre

English Australia Conference 21 September 2018

Intentions

• Review some leadership and management theories

• Examine complexity theory and systems thinking

• Consider the notion of servant-leadership

• Discuss as leaders how we can survive and thrive in changing times

• Hear your thoughts and ideas throughout

Task 1: GTKY

• How many of you have come to ELT leadership through your role as:

teacher

student advisor or welfare officer

administrator in a school system

marketer

accountant or other financial role

ownership of the business

other

• How many have had formal leadership training?

Task 2: Culture & Leadership

• Write 3 adjectives to describe your workplace culture

• Write 3 adjectives to describe yourself as a leader

• Share with partner

• Can you articulate your key leadership principles? What are they?

• What commonalities can you see between your teaching in the classroom

and your leading in the staffroom?

Theories & styles

Great Man Theory & Trait Theories

Leaders are born, not mad

Behavioural Theories

Leaders can be made by learning the

‘right’ behaviours

e.g. Blake & Mouton’s Managerial/Leadership Grid

Theories & styles

Contingency Theories

Leadership style is

contingent on presenting

constraints

Least Preferred Co-Worker Scale (Fiedler’s Contingency Theory)

Situational Leadership

Theories & Styles

Transactional

Authentic

Leadership

Transformational

Where does ‘service’ fit?

Aristotle 384-322 BC

What is the essence of life? To serve others and do good.

He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

Peter Senge

No one in the past 30 years has had a more profound impact on thinking about leadership [than Robert Greenleaf].

• Underlying approach/philosophy – a constant base – from which leaders can move between leadership models as required, in a principled, eclectic way

• Supports many current leadership models and theories

Task 3: Complexity Theory

i. Complex Dynamic Systems

ii. The New Science

iii. Systems Thinking

iv. The Mess

• Have you heard of any of these theories?

• What do you understand about them?

Complexity Theory

i. Complex Dynamic Systems – Diane Larsen-Freeman

Chaos/complexity theory and SLA

• Theory originated from biology, maths, physics

• More recently applied to business management and SLA

Complexity theory aims to account for how the interacting parts of a complex

system give rise to the system’s collective behavior and how such a system

simultaneously interacts with its environment. (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron 2008)

Complexity Theory

Examples of Complex Dynamic Systems:

• Living organisms

• Weather patterns

• The stock market

• The human brain

• Schools/Organisations

Complexity Theory

Characteristics of Complex Dynamic Systems:

• Open and respond to feedback

• Change over time (dynamic)

• Change is non-linear and unpredictable

• Components interact and behaviour is emergent

The New Science

ii. The New Science – Margaret Wheatley

Systems thinking and chaos theory in learning

organisations

Learnings from the New Science:

• An organisation ≠ machine, people ≠ cogs or parts

• Envisage the organisation as a living system

• Relationships are the key determiner of everything

• Leadership is a behaviour, not a role

Complexity Theory

How is this related to my college/organisation?

Consider linear systems versus complex systems:

Linear

Hierarchical org chart

Chain of command

Siloed teams

Prescriptive curriculum

Unilateral decisions

Complex

Matrix org chart

Egalitarian interactions

Cross-functional teams

Descriptive curriculum

Pool of knowledge

Complexity Theory

Hierarchical versus matrix

Systems Thinking

iii. Systems Thinking – Peter Senge

The Learning Organisation

Living systems have integrity. Their character depends on the whole. The same

is true for organizations; to understand the most challenging managerial issues

requires seeing the whole system that generates the issues. (Senge 2006)

Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking for Leaders:

• We are part of the system

• Integrate reason and intuition

• Look for patterns rather than react to events

• Be committed to the whole

The Mess

iv. The Mess - Adrian Underhill

ELT Teacher, teacher trainer, author, consultant

What can Leaders make of the mess?

• Find out more about how the system works

• Do something different and see what happens

• Look for unintended consequences

Finally there is the increasingly urgent call that leadership should actually

serve people. (Underhill 2005)

Task 3: Ideas and behaviours to consider Ideas and behaviours to consider

Thoughts?

Do you have lunch with your staff in the staff kitchen?

Is your office door generally open? What do you say when you answer the phone?

Do you practise daily in MBWA, asking people if they are ok, what they need, how you can help?

Do you ask your staff how you can improve their workloads?

Do you stop in the corridor when asked a question, and give people serious time?

Do you ask your staff how you can improve systems and processes?

Do you ask your staff what they would like for PD?

Do you encourage your staff to actively participate in meetings?

Do you look for opportunities for your staff to grow?

Do you develop leadership capabilities in your staff?

Do you ask your staff how you can help when they are ill or in a bad place or not performing well?

Do you happily jump into any role across the organisation if needed, such as sitting at reception, buying milk, or

packing the dishwasher?

Do you fall into the trap of proclaiming busy-ness or harbouring secret martyrdom when asked for help or when

interrupted, or do you consider supporting staff to be a core function of your role?

Do you tackle the difficult conversations in order to help your staff develop, or do you shy away?

Do you give praise and credit where praise and credit are due?

Do you hold back and let your staff speak and acknowledge their expertise?

Are you genuinely open to taking on ideas, suggestions and feedback?

Do you model courtesy, equity, humility, openness, and preparedness to lend a hand?

Servant Leadership

v. Servant Leadership – Robert K. Greenleaf

• 1904 – 1990, USA

• Believed the ‘command and control’ leadership approach was creating a national leadership crisis

• 1970 essay “The Servant as Leader”

Servant as leader – the paradox

Spears 2010

Servant leadership is strongly based in ethical and caring behavior, and enhances the

growth of workers while improving the caring and quality of organizational life.

Director

Senior Managers

Teachers and Admin Staff

Students

Students

Teacher and Admin Staff

Senior Managers

Director

What is Servant Leadership?

• Draws on principles rather than processes • Recognises that to achieve organisational goals, a leader needs to first work on:

• themselves How do my beliefs and actions impact upon those in my care?

• the work environment How do my staff relate to each other, to their roles and to our purpose?

• the needs of staff What do my staff need in order to perform well and to belong to this community?

• Takes holistic view of organisation, including staff, customers and stakeholders

What is Servant Leadership?

• Emphasises power of persuasion and consensus over top-down

management (seeks to convince rather than coerce)

• Values voice and leadership of all staff

• Involves others in decision-making

• Seeks to “draw out, inspire and develop the best and highest within people

from the inside out” (S. Covey 2001)

• Works with intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivators

• Promotes community

Key behaviours (Spears 2003)

1. Listening

• to staff – to what is said and unsaid

• to self – honest reflection

2. Empathy

• accepting, non-judgmental, appreciates others

• gives credit generously

• works with diversity to create strengths

3. Healing

• demand high (Underhill)

• humility – we are all a little bit broken

• mistakes are part of the learning process – make it ‘safe’

• extends trust, delegates

Key behaviours (Spears 2003) 4. Awareness

• self-awareness – grows in own competence

• views situations from systems perspective

• models

5. Persuasion

• seeks to convince others rather than force compliance

• effectively builds consensus within groups

6. Conceptualisation

• concept-thinking (dream great dreams)

• provides and models vision and inspires following

7. Foresight

• understands lessons from past, what is currently happening, what is likely in future

Key behaviours (Spears 2003)

8. Stewardship

• views leadership as position of trust and service to organization, to those within it and to

society

• has commitment to serving needs of others – resources, information, time, attention

• works with integrity and honesty – builds own competence

9. Commitment to growth of people

• believes in intrinsic value of all – beyond their contributions to organisation

• nurtures personal, professional and spiritual growth of employees

10. Building community

• workplace culture? We are integral in building this, we set the scene

Task 4: Matching pairs

Task 5: Reflection

• Matching pairs task quite straightforward - let’s reflect on our own practice:

1. Which of these behaviours have you observed or experienced from leaders

you have known?

2. Where do you most of your own workplace behaviours naturally fall?

3. Are there any areas you would like to develop in?

Feeble drivel…?

• Personal/professional status?

• Losing power and authority?

• Being regarded as weak or servile?

• Devolution of power will go in wrong direction?

• Too meek an attitude for a complex, dynamic world?

…or natural fit?

• A return to your ‘teacher calling’?

• Humility, openness and authenticity can build staff trust (as it did in the

classroom with our students)

• Associated behaviours can slowly permeate culture on many levels

• Leaders actually take the lead in self-reflection and growth

• Serving can take many forms – coaching, modelling, or being autocratic –

but putting the good of others and the organisation first

• …and because it’s simply a good way of doing leadership…a natural fit for

educators?

Surviving and thriving

How does complexity theory help my organisation survive and thrive?

How does servant leadership help my organisation survive and thrive?

Some ideas…

• In the face of environmental change, a living organism will either…?

• Remember that your organisation is a living organism, reacting and adapting, and you can have an influence on the emerging behaviours

• SL is a stance of humility – once you decide to take the ego out of your role, you can react less subjectively to change

• Spears #8 key behaviour of stewardship – once you reconcile yourself to your role of stewardship, you might react more objectively to change

Contacts

Barbara Craig barbara.craig@flinders.edu.au

Specialist Teacher, Flinders University

Sandra Pitronaci sandra.pitronaci@mq.edu.au

Associate Director ELC Programs, Macquarie University

References

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Christison, M. & Murray, D. (eds) (2009) Leadership in English Language Education. Theoretical Foundations and Practical Skills for Changing Times. Routledge, New York.

Covey, S. (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Powerful lessons in personal change. Simon & Schuster, London.

Global Definitions of Leadership and Theories of Leadership Development: Literature Review, Cambridge University Institute for Sustainability Leadership https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/final_leadership_composite_report_with_references_26-06-17.pdf

Greenleaf, R., (1977) Servant Leadership. A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press, New York.

Greenleaf, R. (2003) in Spears et. al (eds) The Servant Leader Within. A Transformative Path. Paulist Press, New York.

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Spears, L. (1995) (ed.) Reflections on Leadership. How Robert K. Greenleaf’s theory of servant-leadership influenced today’s top management thinkers. Jon Wiley & Sons.

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Spears, L. The Understanding and Practice of Servant-Leadership. Available at: https://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/sl_proceedings/.../spears_practice.pdf

Spears, L. The 10 Gifts of a Servant Leader. Available at: http://www.dailygood.org/story/447/the-10-gifts-of-a-servant-leader-larry-spears/

Srinivasan, A. & Kurey, B. Creating a Culture of Quality. Available at: https://hbr.org/2014/04/creating-a-culture-of-quality

Underhill, A. (2005) ‘Learning Leadership and ELT Today’, Humanising Language Teaching, 7(1).

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White, R., Hockley, A., et. al (2008) From Teacher to Manager. Managing Language Teaching Organizations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.