As you may already know, the one-size-fits-all approach to educational leadership styles is close to an urban myth. Adapting one’s leadership style to a situation entails effective educational leadership. And this takes practice. A lot of it.
That’s why an online Master of Education in Educational Leadership is a great opportunity to learn various leadership styles that can help you up to your game in various classroom settings and beyond, such as a dean, school district superintendent, or university president.
In the end, the role of leadership in education is in setting direction and creating a positive school culture, including the proactive school mindset, as well as supporting and enhancing staff motivation and commitment, which are required to foster improvement and promote success for schools in difficult circumstances.
What is Educational Leadership?
The process of enlisting and directing the talents and energies of teachers, students, and parents toward the achievement of common educational goals is referred to as educational leadership.
What is the importance of leadership in education? It is critical for students to have leadership opportunities throughout their education so that they can learn the art of building relationships within teams, defining identities, and completing tasks effectively. It also allows for learning how to recognize and demonstrate effective communication and interpersonal skills.
Leadership styles for teachers are many, so in this blog, we’ll try to cover the most effective ones, to give you an idea in which direction you can further your career.
8 Effective Leadership Styles in Education
Understanding that leadership quality impacts school effectiveness and that educational leadership is something that can be harvested, it is critical to have a clear understanding of effective leadership styles in education.
Choosing a leadership style necessitates an examination of oneself and one’s surroundings. You must decide which educational leadership model is the best fit for the school and will yield the best outcomes. Below we provided the list of the most effective types of leadership styles in education:
- Constructivist Leadership
Constructivist leaders want to make the educational process easier by stimulating and engaging students.
With limited forced direction, constructivist leadership entails considering an individual’s knowledge, active listening, and information repetition.
Students are more likely to control their learning when using this method. Constructivist leadership typically employs regular assessments, and big ideas, and seeks to challenge belief systems and value the student’s point of view to make learning relevant to the individual in their current setting.
- Distributed Leadership
Leaders who use distributed leadership focus on policy, procedure, and practice rather than specific roles and responsibilities of individuals and positions. The greater emphasis in this leadership style is on a shared mindset, interdependent interaction, and the vision of a shared collective that builds toward change. Unlike traditional leadership, which is based on seniority, distributed leadership focuses on the expertise of its chosen leaders. It fosters a positive relationship within the entire educational entity by providing numerous opportunities for all participants to take on leadership roles—high levels of trust, transparency, and mutual respect support this collaborative effort. There is a clear link between distributed leadership, organizational improvement, and overall student achievement.
The distributed accountability amongst involved personalities fosters collaborative teamwork and creates an interdependent working environment that is viewed as the norm. This collective influence strengthens collective endeavors. Distributed leaders create an encouraging, effective environment by cultivating an intentional and potential-seeking school community.
- Transactional Leadership
Transactional leadership entails a give-and-take relationship between leaders and subordinates. It is based on a predefined system of setting expectations and providing a reward or punishment based on the outcome. This leadership structure maintains existing policies, stabilizes the status quo, and focuses on performance-based rewards and punishments.
While transactional leadership lacks the characteristics of other leadership styles that seek to solve fundamental problems, some situations must achieve transactional leadership before pushing for change. Depending on the timing and circumstances, a new educational leader may be hired to stabilize a school’s day-to-day operations before implementing changes for improvement.
- Invitational Leadership
Invitational leaders believe in a systemic approach to education and work to develop strategies that make schools more welcoming to all who work and learn there. They strive to create a positive climate for students to strive for and experience success by enabling teachers to integrate theories, research, and practice in both creative and ethical ways.
Invitational leaders embrace the idea of mutual commitment to a larger vision. Knowing the importance of morals, ethics, and shared goals in development, invitational leaders inspire their colleagues, staff, and students to realize their potential and strive to exceed it. This mindset enables those involved to encourage cooperation, value all community members, promote ongoing development, and often unlock hidden potential in all members of the faculty.
- Emotional Leadership
Emotional leadership, a leadership style used in education to elicit knowledge from students’ emotions, necessitates a leader’s high level of emotional intelligence. These leaders strive to inspire followers, build an inclusive community, and enourage a sense of moral purpose within it. They mind the general feelings of others, recognize the power of emotions, and believe that emotions can play a role in both personal choices and development.
These charismatic and thoughtful leaders use shared emotions to foster cooperation among students, faculty, and staff. Understanding emotional intelligence and utilizing its strength to improve the community is essential for success in this leadership style of education.
- Strategic Leadership
Leaders who use this process excel at providing a detailed framework and guidelines for achieving a clear and concise goal. Strategic leaders devote their energy to challenging the status quo, facilitating reflection, and giving evidence to elicit change ideas. They frequently use their ability to make critical decisions at critical times as a guiding force behind their methods.
Strategic leaders aim to shift institutions from a meandering attitude to one that seeks to encourage dynamic change-makers by focusing on the belief that an educational setting should constantly challenge its students and foster creativity.
- Servant Leadership
Servant leadership is most concerned with the moral attitudes and mindset of those who serve. In a humble and unassuming manner, servant leaders place little emphasis on their efforts and place a greater focus on the service outcome. Servant leaders prioritize the needs of others, show intense compassion, and put a strong emphasis on healing.
They aim to enrich lives, build a better world, and improve the organizations and communities they are connected to by embracing active listening, empathy, a shared voice, community growth, and a strong and internal desire to make a difference. These leaders have a significant impact on the heart, mind, and soul.
- Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership promotes empowerment through motivation, thoughtful action, and ethical awareness. A key aspect of this leadership style is instilling an awareness mindset and implementing long-term institutional changes. Transformational leadership seeks to increase its participants’ focus, values, and awareness by encouraging trust and shared values based on purpose—student satisfaction skyrockets under this type of leadership.
Change does not frighten transformational leaders as they are willing to take risks, change long-standing policies, and inspire followers to reach for and exceed their full potential. These change agents lead with vision and confidence, fostering opportunities for all to participate in the leadership process through trust, openness, respect, and an engaging commitment to the collective unit. Transformational leadership in institutions results in increased intellectual stimulation, positive experiences, and a collective mindset.
Find Out More about Effective Educational Leadership
Becoming a more effective education leader is an admirable goal, as effective leadership improves teacher job satisfaction and student performance. According to Education Week, leaders have an indirect but significant impact on student outcomes by ensuring staff members have access to key resources needed to meet the demands of their jobs, providing direction and vision for the school, and providing professional development opportunities for teachers.
With the right educational leadership resources and a strong work ethic, you can build on your natural ability to lift communities, engage learners, and elevate the discourse.
Learn to be a leader by earning the Master of Education in Educational Leadership degree: Our online programme allows you to advance your career while working in the ever-changing educational space.
If this offer sounds good to you, download our prospectus to learn more about the programme. Or, if you are already familiar with the concept of our studies, contact us today to see how we can grow together.