CEdO 565 - Week 4- What I Learned about Motivational Leadership

Being a leader can be a complicated matter, especially if you genuinely care about those you are leading. Being a leader during a time of challenge and difficult times for any organization requires wisdom, compassion, understanding and the ability to think outside of the box. How does an effctive leader accomplish this? I learned that as a teacher leader, I can be instrumental in helping by small gestures or words on encouragement and sometimes lending a listing ear.

As my co workers and I continue to work hard and struggle in our classrooms to overcome the challenges to increase student achievement, we become increasingly frustrated by the events taking place in our state capital. Many of us including myself on a regular basis work ridiculously long hours preparing lessons, contacting parents, grading student work, participating in meetings and professional development. We continue to do this although many of us do not know if we will even have jobs at the end of the school year. We are professionals who care about children, however I am increasingly realizing that many in our community including state leaders do not seem to view us as such.

Like CEO's, office managers, work teams and many in corporate settings work to make sure their organizations can function so do we as educators. We manage our classrooms, volunteer in our building after school to do whatever we need to do improve or maintain the building's environment. What would be a challenge for leadership? The morale of all teachers and teacher leaders is down, most feeling unappreciated and overwhelmed.

After reading chapter 5 of How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader, I learned some ways to help motivate and hopefully prepare a team for change or to build and maintain unity of a staff. One method is to strengthen morale by recognizing individuals for their efforts. Sometimes simply acknowledging that staff have a lot on their plate by canceling meetings during hectic times for teachers or every now and then releiving teachers just so they can take a quick run to the restroom shows your concern for your staff. Showing your staff that or co-workers that you are concerned for their well-being can boost their morale and be an encouragement for them to endure in challenging times.