Leadership Project Part 2

2

Leadership Interview Proposal

Kristopher Warren

Regent University

GENE 402

Professor Lawrence

October 6, 2024

Leadership Interview

I interviewed Andrea Jennings, the Principal of Suburban Elementary, for this leadership project. This person leads over 50 teachers, enrolment advisers, and admissions counselors, influencing the school’s enrolment strategy, student retention, and institutional growth. This leader has over 15 years of experience managing people and encouraging teams to achieve strategic goals in a competitive educational setting. Given my expertise in higher education and concentration on leadership in organizational development, this leader is pertinent to my field of study, allowing me to analyze academic leadership dynamics using Kouzes and Posner's highly renowned model.

Andrea has led the school system through her education challenges for over a decade, driving innovation and questioning old techniques. She manages the admissions department, plans student engagement strategies, and leads enrolment process improvements. She supervises cross-functional teams and collaborates with executives to maintain purpose alignment. Her influence goes beyond admissions as she works with other departments in the school to streamline the student experience from inquiry to enrolment and retention. Her job requires administrative abilities and the capacity to inspire, motivate, and lead through change and problems. Her diverse responsibilities make her a good Kouzes and Posner model subject for leadership analysis.

Kouzes and Posner define good leadership as showing the path, inspiring a shared vision, questioning the process, enabling people to act, and exciting the heart. My interview with Ms. Jennings assessed her compliance with crucial leadership practices, which lay the groundwork for success. From the start, she showed several of Kouzes and Posner's leadership attributes, but she might refine her approach for more impact.

Model the Way

She leads by example, which is one of her skills. She demands good performance and behavior due to her hard work and dedication to the university. Leading by example, especially amid institutional change, reassures her staff. Her leadership attitude, "never ask anyone to do something I would not do myself," has earned her peer respect. She encourages responsibility and integrity, Kouzes and Posner's first leadership practice, representing her team's beliefs. Formalizing expectations may rise. Her leadership style is informal, yet formal feedback could help her lead.

Inspire a Shared Vision

Andrea stressed the need to link her team's efforts to university goals when addressing inspiring a shared vision. She routinely explains the institution's long-term strategic goals and ensures her team understands how their everyday activities contribute. Her ability to communicate a compelling goal has helped preserve team morale during difficult times like decreased enrolment or institutional reorganization. Despite successfully communicating the school's mission, she admitted that one of her biggest problems is ensuring every team member feels engaged. Great leaders share a vision and let people recognize themselves in it, according to Kouzes and Posner. Leadership might benefit from additional one-on-one time with her team to better understand and link their ambitions with the organization's goals.

Challenge the Process

Innovators like Andrea challenge the process. She described her efforts to disrupt student recruitment by implementing new digital marketing strategies and a CRM system that improved advisor-student communication. Since she pushes her team to think creatively and take calculated risks, several successful experiments have improved the admissions process. Innovation and continual improvement support Kouzes and Posner's idea of questioning the status quo to advance. She remarked that some of her ideas have failed and that traditional staff members occasionally reject her. This opposition is understandable, but she might improve her leadership by structuring change management to help her staff adapt to new ideas.

Enable Others to Act

Ms. Jennings excels most at empowering others. She is dedicated to giving her team the resources, autonomy, and support they need to succeed. She often gives managers decision-making power and encourages them to own their work. Empowerment has enhanced team performance, department trust, and collaboration (HA, 2020). Andrea supports Kouzes and Posner's emphasis on teamwork and trust. She said in the interview that junior staff members generally defer to senior supervisors and are reluctant to take the initiative. She may mentor these junior staff members to give them the confidence to take on additional responsibilities to help her team act.

Encourage the Heart

Finally, Ms. Jennings emphasizes celebrating her team's triumphs, corresponding with boosting the heart. Performance assessments and personal notes of appreciation are used to recognize individual and team accomplishments (Murphy, 2020). Rewarding her team boosts morale and reinforces desired actions. Kouzes and Posner advise celebrating triumphs to boost motivation, and Andrea seems to realize this. However, she can create more formal recognition programs to institutionalize this habit and reward even the tiniest triumphs.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, Ms. Andrea Jennings is an excellent leader who follows Kouzes and Posner's five leadership techniques. She excels at modeling, challenging, and empowering people. However, she can improve her leadership by personalizing relationships to inspire a shared vision, structuring change management, and improving recognition programs. These changes would boost her team's performance and reinforce her university leadership.

References

HA, V. D. (2020). The Impacts of Empowerment on the Teamwork Performance: Evidence from Commercial Banks in Vietnam. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(4), 267–273. https://doi.org/10.13106/jafeb.2020.vol7.no4.267

Murphy, K. R. (2020). Performance Evaluation Will Not Die, but It Should. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), 13–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12259