I am coming to the pointy end of this first assignment. I have been reflecting on the qualities required for good leadership according to our readings, and when combined, the criteria is staggering. And yet, not beyond reach.

I recognise these qualities in colleagues with whom I work and it is heartening to know that these are all achievable. Having worked under a very authoritative (albeit charismatic) leader, I also know which I prefer. Leadership which instils a sense of empowerment and fosters an eagerness for change and innovation is truly exciting.

In the spirit of presenting information diagrammatically, I collected the descriptors of what a good leader does from our readings and have presented them here:

I then trawled through the job-descriptions of TLs in leadership positions and discovered that their key contacts included the following (also presented diagrammatically):

When I combined the two to represent leadership style with actual role, this was the result:

It actually looks like a fireworks display. For those not daunted by the many facets of leadership, I guess there's a lot to celebrate. If there's one thing I've learned here, it's that that while leadership can be developed, it really can't be taught. Surely the desire to embrace the challenges and rewards that come with this life need to come from somewhere within.

Some observations:

Leadership is process not a person – this is why there are so many verbs in the first diagram connecting leadership to outcomes. Leadership does, not is.

The mark of good leadership is in the morale of its teams.

Good leadership actively grows rather than fears new leaders.

Transparency is a mark of confident leadership.

Change cannot be mandated; leaders create the right environment and change occurs.

Aguilar, E. (2012, November 28). Effective Teams: The Key to Transforming Schools? Retrieved from Edutopia - What works in Education: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teacher-teams-transform-schools-elena-aguilar

Avolio, B., Walumbwa, F., & Weber, T. (2009). Leadership: Current Theories, Research, and Future Directions. Lincoln: DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=managementfacpub

Belbin, M. (2010). Team Roles at Work (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK.

Brocker, B. (2012, March 22). Leadership Theory and Critical Skills. Bellevue University. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzAzhiEsZtY&feature=player_embedded

Fullan, M. (1997). Leadership for Change. In M. Fullan (Ed.), The Challenge of School Change (pp. 97-114). Australia: Hawker Brownlow Education.

Hargreaves, A. (2007). Sustainable Leadership and Development in Education: creating the future, conserving the past. European Journal of Education, 42(2), 223-233.

Hough, M., & Paine, J. (1997). Collaborative Decision Making with Teams. In Creating quality learning communities (pp. 110-127). South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia.

Knapp, M., Copland, M., & Swinnerton, J. (2007). Understanding the Promise and Dynamics of Leadership. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Chapter 4 106(1), 74-104.

Kotter, J. (2012). Kotter International. Retrieved April 2013, from Innovate Strategy Implementation Professionals: http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/changesteps

Lambert, L. (1998). What is Leadership Capacity? In Building leadership capacity in schools (pp. 1-9). Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Law, S. & Glover, D. (2000). Leading effective teams. In Educational leadership and learning : practice, policy and research (pp. 71-86). Buckingham, England: Open University Press.

Marzano, R. Waters, T & McNulty, B. (2006). School Leadership that Works. Victoria, Australia: Hawker Brownlow.

Muzio, E. (2011, June 8). 7 Step Problem Solving. Bnet. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZXDGQSuF9I&feature=player_embedded#!

Schifter, C. (2008). Infusing Technology into the classroom: Continuous Practice Improvement. New York: Information Science Publishing.

Sergiovanni, T. (1984, February). Leadership and Excellence in Schooling. Educational Leadership, 4-13.

Sergiovanni, T. (2005). The Virtues of Leadership. The Educational Forum(69), 112-123.

Tapscott, D. (2012, June). Four principles for the open world. Edinburgh, Scotland: TED. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1.html?awesm=on.ted.com_Tapscott&utm_campaign=&utm_content=awesm-publisher&utm_medium=on.ted.com-static&utm_source=direct-on.ted.com

Townsend, T. (2011). School leadership in the twenty-first century: different approaches to common problems. School Leadership and Management, 31(2), 93-103. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1080/13632434.2011.572419 

Youngs, H. (2009). (Un)Critical times? Situating distributed leadership in the field. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 41(4), 377-389.