Colleagues as Leaders

Warren (2016) states "the capacity of leaders to lead other people is a manifestation of their ability to influence them to believe in their vision" (p. 508). If you can get other people to orient themselves to move toward your vision, you are leading them. Deal.

As instructors and teachers we understand that we are often the leader in our classrooms. That is our domain. But what about in the halls or the lounge or the meeting room? How does the hierarchy shake out? Teacher leadership was a major subject in my Masters of Ed. program, and discovering what it took to step into leadership positions and assume those roles was really interesting. So often we defer to the older, battle-hardened teachers, or we think "I have to earn my stripes" before we can have anything to say. But if we earn people's trust, and we work toward a unified goal, something that rallies others to our vision, we are leading whether we realize it or not. Warren (2016) makes the point that teachers are on the forefront, and must often be the leaders their students need to the administration, without actually being admins themselves (p. 514). It's this in-between space that teachers can shine as leaders, not just for their students but for each other.

Reference

Warren, L. L.  (2016). Viewing teachers as leaders without being administrators. Education, 136(4), 508–514.