Running head: INDIVIDUAL

An Individuals Leadership Triumph

Glenda Reese
Contemporary Issues in Organizational Leadership BUS 660
Dr. Key Baron Smith
September 22, 2014

INDIVIDUAL

An Individuals Leadership Triumph

Leadership is vital to every type of industry and organization, even the education system.
This statement will be demonstrated through the research of a public school
administrator/superintendant. The research will include an overview consisting of the leaders
name and title, his specific role and responsibilities, the name of the industry, description, and
culture of the facility, the length of time the leader was in the position, and a brief history of the
leaders background and career path to his leader position. The second part of the research will
be an analysis consisting of seven elements: a) the persons leadership style, b) three significant
challenges the leader faced, c) the leaders best achievement, d) three leadership concepts, e)
applying the three concepts to describe the persons effectiveness, f) what was learned about
leadership due to the research, and g) a reflection of the implications of the document writers
leadership style.
Overview
The leader chosen was David Land, St. Paul School Superintendant from St. Paul
Arkansas. Mr. Land was in the superintendant position for thirty years. His background and
career path was always focused on the education sector. Mr. Land (personal communication
September 11, 2014) claimed that helping others grow and develop into productive citizens was
his dream from early teens. He started out as a history teacher, but felt he needed to be more
involved with how the school was run, from hiring new staff to developing new plans to make
the school more advanced and provide the students with education options.
Mr. Lands duties included, but were not limited to the sixteen specific responsibilities
shown in this document. The first duty was to work with different committees, such as
educational boards, regulation bodies, and mission groups. A second duty was to assist with
enlistments, public or alumni connections, and marketing actions. His third duty was to organize
the students continuous sequence of change from the time of admittance until graduating or

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leaving the school. Mr. Lands fourth duty was being responsible for giving supervision support
to a scholastic team of lecturers, teachers, and tutors. The fifth responsibility was planning and
translating control plus deal with questions and complaint procedures. His sixth responsibility
was regulating test and judgment processes. The seventh duty was to preserve high levels of
character guarantee, including course assessment and approval policies. His eighth duty was to
use data systems and to prepare summaries and statistics for inside and outside use. Mr. Lands
ninth responsibility entailed participation in the improvement of future data systems. The tenth
responsibility consisted of adding to policies and planning. His eleventh duty consisted of
organizing budgets and making sure financial arrangements were adhered to. The twelfth duty
was buying products and equipment, as needed, plus dealing with the invoices. The thirteenth
responsibility was staff supervision. His fourteenth responsibility was communicating with other
organizational staff, scholastic colleagues, students, and government agencies. The fifteenth
duty was to talk with other educational facilities and outside agencies. The sixteenth
responsibility consisted of coordinating and promoting an assortment of scholarly or communal
actions.
The Academic Facility
The name of the facility Mr. Land was associated with was St. Paul Schools in St. Paul
Arkansas. The school is part of the educational services industry. This type of industry contains
facilities that give instruction and training in a large assortment of courses. Sallee & Boske
(2013) discussed the culture of one school that concerned children and families who live in
poverty. This type of situation closely relates to the St. Paul culture, but differs in how people of
the community and the educational staff came together for the benefit of the children. In the
article by Sallee & Boske, the children suffered in more ways than just poverty. Therefore, one
can appreciate the in-depth work Mr. Land did to ensure St. Paul schools worked for the

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betterment of the students. Hence, St. Paul school can be said to have a friendly informal culture
because it promotes friendly, informal interaction between students, staff, families and other
community members.
The Analysis of Leadership Style
According to Inandi, Tunc, & Gilic (2013), leadership styles of educational leaders can
vary based on their cultural, personal, psychological, and educational qualities, but play key roles
in change processes (para.1). The leadership style most associated with David Land is coaching
style with some visionary elements mixed in. The coaching style is the predominant style
because of Mr. Lands following characteristics: a) listening, b) assisting others in identifying
their strengths and weaknesses, c) being a counselor, d) the encouragement provided, and e) his
delegation abilities. According the Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy (2012), informal coaching style
(the style used by Mr. Land), requires five steps, which are forging a leader/follower relationship
of trust, inspiring commitment, building development plans for growth, promoting constant tasks
for developing needed skills, and shaping the environment to the point people want to stay at the
facility (p.70). One example of the way the coaching style is Mr. Lands style is the way he
encourages the staff to learn new methods of teaching. Another example is the weekly meetings
with staff members to provide positive and negative feedback for the week to ensure the staff are
or are not still on the correct path of the overall plan.
Challenges
Mr. Land faced many challenges because St. Paul was such a small community and the
students traveled several miles by bus to attend the facility. However, the three significant
challenges most remembered were a) keeping qualified staff because of the remote area of the
school, b) getting the staff and students to accept changes, especially during a term already in
session, and c) money issues because it seemed there was never enough to address all the school
issues. Mr. Land (personal communication September 11, 2014) said it seemed like he had to

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hire new staff every year because people did not like the long commute to St. Paul. As for the
changes, most of the staff and students would tell him that things were fine the way they already
were because most staff already had plans made for long term and the students were able to
obtain used materials from other students instead of actually doing the work for themselves. The
money hurdle was big because Mr. Land wanted the school to have the most up to date materials
and equipment, but never had all the funds to accomplish this at the same time.
Greatest Achievement
Mr. Land (personal communication September 11, 2014) claimed his greatest
achievement was developing enough extracurricular activities that made the students want to
remain in school instead of dropping out after the completion of the eighth grade. He attributed
the vast amount of dropouts to students losing interest in school because all the got to do was
come to school, do work, and go home. Once Mr. Land was able to get activities, such as
basketball, football, soft-and baseball, choir performances, and other school competitions in
place, he claimed the school began to see continued decreases in student dropout up until he
retired. Further comment from Mr. Land was that seeing the continued decrease was that seeing
the continued decrease was one of the key ways he thinks was the way his job performance and
leadership was a success.
Three Leadership Concepts
Within this section will be three leadership concepts that can be applied to Mr. Lands
leader roles and responsibilities with the faculty, plus the relationship the concepts have with
other leadership concepts. The first concept will be communication because nothing will work
regardless of whom or what, if there is not proper communication. Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy
(2012) claim that in a general sense, effective communication involves the ability to transmit and
receive information with a large probability that the message is passed from sender to receiver
(p.283). Applying this to Mr. Lands style of leadership helps tie together what the students,

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faculty, parents, and community want with the schools goals. The second concept is motivation.
According to Hughes, et al. (2012) motivation is defined as anything that gives direction,
intensity, and persistence to behavior (p.333). When applied to Mr. Lands leadership style, it
caused Mr. Land to figure out how to motivate the faculty with reasons to remain and work. He
had to motivate the students by providing activities that would make them want to stay and
graduate. The families and other community members had to be motivated through the
knowledge that the students and staff would become the best they could be. The third concept is
satisfaction. Hughes, et al. (2012) defines satisfaction as the way one deals with ones attitudes
or feelings about the job itself, the pay scale of the job, promotional and educational
opportunities, supervision, co-workers, the workload, and so forth (p.334). Mr. Land (personal
communication September 11, 2014), said that he was just like any other person. He had his
good days and bad days, but overall the job satisfaction was more positive than negative because
he got to be a part of some remarkable students lives by coaching and encouraging them to
succeed.
The Three Concepts and Effectiveness
Gulcan (2012) claimed the effective leadership concept often used with instructional
leadership appears in two aspects, which are task behaviors and relationship behaviors. In task
behaviors, the leader brings the school to a more structural position. In the relationship
behaviors, the relationships with employees are arranged and the staff is motivated with regards
to instruction (pp.626-627). From Gulcans reference, it is easy to see how communication aids
in the coaching styles effectiveness. If Mr. Land would not have developed the proper
communication skills, none of the benefits and positive learning atmosphere would have been
achieved. A person needs to be able to communicate in many different ways. For example, Mr.
Land was big on demonstrations and hands on learning. He (personal communication September

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11, 2014) said people are more willing to listen when a person tries other ways to communicate
besides just speeches. Mr. Land also commented that he had to learn good listening skills
because he felt this was his weakest area of the communication process. He further, commented
it was the hardest thing he done because there were some who just wanted to talk about nothing
and he felt the meetings should be about promoting the school and students. Therefore, Mr.
Lands communication process does describe his style and promote his effectiveness. The
second concept of motivation was also touched on by Gulcan. The instructors were all motivated
on how to instruct to obtain the greatest benefit for the students. Hence, it is easy to see how the
coaching style ties with motivation and how it can make a person an effective leader. The
concept of satisfaction ties to the coaching style through wanting to accomplish planned goals.
For example, if a person is not satisfied with his or her job, he or she will not put forth much
effort trying to get others to do tasks the leader does not like to do either. In Mr. Lands case, he
was extremely satisfied in his position and was able to coach others to be as happy in their
positions as well. Furthermore, this type of satisfaction aids in making a person an effective
leader because the person likes what they do and wants to promote that kind of satisfaction to
others in the facility.
The Many Concepts Learned
Many things were learned about leadership during the research process. For instance,
leaders have a duty to themselves before they can leader others. The duties to a persons self
include, but not limited to, cultural and psychological above all others because a person has to be
accepted culturally for the community to accept his or her way of thinking. Therefore, knowing
the culture of where one will be employed should be researched and learned about before starting
the position. There are other personal aspects, but the two mentioned should be dealt with the

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same way regardless of who the person is. Other personal aspects will depend on each persons
individuality.
Another thing learned was the importance of communication, motivation and satisfaction.
These three concepts are essential to being an effective leader and when not done properly the
leadership will fail. Questions such as how to communicate and motivate should be easily
answered by an effective leader. An effective leader would have a plan already made with a
backup for any issues that might come up. Being able to communicate does not mean just
through oral words. Motivation can also take on many forms, such as rewards or money
incentives. A person who can motivate others without having to give them something in return is
a good leader. Satisfaction on the job helps the leader be effective because he or she likes what
they do, but satisfaction on the job for faculty may take a little more hard work from the leader.
The leader would have to get to know the employees and determine what each person is lacking
to be satisfied with his or her position. This could include round table meetings, a one on one
meeting, or even a suggestion box. Whatever the method used, if a leader wants to retain the
current staff they must help the employees become satisfied with their current position.
A third thing learned was that not all people make effective leaders. However, this does
not mean that all people cannot try to be a leader. Hughes, et al. (2012) said that effective leaders
are those with the ability to build teams and get results through others. Plus, they raise the
standard of human conduct and improve the lives of everyone they touch (p.610).
The Writers Personal Leadership Style
To reflect on the implications of the writers personal leadership style means stating what
was drawn from the research as it pertained to her leadership style. The implications from all the
research indicate the writers leadership style is the servant leadership style because of the way
she puts the customers service before her self-interest. She, also, includes the housekeeping
staff in decision making, provides them with the necessary tools to perform at their best, and lets

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the team have the credit for the results. The only thing that does not fit the writers style is the
not being able to make quick decisions and meet tight deadlines.
The writer knew how important the three leadership concepts of communication,
motivation, and satisfaction were to the job, but she also learned different ways of accomplishing
each task. She also learned the importance of researching different cultures and various
psychological factors that play a role in effective leadership. The biggest thing learned for the
writer was that no matter how effective a leader already is, there is always room for improvement
because things are continuously changing.
Conclusion
The leadership within a facility is very important regardless of the industry. This
document researched the importance as it pertained to the education sector through the in-depth
interview of a retired administrator. The research covered the administrators name and title, his
specific role and responsibilities, the name of the school, the industry, and a description of the
organization. The research discussed the culture of the facility, the administrators time at the
facility and a brief history of the leaders background and career path that led to the
administrators leadership position. The second section covered his leadership style, three
challenges he faced, his best achievement, three leadership concepts, the application of the three
concepts to the leaders effectiveness, what was learned from the research, and a reflection on the
writers personal leadership style. A vast amount of information was learned and retained for
future endeavors.

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References
Gulcan, M. (2012). RESEARCH ON INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
OF SCHOOL PRINCIPALS. Education, 132(3), 625.
Hughes, R.L., Ginnett, R.C., & Curphy, G.J. (2012). Leadership: Enhancing the lessons of
experience (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Inandi, Y., Tunc, B., & Gilic, F. (2013). SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS LEADERSHIP
STYLES AND RESISTANCE TO CHANGE. International Journal of Academic
Research, 5(5), 196-203. doi:10.7813/2075-4124.201315-5/B.30
Sallee, M., Boske, C. (2013). There are no children here: The case of an inner-city school
addressing issues facing children and families living in poverty. Journal of Cases
in Educational Leadership, 16(2), 61. doi: 10.1177/15554589113487036

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