Leadership Encounters

Framing realistic goals for change is a critical component of success for all educational leaders. Dynamic assertives often act as change leaders but they are most effective when their vision of change is securely grounded and articulated in a specific way. Dynamic assertives can motivate people to exceed preconceived limitations but this does not mean they can bulldoze change through. They must be able to understand the perspectives and the concerns of those whom they are trying to encourage to actualize their potential. Leadership is always about dialogue and communication.

No matter how positive the traits of a dynamic assertive, he or she still needs to sell those ideas to listeners. The risk of a dynamic assertive is to assume because he or she sees the change as necessary, everyone else does. Thus, I think one of the greatest virtues of an educational leader is that of a willingness to listen.

Student I agree that creative assertive leaders are more likely to be present in industries such as advertising or the arts, in which 'like attracts like' -- i.e., highly creative leaders are likely to be best in industries where employees thrive on change and dislike predictability. Also, there is a problem that these types of leaders can be so instinctual that deadlines and policies are not adhered to in a rigorous fashion.

However, I do think that a creative assertive leader would be willing to listen to your ideas and one of the advantages of such a leaders is that he or she would be more likely to judge people based upon the merits of high-quality ideas than by the positions of the people articulating those ideas. Student #2 I agree that openness is very important in a leader.

People hate to feel as if they are being spied on, manipulated, or lied to in the workplace, particularly because it can be so difficult to find redress for these grievances. If your colleague had discussed the matter with you first, it would have gone no farther than the two of you and would have resulted in no hurt feelings after you clarified the issue. Instead, she made it into a question of competence, rather than a casual remark and it is only natural you felt hurt and abused.

Student #3 No matter how talented someone may be, if someone is cutthroat and aggressive, to me it is simply not 'worth it' to work for them. Such people tend to be apt to engage in unprovoked rages and the fact that the person you describe was unable to tolerate mistakes indicates that he.