WANTED: Transformational Leaders for the 21st Century

In the field of education there are many "buzzwords" that come and go as the winds of change blow, reforms are instituted or perhaps even popular trends alter our conversations and work practice. As the time passes by, most of them go through supernova type of life-cycles. They appear with an explosive burst of energy overshadowing educational landscape and slowly dissipate into oblivion. At times, some of them linger a little longer, first becoming ancient artifacts of our professional past and eventually fade away into extinction. Every once in a while, a new phrase comes along that breaks that predictable pattern, provides a long-term inspiration and becomes permanently etched in our professional vocabulary. In the recent years we were fortunate to have two such phrases. They are already resonating within our learning communities influencing the dialog about the state of our profession and have a big potential to re-frame our work for the years to come. These phrases are "transformational leadership" and 21st Century Skills Framework. In addition to recognizing the importance of these terms and ideas they represent, one might consider both of them to be a perfect match that has a potential to create an ideal learning experience for success in the future.

While it is impossible to predict with certainty what the future work place and school will look like, what we see around us can lead us to the conclusion that a great changes are on their way. The notion that innovation can be ignored, which might have been uncontested in the past, is no longer valid and exponential rate at which our lives are changing cannot continue to go unnoticed. More and more people realize that the global transformation, which we are experiencing, opens up new windows of opportunities for those who are well prepared to benefit from it.

Every law of economics tells us that if we connect all the knowledge pools in the world, and promote greater and greater trade and integration, the global pie will grow wider and more complex. And if America, or any other country, nurtures a labor force that is increasingly made up of men and women who are special, specialized, or constantly adopting to the higher-value-added jobs, it will grab its slice of that growing pie. But we will have to work at it. (Friedman, 2005, p. 248)

As the above quote implies, there is a need for different skills, knowledge and perhaps definitions of what it means to be successful in the future and we are not yet ready to take advantage of this information.

The Partnership for the 21st Century Skills outlines "the knowledge, skills and expertise students should master to succeed in work and life in the 21st Century." and specifies the following elements:

• Skills:
  Life and Career
  Learning and Innovation
  Information, Media and Technology
• Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes
• Support Systems
  Standards and Assessment
  Curriculum and Assessment
  Professional Development
  Learning Environments
  

As we can see, it is a very comprehensive list with each bullet addressing an area that is rich with challenges and possibilities. While leadership has enormous impact on every aspect of an organization, the last two, Professional Development and especially Learning Environments will capitalize on the characteristics of transformational leadership and quite possibly make this style of working with people the most desirable for the 21st century teaching and learning.

While discussing the very subjective and often personal topic such as leadership, it is important to either create or at least agree on its definition. I decided to adopt the definition of leadership which was crafted by Peter G. Northouse but with a simple modification which makes it more relevant to a learning environment. According to this author, "Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal." (Northouse, 2007, p. 3) I propose that instead of using "common goal" we use "shared mission" because transformational leadership is closely tied to the concept of vision and a mission as being in the center of what leaders ought to do in order to be successful.

Out of the many definitions of mission and vision that can be found in books from the fields of business and school leadership, the one that is proposed by the authors of "Learning by Doing" seems to be the most logical and applicable to school environment. The mission answers the fundamental question "Why do we exist?", so that we can "reach agreement regarding the fundamental purpose of the school" (DuFour, 2006, p. 23) which is important because "this clarity of purpose can help establish priorities and become an important factor in guiding decisions." (DuFour, 2006, p.23). Values on the other hand, guide our behavior and help us define our collective commitment. The connective tissue that bridges those two concepts is the vision which give us direction towards "compelling future" and answers the "what" question, "What must we become to accomplish our purpose?" (DuFour, 2006, p.24). As we can see, the vision which is so essential to the concept of transformational leadership plays a pivotal role in going from why we do what needs to be done and how we will accomplish it.

According to Northouse (2007) transformational leadership is a process that transforms people and it is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards and long-term goals. It includes assessing followers' motives, satisfying their needs and treating them as human beings rather than gears in the educational machine whose role "can be reduced to the replication of behaviors that have proven to be effective and efficient" (English, 2005, p. 34) . Transformational leaders seek to change company's values by promoting justice and fairness in the process during which leaders and followers are inextricably bound together. Transformational leadership includes the following factors:

• Idealized Influence when followers identify with and emulate the leader
  
• Inspirational Motivation to become committed to a shared vision
  
• Intellectual Stimulation stimulating creativity and challenging their values, supports followers as they try to think things out and engage in problem solving
  
• Individualized Consideration in order to supply supportive environment and listen to the needs of individuals
  

The transformational leadership theorists were the first ones to distinguish the four varieties of leadership: directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented (Northouse, 2007, pp. 175-204) each appropriate for different situation and different type of a follower.

One of the most significant aspects of 21st century world is that although we try to make assumption of what the future world will be like, we will most likely be surprised with what tomorrow brings. Even the framework presented by the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills is just an approximation of where we think we might be in the near future. The framework is guiding us through bringing ourselves up to speed, or to catch up. Indeed, many changes must take place right now and since transformational leadership "has been associated with producing change in groups and organizations." (Bass, 2006) this approach to leading seems to be the most logical choice. Many skills that will make us successful are sometimes referred to as "soft skills" because they deal the human aspects of work: collaboration, creativity and problem solving, all of which are grounded in inter-personal dynamics and being in tune with the needs of the followers. If we accept the notion that this type of leadership "involves inspiring followers to commit to a shared vision and goals" (Bass, 2006, p. 4), once our vision is clearly communicated the necessary changes will soon follow. The problem with our times is that the notions of any static form of mission, vision, goals and objectives becomes absolute the moment they are created. The only approach to leadership that can be useful to us is the one which is dynamic, flexible, ever changing and improving. I propose that transformational leadership has these characteristics.

"Transformational leaders pay special attention to each individual follower's needs for achievement and growth" (Bass, 2006, p.7) and therefore they are well equipped to lead companies that resonate with the people they serve including the youngest members of the changing society. They" constantly encourage members to develop their own personal vision" (Senge, 2006, p. 197) because they believe that "genuine caring about a shared vision is rooted in personal visions" (Senge, 2006, p. 197). If we desire to have educational institutions which are prepared to deal with problems that we don't yet know about which will happen in the world that we can't envision yet, we need leaders who are prepared to see their subordinates to "exceed expected performance" (Bass, 2006).

Most forms of leadership involve setting goals and objectives for the followers and finding the best ways to influence their attainment. In a global community, which is constantly changing and developing, rigidly set goals, objectives and expectations have a great chance of becoming irrelevant as soon as they are conceived. Transformational leadership provides solution to this problem because it "involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them." (Northouse, 2007, p. 176). This kind of investment in the human capital, to make it flexible, creative and inspired, is what is needed to offset the remnants of the 20th century factory-style management which is still too often holding us back. In addition to that, transformational leaders have a potential to transform more than just the companies they lead and their immediate subordinates. Transformational leaders "are those who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity" (Bass, 2006). In other words, transformational leaders create a legacy that can transform the world in the 21st century and beyond.