Today I feel the need to pause and once again reflect on leadership in early childhood education. Looking at old and new paradigms of leadership, where are you? In fact, do you see yourself as a leader? In her book ‘Leadership in early childhood’ Jillian Rodd said that “choice was crucial component of leadership”. While many of us may choose not to take on a leadership role, we enact many qualities and components of leadership in our everyday practices, and yet we may not see ourselves as leaders. Another expression of being stuck in a paradigm is “we’ve always done it this way”. I refer to these paradigms of leadership because it is so entrenched in society that we somehow seem unable to see the need for change, and even when we feel the need to change, we sometimes worry about the repercussions if we try something different. Brene Brown often talks about being a courageous leader, I love this idea of having a go and not worrying about making mistakes, it’s how we grow as leaders and teams. Recently we had to be courageous when making a transformative change in our program. While change can bring about many emotions, we talked about our feelings openly and reflected on what we could do moving forward. I believe by using new paradigms of leadership we are working together to improve outcomes for the children and families at our service. What I can tell you is that I’ve seen both old and new paradigms of leadership, and I do believe whole heartedly that old is on the way out, new is absolutely working and the way forward. The shift seems unstoppable. So why is this? Are we more collaborative and open minded due to the huge component of reflective practice within the NQF? For yourself, or for the service you work in, where on the continuum do you see this? Stuck in the old, already in the new, somewhere in the middle?
I encourage you to invest some time in considering and challenging your own beliefs. I remember someone telling me about the ideology of trying to see two goldfish bowls. One holds one goldfish, (the leader) whereas the other as several goldfish inside. How can you share your vision when there is so much water between you? If we are in the same boat, we can have more meaning in our vision and be able to trust the vision with others within the service. The role of a leader is to be “Keeper of the Vision” but be comfortable to share it with the people that can make it happen. Of course, we cannot truly see the bowl we swim in, so I also encourage you to invest in a mentor outside the goldfish bowl who will help you see yourself clearly, both your gaps and your uniqueness.
Old paradigms of leadership : •Leaders expected to have all the answers, perfect leadership. •Leaders make the decisions (and quickly) •Leaders command respect through rank, longevity e.g. leadership is hierarchical •Leaders are powerful, strong, invulnerable New Paradigms leadership: •Leaders know they don’t have all the answers “I don’t know, what do you think” are powerful words to invite open dialogue and collaboration. Imperfect leadership. •Leadership does still mean having responsibility for decisions being made, but they don’t always need to be the one making each decision. •Leadership comes from anyone at any level within the organisation, i.e., leadership is not hierarchical. “ Let others lead and learn from decisions. Leaders recognise that humility, integrity and vulnerability link to clarity and confidence in their purpose and path, are far more powerful than getting it right.