Distributed Leadership

in Schools
Synergism: Followers and
Leadership
Distributed leadership

 A way of thinking about leadership

 A frame for describing and analyzing
leadership
 A strategy for school improvement
 A kind of school culture?
 “A Job Too Big for
One”

Individuals who single-handedly try to lead complex

organisations like schools set themselves up for failure.
www. p d st . ie

Getting beyond the heroic plot is imperative ........... It is

unrealistic to expect any school principal to know
everything about leading complex organisations like
schools. This is all too much for one person.

(Spillane, 2006: 87 – 88).

WHAT IS DISTRIBUTED
LEADERSHIP?
Distributed leadership:

Puts leadership practice at centre stage as

opposed to being with the principal (James
Spillane)

Is shared leadership that is an essential model

of building leadership capacity (Alma Harris)

D.L is good, provided it's carefully coordinated

& it's important who does the coordination
(Ken Leithwood)
 Is about creating leadership density,
building and sustaining leadership
capacity throughout the organization.

 People in many different roles can lead

and affect the performance of their
schools in different ways
 An emergent property of a group or
network of individuals

 Openness of the boundaries of leadership

 Varieties of expertise are distributed

across the many, not the few
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

What is the Meaning of

Distributed Leadership?

Many observers are perplexed about

the meaning of DISTRIBUTED
LEADERSHIP, whether it is anything
new. Perhaps DISTRIBUTED
LEADERSHIP is just another case of
Old Wine in a new Bottle.
According to: Alma Harris
University of Warwick, UK

When we say
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP
were not talking about
“DELEGATION”
We’re not talking about
giving people a task,
you’ve really rather want to
do it by yourself that’s not
Distributed Leadership,
that’s delegation
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

 The old/usual Leadership

 Having or showing “great
courage”
 The “legendary figures”
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

 The pinnacle of leadership,

conducted by a transformed
and enlightened leader who
seeks to transform and
enlighten others
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

1. These epic 2. Their

equate school Attention to
leadership Leadership
chiefly with an Practices
“Individual
Leader”
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

1. These epic equate school leadership

chiefly with an “Individual Leader”
 do not a single-handedly lead school to
greatness
 It involves an array of individuals with
various tools and structures
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

2. Their attention to Leadership

Practices
 They dwell on “WHAT” of leadership
 Rather thank “HOW” of school leadership
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

Distributed
Leadership is the
recent antidote, or
more correctly a
series of antidotes,
to work in Heroics
of Leadership
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

Distributed Leadership
Perspective
It recognises that there are
“Multiple Leaders”
 It acknowledges the “work of all
individual” who contribute to
leadership practices
 It focus upon the “interaction”
rather than the action
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

1. Normative Power
2. Representational Power
3. Empirical Power
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

1. Normative Power
 this concept has the ideal or
purest form
 It should be actively &
purposefully
 It is not “greedy work”
 It replaced the “singular heroic
leader”
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

1. Normative Power
 To be “focus upon the team” rather
than individual
 It places a greater emphasis upon
teacher, support staff & student as
leader
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

2. Representational Power
 It has alternative approaches to
leadership
 It has shared leadership practice
 Collaborative arrangement
 Cross multiple type of boundaries
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

2. Representational Power
 It fits on twenty first century
learning, we emerged based on
collaboration, networking & multi-
agency working
According to: James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

3. Empirical Power
 It is based on observation rather
than theory, there are evidence
that Distributional Leadership
makes positive difference to
organisational outcomes & student
learning.
According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

LEADERSHIP ROUTINE
IT INVOLVES SOME COMBINATION OF 3
LEADERS.

 Principal – Emphasize goals and standard.

 Coordinators – Identifies problem within the
area.
 Teacher Leader – Describe his/her effort to
implementation.
 According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

THREE LEADERSHIP
INTERCHANGEABLE
PRACTICE IN SCHOOL

 SHARED LEADERSHIP
 TEAM LEADERSHIP
 DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
 According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

THREE LEADERSHIP
INTERCHANGEABLE
PRACTICE IN SCHOOL
1. SHARED LEADERSHIP
 Is a practice of governing a school by
expanding of people involved in making
making important decisions.
According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

THREE LEADERSHIP
INTERCHANGEABLE
PRACTICE IN SCHOOL
2. TEAM LEADERSHIP
 Is a typically a group of administrators,
teachers, and other staff members who make
important decisions in a school.
According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

THREE LEADERSHIP
INTERCHANGEABLE
PRACTICE IN SCHOOL
3. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
 Facilitating the conversation encouraging
people to share their ideas, and then
synthesizing all the available information into
the best possible decision.
According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

PUTTING LEADERSHIP
PRACTICE CENTER STAGE
 It is about leadership practice rather than
leaders or their roles, functions, routine and
structures.
 It is about interaction between people and
their situations.
 It is not simply that situation is important but it
is actually Constituents leadership practice.
 According for James P. Spillane
Northwestern University, USA

PEOPLE AND PRACTICE

THREE REASONS TO BE CONSIDERED IN
LEADERSHIP POSITION

1. Practice typically involves multiple leaders.

2. Practice is not something done to followers.
3. It is not an action of an individual, but the
interaction among them.
4E'S OF DISTRIBUTED
LEADERSHIP
Envision

Empower

 Enable
Energize
Envision
Create and
communicate
an innovative and
winning strategy.
 The mission
Our strategic choices
Our numerical goals
The time frame to achieve our goal
Our competitive advantages and
competencies
Our challenges
Our twelve months priorities
 Empower
Develop and measure
interdependent and
effective teams
 Everyone in the organization has
shared values
The team is operating as an interdependent
group
Clarified goals and responsibilities to
everyone in the team
We all have space to innovate
We all have clear personal objectives
All team members have agreed personal
development plans.
Enable
Identify and use
appropriate tools
processes, people and
structure.
 The right tools
Enough tools
The right organization structure
The right people for today and for the future
The right training
The right financial resources
The right information system
Everyone in the team can handle the
complexity of the job
 Energize
Consistent personal
leadership
 I am open with praise and constructive
criticism
I make a decision in timely manner
I thrive in uncertain circumstances
I appreciate the value of diversity
I feel optimistic about the future
The team helps each other constructively
deal with difference
 I provide clear and consistent
communication at all levels
I provide timely feedback on changes to
the plan
Everyone I the team supports the final
decisions
What is Synergy?
 Synergy comes from the Attic
Greek word synergia from
synergos meaning “working
together”.
What is Synergism in
Education?
 An innovative approach to practice
teaching supervision learning from one
another.

 As an educational system is organized by

making use of the energy of a number of
people of different categories like
Administrators, Faculty Members, and
Students. Systematic synergizing of the
efforts of different categories may
Facilitate Wonderful result.
 As an educational system consists of a
number of teachers with a variety of skills
and special talents, synergizing of the
expertise would definitely help in
achieving greater success in the field of
education.
LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP

 Leadership is more than management

 Leaders have a rock-solid value system

which is congruent with followers.

 Leaders are interdependent with followers

 Leaders always accelerate change

 Leaders bare story teller

*Leadership is the energetic
process of getting people fully and
willingly committed to a new and
sustainable course of action,
to meet commonly agreed
objectives whilst having
commonly held values.
FOLLOWER
FOLLOWER
 One in the service of another
 One that follows the opinions or teaching
of another.
 One that imitate another.
 Someone who agree with beliefs of
others, or to listen to the lead or
commands of another.
 Accept the guidance, command or
leadership of another.