Whole School Matters draft manuscript
Community Matters draft manuscript
MindMatters Resource Kit
MindMatters Posters
School Audits and Surveys
CommunityMatters DVD
Community Partnership DVD
Staff Matters
About Staff Matters
Getting Started
The Thriving Self
The Interpersonal
The Professional
Journals
Activities
Links
Case Studies
The Organisational
School in the Community
Discussion List
Professional Development
Index of Programs and Resources
Links
e-news

What's Wrong with Leadership?

Wilson, B. (2004). Leadership: What's wrong? Paper presented at the 11th Curriculum Corporation annual conference. http://cmslive.curriculum.edu.au/leader/default.asp?issueID=9691&id=4693

Wilson (2004) argues that current accepted ideology about leadership contains three ideas that are essentially wrong. These are that:

  • power should be shared
  • everyone is a leader
  • we should talk about 'leadership' rather than 'management'.

Wilson discusses each of these premises in turn and argues for two kinds of differences between current ideology and what is needed to:

rebuild the idea of a strong, courageous, talented individual who takes on responsibility for a school and school community, who acts ethically and responsibly, who exercises the kind of power that is appropriate to the position. I want to see principals use their power to ensure that the school focuses clearly and explicitly on the only goal of schooling: the improvement of student learning. (p. 4)

Cultural differences

  • Honesty about power
  • Moral character of leadership
  • Strong and committed individuals

Operational differences

  • Management skills
  • Engaging everyone
  • Developing potential leaders
  • Performance management

A related link can be found at Leadership from a System Perspective