My Vision of Leading: CHEETAH

Dion Ginanto

A strong principal is one who understands his/her strength to lead.  The strength and the quality of the leadership can undoubtedly determine the success of a school.  Leadership plays an important role and acts as a catalyst in making schools’ improvement. Accordingly, a principal should understand leadership qualities/visions to promote the leadership effectiveness. In this article I would like to discuss CHEETAH as the leading visions I will undertake if I become a school principal and how I will enact these visions.

CHEETAH as a Leadership Qualities I will undertake

CHEETAH is an acronym for Creative, Honest, Enthusiasm, Elegant, Trust, Accountable and Hardworking. I name these qualities of leadership after the animal that can run so fast and is become the fastest animal in the world, in order to enable us to lead as effectively as Cheetah. CHEETAH is also part of a principal’s behaviors that can lead to a successful school. The managerial or behaviors of principals are important to school effectiveness (Bossert et al., 1982).

a.     Creative

 I will lead with creativity. A creative principal is the one who has initiative, innovative ideas, and ability to think out of the box. According to Executive Summary of National Center on Education and the Economy (1983), creativity and innovation are the key points to success for everyone. Therefore, as a principal I would try my best to be a creative principal. To be creative here also means being creative in setting up a good school goal, and being creative communicator with staffs. I probably will adopt my own principal’s creativity in the school where I work, by conducting staff meetings in a camping situation. Camping staff meetings not only make the meeting more fun, but they can also promote a sense of family belonging among teachers.  Being creative is in line with the ELCC # 1¹.

b.     Honest

The second quality of leadership I will undertake is being an honest principal. To be a principal in Indonesia, where corruption is becoming an acute illness among leaders in this country, I should be able to protect myself from being a corruptor. Whitehead, et al. in their book also mentioned spiritual leadership as part of the role of the principal in the1920s: “The work of principal was associated with absolute, spiritual truths and values. For some, the office was perceived as “priestly” and “prophetic”” (Whitehead et al., 2013). There are a couple of principals in my country who were fired because they were proven guilty as a corruptor. Therefore, I will try my best to be a role model in my school by being an honest principal and having great integrity (ELCC # 5¹).

c.     Enthusiastic

 Enthusiastic is my third vision of leading and is relevant to ELCC # 4¹. As part of a strong leadership, I believe I should have enthusiasm in leading in order to pass my spirit onto others. With enthusiasm I can promote collaborative work. In line with this, Rosenholtz contended that intellectual sharing, collaborative work, and collegial work are important in creating an effective school (Rosenholtz, 1985). By having enthusiasm in my work, I believe I can create positive working habits in the buildings. I remember my headmaster’s enthusiasm; I used to teach in a very rural area where access to the school was very difficult. The road was very muddy and slippery when it rained. However, my principal with his motorcycle always come to school, even though he had to struggle with the muddy road. He inspires me a lot, so I will be more enthusiastic in leading my school in the future.

d.     Elegant

My fourth vision of leading that is also congruent with ELCC # 2¹ is being elegant. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the definition of elegant is: describes an idea, plan, or solution that is clever but simple, and therefore attractive. As a principal I should be able to be elegant in setting up good relationships both inside and outside the school. Leaders develop, utilize, and maintain systems of exchange among members of the school and with its external communities (Goldring et al., 2007). The elegance of being a leader is not a heritage; instead we can learn to become an elegant principal.

e.     Trusting

Trust is a very important quality of leadership that should be used by all principals. I would like to create trust for parents, that their kids are studying in a very safe place. Whitehead, et al. mentioned one of the five key responsibilities of leadership to excel: creating a climate hospitable to education in order to assure safety, a cooperative spirit, and other foundations of fruitful interaction (Whitehead et al., 2013). Besides, as a leader we should trust our teachers and administrators and therefore creating distributed leadership in the building. Trust is a match with ELCC # 3¹.

f.      Accountable

 Being accountable is one of the keys to the success of every leader. Accountability can prevent us from having negative prejudice as a leader. Before making a strategic decision, we should become accountable by using data, and therefore we have made a tradition of making policy not just from the assumptions. Wallace Foundation in Whitehead, et al. asserted that the principal should be able to manage people, data, and the process of fostering school improvement (Whitehead et al., 2013). Further, Goldring et al. (2007) also mentioned being an accountable leader as the role of the principal in the era of the1960s: “the principal was held accountable for measurable outcomes in the school.” (Whitehead et al., 2013)

g.     Hardworking

My last vision of leadership that also fits with ELCC # 61 is being a hard working principal. I connect the idea of being hard working with the role of the principal in the global learning era. As a future principal of a school in Indonesia who will lead the teachers, staffs and students in the country, which is still developing, I need to work very hard to elevate them as players instead of viewers in the global era.  I must be able to sparkle their ability to use the Internet, the software of education, international networking, etc. in their buildings. Whitehead, et al. (2013) mentioned the global learning leader as one of the principal’s roles in the present era: “the principal was expected to make sure that students have a global learning experience.” (page 44)

How would I make it happen?

                  To implement my CHEETAH leadership, I adopt the idea of Wallace Foundation in Whitehead et al. (2013): (1) Use the data and PISACM.

Effective leaders nurture and support their staff members; view data as means not only to pinpoint problems but also to understand their nature and causes; and use a six-step process- Planning, Implementing, Supporting, Advocating, Communicating, and Monitoring (PISACM). (page 7)

(2) I would like to prioritize the idea of PISCAM, especially in communication. This is because I realize that I will lead Indonesian teachers, who tend to be more eastern in their communication than western. Eastern communication here means that the communication is inclined to be indirect. Therefore, I would like to conduct both formal and informal communication. For formal communication, I will promote Personal Development (PD) and regular meetings. For informal communication, I will do routine visits to classes to get real data on what I should and should not do. The real data I will get is intended to fulfill my entry planning, as Jentz (2005) suggested: knowing more about my workplace and about myself, and collective learning about new ways of approaching vexing problems.

                  In conclusion, to be a strong leader, everyone should have integrity to realize effective leadership. Effective leadership can be gained by having a powerful vision of leading. CHEETAH: Creative, Honest, Enthusiastic, Elegant, Trusting, Accountable, and Hardworking is considered powerful enough to be owned by all leaders. To implement CHEETAH’s leading vision, I will use data and then adopt PISCAM management, and eventually I will create efficient communication among all members in the buildings.

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¹ ELCC is Education Leadership Constituent Council. ELCC becomes the standards of principal in implementing their programs. ELCC standards can be read in “The Principal Leadership for Global Society” by Whitehead, Boschee and Decker (2013). 

References:

Bossert, S.T., Dwyer, D.C., Rowan, B., & Lee, G. V. (1982). The instructional management role of the principal. Educational Administration Quarterly, 18(3), 34-64.

Goldring, E., Porter, A.C., Murphy, J., Elliot, S.N. & Cravens, X. (2007). Assessing learning centered-leadership: Connections to research, professional standards, and current practices. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University.

Jentz, B.C. (2005) Starting confused: Where leaders start when they don’t know where to start. Phoi Delta Kappan 86(10), 1-7.

National Comission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. The Elementary School Journal, 84(2), 112-130.

Rosenholtz, S. J. (1985) Effective schools: Interpreting the evidence. American Journal of Education, 93 (3), 352-388.

Whitehead, B., Bjoschee, F., Decker, R., (2013) The Principal: Leadership for a Global Society; Los Angeles CA., Sage.