What exactly IS leadership?

Is the term leadership a euphemism? If so, fornwhat?

Since about half of America is holding a primary or a caucus today, thatnquestion seemed relevant. I’m not sure most people know what leadershipnis.

I’ve been listening to what the presidential candidates are saying aboutnthemselves and each other over the past few weeks. One of the most interestingndiscussions is between John McCain and Mitt Romney over the question of which ofnthem is more qualified to be president. Romney, in a nutshell, says McCain lacksnsome important basic skills. Romney says that his own Harvard MBA, his businessnresume and his executive experience as a state governor give him the theoreticalnbackground knowledge and the experience needed to fix our government andneconomy. John McCain’s response, basically, is that he doesn’t think Romney wasnthat great a governor, and that he can hire someone with a Harvard MBA and somenbusiness experience to work for him when he becomes president. McCain says thatnRomney’s background makes him a manager in a country that needsnleaders. And (surprise) McCain, of course, thinks ofnhimself as that leader.

Whether you agree with either of them, the discussion provides somencontrasting images of just what might constitute leadership. I think that one ofnour problems in education (or in America, for that matter) is that we’re notnsure what leadership is. The fact that two men who both want to be president arenhaving this discussion seems to indicate that even our leaders don’t knownclearly what leadership is – or at least they don’t agree on what it is.n

I think one of the problems is that leadership, whatever that is, is usuallynonly one component of most administrative jobs. School administrators do have tonmanage. They also do have to remain educators. As basic as that sounds,nI’ve met principals who didn’t think it was their job to be an educator anymore.nThey didn’t think they were obligated to keep up with the research or changes innbest practices. They thought their job was to manage and that thenschool had other people who were responsible for all that educational stuff.nHeck, they’d become a principal partly because they didn’t really like educationnvery much!

The corollary to this is simple, but also often overlooked. You don’t have tonbe an administrator to be a leader. In almost every educational environment I’venever been in, some of the most effective leaders weren’t administrators; theynwere just committed educators whose character and values required them to lead.n

I can’t articulate a definition of leadership that satisfies me. I know whatnit isn’t. I know it overlaps with many things. But I’m still looking for ancrystalline definition. I worry sometimes that because the idea is difficult tondefine, people will think it is a euphemism for administration and thus miss thenreal nature of leadership.

I do know that I don’t have to be an administrator to be a leader.n

Greg Cruey, Guest Blogger