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Educational Leadership Educational leadership is very similar to leadership in business or in any other field. There are some differences however, that although they are small, are very important. Figuring out what these differences are and how to adjust for them is absolutely vital in transferring your leadership skills from the area of business to the field of education.
The biggest most important difference between leadership in a business setting and educational leadership is the audience, or the people being led. It may seem obvious enough, but in a business setting, everyone you are working with is an adult. In an educational setting, the people are most likely children. Even if they are older children, such as those in high school, they are still very much children. This is important because in educational leadership you cannot treat a child like an adult and you cannot treat an adult like a child if you expect positive results. An adult usually wants independence and he or she probably doesn’t care for his or her team leader looking over his or her shoulder all the time. For the most part, it is good to give adult members of your team some space to accomplish their tasks. Children, on the other hand, usually need more guidance, and even if they resent your figurative hand-holding, it is important for children to learn how to accomplish whatever task is being taught so they can become adults who don’t need to have their hands held. |
There are, of course, other differences in educational leadership. Children and adults respond differently to criticism and praise. The most important thing to remember with educational leadership is that the audience is much different. If you keep the fact that you are dealing with children in the forefront of your mind and make adjustments accordingly, there is no reason why your business leadership skills cannot translate into effective educational leadership.
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