Nadadaan sa Usapan:
Effective Communication Training for Public School Principals
SAN FERNANDO, La Union -- Excel Center for Educational Leadership (Excel), a nonprofit organization advocating the empowerment of public school principals, conducted the second module of their Leadership Development Program (LDP) pilot run in La Union, entitled “Taking the Leadership Journey: Facilitating and Communicating Self-Sustaining Change” last January 14 to 15, 2015 at the Community Learning Center of the Department of Education (DepEd) City Schools Division of San Fernando. This provided a follow-through to the Personal Leadership lectures and workshop in the first module last October 2014.
Experiential and participatory learning
Based on the Young Leaders in Governance Training Course of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the two-day training seminar and workshop was tailored for the heads of public schools and focused on the integral role of communication in leading a community, particularly in light of various leadership styles and strengths.
Pamela A. Grafilo, Program Associate of the Fostering Democratic Governance Unit of the UNDP-Philippines Country Office (CO) and Galing Pook Foundation Program Officer for Awards and Promotion, facilitated the training and followed an experiential, participatory and interactive methodology where all 31 LDP Fellows participated in situational simulations, role-playing, individual and group reflection sessions, and plenary discussions.
More specifically, the participants were able to provide their own definitions of leadership, and through this they identified that they fall within the range of Dynamic to Democratic on the leadership styles scale, the right side of the continuum. They also built a freestanding tower in groups only out of 30 pieces of letter-sized paper in less than 10 minutes, and demonstrated full cooperation among one another.
Grafilo asked them to pinpoint key leadership attributes, and to name an individual who they admire, respect, and model themselves after. Identifying those people grounded the Fellows in a sense of pragmatism, and this helped them enumerate the top three prevalent leadership challenges that they encounter as school heads and brainstorm how to address them.
Conflicts of disinterest
At the center of communication lies empathy, and successful communication grows from a genuine effort to build on the elements of the ability to understand someone. Listening carefully, inviting consent, translating complaints into requests for action, and expressing more appreciation and gratitude are exercises in empathy. There are several barriers to overcome, such as lack of feedback and of self-awareness, unwillingness to change and rebuttal instincts. It is also generally agreed upon that Filipinos are non-confrontational, and that is aggravated by how some people are disinterested in anything that is not his/her own idea. The Fellows are well aware of this, as was evident from the stories of the personal experiences that they told.
From their discussions, they also know that it is not easy to be comfortable with conflict, to accept that different people have different needs and views. It is a mentally demanding task, but they also know that it takes a lot of practice and is highly beneficial. Respect, peace of mind, and closeness with others are earned when one observes oneself more and refrains from assuming the right to judge someone.
Environment of trust, responsibility of relationships
Model leaders fully accept the responsibility of the relationships they build with internal and external stakeholders, and exert continuous effort to sustain them, not merely preserve them. A firm belief in the reliability, truth, and ability of your colleagues, and superiors is essential to doing so beyond the level of conflict management. These leaders ultimately realize that collaboration and mutual support are key factors in the fulfillment of a shared mission and in the pursuit of a broad vision. This is especially important for the heads of the public schools in the country as they seek to improve the quality of education that schoolchildren receive.
In the next module this coming February 25 to 27 entitled “Principals as Social Entrepreneurs”, the Fellows will partake in a two-and-a-half-day design thinking and social innovation workshop, and the Big Project will be will be introduced, a contest where each of the Fellows are to create and to implement a project that addresses a prominent problem of their respective schools.
For more information about Excel and their Leadership Development Program, visit excelph.org, or email hello@excelph.org.
0 comments:
Post a Comment