When I started the journey to become a leader in education. I realized pretty quickly that, leadership was all about ones’ values, assumptions, and beliefs. It is my belief that leadership is a journey that consists of followers and a person or persons that leads them. In this mix, the leader creates a vision of what is to be achieved and the followers work in harmony to make the vision a reality. It is the work of the leader to create a clear vision and also to be able to articulate that vision clearly enough for the followers to understand it and be able to implement it successfully. As an example, I work during the summer break as a Trainer and Scorer Director for the National Board of Teaching Standards. My responsibilities are to train teachers to holistically evaluate written, spoken, and/or videotaped responses to a variety of teacher certification examinations. In addition, I prepare materials that exemplify state-specific standards, orienting scorers through an established calibration process, managing scoring sessions, and serving as a content expert in the science teaching content area. Furthermore, I communicate with my supervisors in an hourly basis to make sure that the validity of the scoring process is up to the standards and also the work is done on time.

I always try to be mindful of my own beliefs, values, and assumptions. I am aware of the fact that when I am leading a group of 12 to 16 teachers (adults); my beliefs, values, and assumptions towards what is to be accomplished may be different from their beliefs, values, and assumptions. With this understanding, I work hard not to force my own beliefs, values, and assumptions onto them. I however, negotiate a better way for us all to work hard to accomplish the mission through creating a vision and articulating that vision clearly enough to each member of the team through training and motivational tactics in my disposal to accomplish the task in a timely manner. I work well with the team and with each individual to help them to find the best in themselves when misunderstandings or difficulties start to arise.

As a leader, I listen with respect and gratitude to each member of my team. I spend a lot of time soliciting member’s views on the best ways to accomplish the task. A good example of how I accomplish this is that, I eat lunch with all my workers on a daily basis. During lunch time, we talk and discuss work, problems and solutions, and life in general. As a leader of the team, I value each and everyone’s contributions. I believe that, individual successes of each member of the team brings about the overall success of the team. I usually spend time reflecting on my leadership each evening. In my reflections, I try to figure out what went well and what did not go well on that particular day as well as the implications of my leadership on my team member and on the task to be executed. These reflections help me to fine tune my approaches and to find better ways of working successfully with each member of the team.

In summary, I use my personal experience to lead. I balance my work and personal success. I always help people to find the best in themselves. I spend time reflecting on my leadership and its implications on others. I value integrity in personal and professional development. I respect leadership from different perspectives and ways of knowing. I listen with respect and gratitude to others. All these beliefs, values, and assumptions I hold dear in my leadership, have helped me to successful lead a group of teachers each summer for the past five years.