Shelly Cox

EDUC 650
7.32.B or C Distributive Leadership

The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator test showed that my personality is ESTJ - The

Supervisor (Extrovert, Sensing, Thinking, Judgement) and I couldn’t agree more. I am

organized, honest, dedicated, dignified, traditional, and a great believer of doing what I believe

is right and socially acceptable. Though the paths towards “good” and “right” are difficult, I am

glad to take the place as the leader of the pack. I am the epitome of good citizenry. People look

to me for guidance and counsel, and I am always happy when approached for help.

As an administrator, I will need to be more flexible in my leadership style. The faculty

and staff will not all be of the ESTJ personality type. Leaders must adapt to the situation and

their followers. Therefore, I will need to adapt my skills and learn how to motivate, manage,

and lead the different personality types. Effective leaders must consider interpersonal

relationships and not just be task-oriented. It will be beneficial to pick up on the emotional

signals given by my staff while considering their personal feelings. The biggest issues for me

seem to be with change and taking risks. Finding the right balance of the way things have been

done previously while supporting change will be a priority. Encouraging others to experiment

and innovate will be crucial to becoming an effective leader.

Distributive leadership is the process of sharing responsibilities among leaders and

followers to produce the desired results. All teachers collectively assume responsibility for the

well-being of their school. This gives more people a voice and input into the decision-making

process. Essentially, distributive leadership allows small teams or individuals to decide how
they want to accomplish their objectives as opposed to the leader simply telling them what to

do. It lets the followers who possess a variety of different skills and ideas to do what they know

best. Teachers “become instructional facilitators, lead teachers, members of instructional

impact teams, teacher mentors, and serve in other decision-making capacities” (Green, 2017).

Leaders must also be aware of the collective capacity of the faculty when using this model.

Distributive leadership fits the democratic style of leader behavior that I prefer. I prefer

a meaningful collaborative environment where shared decision making is important. As an

administrator, there is no way that I can do everything myself. Distributing leadership

throughout the school to teacher leaders who share the same vision can be very effective with

increasing school morale and teacher productivity. Top-down leadership is not effective; it is

the leadership from the middle which creates shared meaning that I prefer. I want to see a

school where teachers are working interdependently in the shared pursuit of better learner

outcomes.