Sunday, March 21, 2021

Distributed Leadership: Fighting and Winning Your Own Battles

By: Jolo Van Clyde S. Abatayo


If you are going to ask me what leadership style our institution practices, I would say that I am honestly torn between two leadership styles here but I think it's the distributed leadership that is highly manifested in our institution because we are not treated like mere subordinates; we are inspired here to push ourselves to become the best leaders that we can always be. Even if there are higher levels of positions here, our school leaders never fail to emphasize the essence of equity. Instead of shouldering all of the responsibilities, the administrators see to it that these are properly and equally distributed to all departments so that no one will be left behind and that everyone will share a common goal which is the success of our learning milieu.

Aside from these reasons, I can really say that distributed leadership best describes the management of our institution for I am actually experiencing right now what it feels like to be a leader. Currently, I am the Program Chairperson of our Bachelor of Library and Information Science (BLIS) course here and I am so grateful for this opportunity because I can pursue my advocacy which is to empower LIS education and hone future librarians and information scientists for them to become catalysts for academic excellence, research development, and community’s success.

When it comes to my personal beliefs on what leadership theory I would prefer, I want to share this leadership quote from Tom Peters which says, “Great leaders do not create followers, they create more leaders.” Honestly, I will still firmly stick with my own beliefs that distributed leadership style is my jam. I like how it empowers people because it aims to unleash the potential leader within a person. If given a chance to handle the top-level management, I will not tolerate egotism and selfishness. I will genuinely focus on others’ growth and self-actualization for them to reach greater heights as well. And when the time comes that they will also experience actual school leadership, they will not stumble and fall.

Moreover, it is also inappropriate to carry all the burdens and enjoy all the sweet successes by myself because everyone deserves to fight and win his or her own battles. Lastly, I want to emphasize the essence of servant leadership in which I think that no matter who we are or what we are in the organization, our leadership philosophy should manifest truthful service. To conclude, according to Mahatma Gandhi, “service without humility is selfishness and egotism.”


Photo Credit: https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/principals-see-distributed-leadership-key-managing-their-evolving-role/ 

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