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Persuasion: a key skill for today's leaders.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

There is an imperative for school leaders to develop the skills of persuasion as an essential to successful leadership in today's school environments. The author proposes that successful leadership requires that school leaders hone their persuasive skills. Leadership is viewed as an influence relationship in which stakeholders utilize persuasion to influence decisions. Persuasion involves a complex exchange involving numerous factors. The elements of persuasion are discussed leading to practical suggestions as to how leaders can persuade effectively.

Leadership's Evolution

Changing Values and Dynamics

It is generally acknowledged that school leadership requires multi-skilled individuals. The skills of collaboration, motivation, delegation, planning, conflict management, problem solving and decision making are often mentioned as critical for effective leadership. The skill of persuasion, often referred to as the "art of persuasion", while acknowledged as desirable, does not seem to garner the attention it deserves. Given today's workplace environment, persuasion deserves consideration for high placement among the hierarchy of skills which are required for effective school leaders.

Leadership functions today in an ever changing paradigm. In the past it relied upon rules, regulations and authoritarian dictates. Organizations of the past were extremely bureaucratic in nature stressing specialization, legitimate power, impersonal relationships, hierarchy of authority and top down rules and regulations. Educators recognize that schools are not factories and cannot effectively function in lock-step bureaucratic fashion. Schools must stress a human relations approach with primary focus upon the human factor and the dispositions of individuals within the organization.

School leaders are advised to fulfill the role of facilitators pursuing a shared vision for the organization. They must share knowledge and power and assure that there is a constant flow of information and an exchange of ideas and points of view. In school settings all stakeholders should be empowered to participate in setting organizational direction. The ongoing reform efforts in education create an imperative for the active involvement of teachers, parents and general community members in decisions regarding school vision and direction. Teachers, in particular, are increasingly expected to participate in the leadership of their schools. They are expected to think beyond their individual classrooms and to maintain a school wide perspective. Educational literature advocates greater involvement of teachers in school decision making as they...

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