Leadership
Perhaps not coincidentally, this assignment came at the same time a new yoga class was starting at my favorite studio. The class coordinates movements and poses with chakras, or energy centers in the body. Each chakra is associated with a color and a quality.
I decided to explore how these qualities relate to traits of an effective leader, and specifically the 21st century educational technology leader I aspire to be.
I decided to explore how these qualities relate to traits of an effective leader, and specifically the 21st century educational technology leader I aspire to be.
What Are Chakras?
The Sanskrit word chakra can be translated as wheel, circle, or cycle. The chakras represent wheel-like points or vortexes of energy along a person’s spinal axis.
Many students of yoga (including myself) explain energy, breath or life force called prāna as flowing through the body in channels called nadīs. The chakras are the main points where nadīs intersect. Each energy hub is associated with different aspects or attributes of the body and mind, as well as a particular color as depicted in the illustration above.
In this illustration, I have interpreted the personality qualities from each chakra that I believe are ideal in an effective 21st century educational technology leader. In the glossary that follows, I will make connections between the attributes in each chakra and a leadership style or anecdote that demonstrates its importance to me in my journey toward becoming the enlightened[1] educational technology leader I want to be.
Third-Eye Chakra
One of the most important attributes of a good leader in any field is having an open mind. As a leader, this means being attentive to ideas from your team and never closing the channels of change that can lead to growth and innovation. In educational technology, change is a constant.
We are preparing students for a future that will be vastly different from the environment in which we are teaching. But it seems to me that has always been the case. Any older person looking back at his or her life could come to the conclusion that there had been more technological advances in those eight, nine, or even 10 decades than there ever had been and ever will be. But the same claim could be made in any time, as time is relative and technology can be defined as any advancement, from bark to slates to paper, and from pencil to homemade ink to store-bought ink to fountain pens to ballpoint pens[2], and now smart pens!
Keeping an open mind about educational technology also means seeing the “big picture.” Whether you are a teacher leader, a school leader, or a leader at the district or even state level, it’s important to view technology as an integrated component of the education that the entire system is offering students. Just as an intelligent, perceptive leader would see the forest through the trees, he or she must also see the integrated technology plan through the multitude of technological tools available to students and educators today.
Throat Chakra
From the throat comes speech, and this chakra is associated with being an effective communicator. The cliché “communication is key” holds true across industries and eras. Communication is the foundation of civilized society—and the cornerstone of effective leadership.
If you are not communicating, you are not leading. Communication can be direct or indirect, verbal or nonverbal. In my experience, a leader’s most essential quality is the ability to communicate his or her goals and expectations. Just as a child cannot thrive in an environment with no rules or guidelines, professionals in education or any other field cannot succeed when success is not clearly defined for them.
Being an effective communicator is much more than just being charismatic. In politics, in industry, and in life there are those who use charisma and expressive words to trick others into following them. But there is a big difference between a true leader and a person who is merely basking in the limelight. As a Mind Tools® article explains in a brief description of the Charismatic Leadership style, which does not fit into any of the major frameworks discussed:
“The difference lies in their intent. Transformational leaders want to transform their teams and organizations, while leaders who rely on charisma often focus on themselves and their own ambitions, and they may not want to change anything.”[3]
Leaders who exemplify the traits of the Throat Chakra are fair, honest, and calm in communicating with team members, which leads to mutual respect and movement toward a goal that everyone can support.
Heart Chakra
I will never forget a question that an employer asked me at a job fair I attended when seeking my first and only full-time teaching job. I answered it diplomatically at the time, drawing from the dictionary definition I had stored in my brain rather than from any personal experience, but since then the purpose of the question has become clear. This wise interviewer asked me, “Is it possible to have too much empathy?”
In my short-lived high school teaching experience, I witnessed the downfall of a fellow English teacher who made the fatal mistake of befriending her students. She believed that being the “cool teacher” would make kids like her and thus appreciate the learning opportunities she had to share. But the last thing kids want from their friends is a lecture, and although most did believe that she cared about them, they did not respect her as a leader.
I believe that some people have it in their nature to teach, while others (myself included) have to work extremely hard at it. This young woman’s heart was in teaching, and she possessed the valuable Heart Chakra leadership qualities of generosity, emotional balance, and a collaborative attitude. Her mistake was letting empathy become a reality by actually putting herself in her students’ shoes. Just because the shoe fits doesn’t mean you have to wear it.
Different leadership styles work with different people. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a classroom full of students with varying backgrounds and skill levels. Just as teachers must differentiate instruction in such an environment, they must also differentiate their leadership approaches. According to the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Theory[4], maturity level should be a major consideration when determining which leadership style to use with groups or individuals. A participatory style that focuses on relationships more than directives can work when students have a decent level of maturity and skill. However, when students have lower levels of maturity and limited skills, they require a more direct, “telling” leadership style, according to this theory.
There is one “emotional leadership style”[5] that emphasizes empathy as the most important attribute in an effective leader: Visionary Leadership. This is when the leader shares with the team a vision or common goal but leaves it up to them to decide how to achieve it. While this approach may be appropriate with staff in a school turnaround situation (I’ve witnessed its use during a number of corporate “reorganizations”), it is not a style teachers would find practical on a daily basis. After all, too much “vision” can obscure your eyesight.
Solar Plexus Chakra
The qualities in this chakra are those I aspire to the most, and those I have found the most evasive. My Guru since college, who passed away this month at the age of 99, spent most of his abundant energy in this chakra—and it was energy well spent. The Solar Plexus qualities include will power, confidence, focus, and persistence—all attributes a person must have to set his or her mind to something and accomplish it. This chakra is also associated with fire (considered a god called Agni in Hinduism), the sun (also a god, called Savitar or Surya), and the color yellow, which my Guru chose to paint the walls of both his home and his office, the place he named “Success.”
Just as the attributes of the Solar Plexus Chakra are necessary for self-empowerment and personal success, they are also essential qualities for leaders to have in empowering others to succeed. Transformational Leadership[6] is when leaders motivate their team members by expecting their best and essentially leading by example. With this approach, educational technology leaders and students would encourage, inspire, motivate, and challenge one another to maximize the learning potential of the technology they are using.
Sacral Chakra
As this chakra is at the center of reproduction, it is often associated with creativity and nurturing relationships. The qualities here would fall into the “Concern for People” behavioral dimension on the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid[7], but not necessarily at the expense of results.
In his “Leading with Lollipops” TedxToronto Talk, Drew Dudley demonstrates the power of building and nurturing relationships. He tells the story of encountering a frightened freshman at her college orientation. At the very moment this young woman was about to call it quits and ask her parents to take her home, Dudley passed by, wearing a silly hat and carrying a bucket of lollipops he was using to promote a good cause. He told a male student that he should take one of the lollipops and give it to the frightened freshman, then joked to her parents that it was their daughter’s first day on her own, and she was already taking candy from strangers! This simple yet creative gesture—and the laughter that ensued—lightened the mood of the situation so much that the girl let her guard down and decided to give college a try after all. She also ended up dating the embarrassed boy who was told to give her the lollipop and even marrying him years later.
Dudley uses this “lollipop moment” as an illustration of how leadership doesn’t have to be some pie-in-the-sky, larger-than-life concept. Possibly the strongest expression of leadership is finding small, creative ways to make a difference in people’s lives and to nurture the power within all of us to influence relationships and effect positive change.
Root Chakra
However grand the vision, it’s important that leaders stay grounded while working with their team members to make that vision a reality. The Root Chakra is just that—the root or support, located at the base of the spine.
Take, for instance, technology coordinators for schools or districts. It’s important that these leaders be realistic and down-to-earth in their approach to technology integration. The vision may be for every student to have his or her own mobile device for educational purposes, but it isn’t practical or wise to simply hand each student an iPad and wish them luck with their learning. As some districts have discovered the hard way, there is much more that goes into an effective 1:1 rollout.
The Transformational Leader described previously as utilizing energy in the Solar Plexus Chakra must not only inspire people to buy into the vision and build relationships with these people, but also must “walk the walk” and manage the delivery of the vision. As another Mind Tools article puts it, “A vision is no use on its own: it needs to become reality.”[8] Leaders and their team members must support one another and work within their means—or work to first improve their means—in order to accomplish a common goal.
[1] The Crown Chakra at the top of the skull represents enlightenment and is therefore on a higher plane (literally) than the rest. This chakra represents the enlightened leader as a whole, and sub-attributes are not applicable.
[2] “As time goes by: To predict the future, you have to invent it.” Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/dcannell/education-quotes
[3] Leadership Styles: Choosing the right approach for the situation. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm
[4] This theory was developed in the 1970s and early 1980s by Paul Hersey, author of Situational Leader, and Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager.
[5] Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., and McKee, A. (2002). Primal Leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
[6] Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
[7] The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in the early 1960s, plots a leader’s concern for tasks on one axis vs. concern for people on the other to pinpoint one of five leadership styles.
[8] “Transformational leadership: Becoming an inspirational leader.” Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/transformational-leadership.htm
The Sanskrit word chakra can be translated as wheel, circle, or cycle. The chakras represent wheel-like points or vortexes of energy along a person’s spinal axis.
Many students of yoga (including myself) explain energy, breath or life force called prāna as flowing through the body in channels called nadīs. The chakras are the main points where nadīs intersect. Each energy hub is associated with different aspects or attributes of the body and mind, as well as a particular color as depicted in the illustration above.
In this illustration, I have interpreted the personality qualities from each chakra that I believe are ideal in an effective 21st century educational technology leader. In the glossary that follows, I will make connections between the attributes in each chakra and a leadership style or anecdote that demonstrates its importance to me in my journey toward becoming the enlightened[1] educational technology leader I want to be.
Third-Eye Chakra
One of the most important attributes of a good leader in any field is having an open mind. As a leader, this means being attentive to ideas from your team and never closing the channels of change that can lead to growth and innovation. In educational technology, change is a constant.
We are preparing students for a future that will be vastly different from the environment in which we are teaching. But it seems to me that has always been the case. Any older person looking back at his or her life could come to the conclusion that there had been more technological advances in those eight, nine, or even 10 decades than there ever had been and ever will be. But the same claim could be made in any time, as time is relative and technology can be defined as any advancement, from bark to slates to paper, and from pencil to homemade ink to store-bought ink to fountain pens to ballpoint pens[2], and now smart pens!
Keeping an open mind about educational technology also means seeing the “big picture.” Whether you are a teacher leader, a school leader, or a leader at the district or even state level, it’s important to view technology as an integrated component of the education that the entire system is offering students. Just as an intelligent, perceptive leader would see the forest through the trees, he or she must also see the integrated technology plan through the multitude of technological tools available to students and educators today.
Throat Chakra
From the throat comes speech, and this chakra is associated with being an effective communicator. The cliché “communication is key” holds true across industries and eras. Communication is the foundation of civilized society—and the cornerstone of effective leadership.
If you are not communicating, you are not leading. Communication can be direct or indirect, verbal or nonverbal. In my experience, a leader’s most essential quality is the ability to communicate his or her goals and expectations. Just as a child cannot thrive in an environment with no rules or guidelines, professionals in education or any other field cannot succeed when success is not clearly defined for them.
Being an effective communicator is much more than just being charismatic. In politics, in industry, and in life there are those who use charisma and expressive words to trick others into following them. But there is a big difference between a true leader and a person who is merely basking in the limelight. As a Mind Tools® article explains in a brief description of the Charismatic Leadership style, which does not fit into any of the major frameworks discussed:
“The difference lies in their intent. Transformational leaders want to transform their teams and organizations, while leaders who rely on charisma often focus on themselves and their own ambitions, and they may not want to change anything.”[3]
Leaders who exemplify the traits of the Throat Chakra are fair, honest, and calm in communicating with team members, which leads to mutual respect and movement toward a goal that everyone can support.
Heart Chakra
I will never forget a question that an employer asked me at a job fair I attended when seeking my first and only full-time teaching job. I answered it diplomatically at the time, drawing from the dictionary definition I had stored in my brain rather than from any personal experience, but since then the purpose of the question has become clear. This wise interviewer asked me, “Is it possible to have too much empathy?”
In my short-lived high school teaching experience, I witnessed the downfall of a fellow English teacher who made the fatal mistake of befriending her students. She believed that being the “cool teacher” would make kids like her and thus appreciate the learning opportunities she had to share. But the last thing kids want from their friends is a lecture, and although most did believe that she cared about them, they did not respect her as a leader.
I believe that some people have it in their nature to teach, while others (myself included) have to work extremely hard at it. This young woman’s heart was in teaching, and she possessed the valuable Heart Chakra leadership qualities of generosity, emotional balance, and a collaborative attitude. Her mistake was letting empathy become a reality by actually putting herself in her students’ shoes. Just because the shoe fits doesn’t mean you have to wear it.
Different leadership styles work with different people. Nowhere is this more apparent than in a classroom full of students with varying backgrounds and skill levels. Just as teachers must differentiate instruction in such an environment, they must also differentiate their leadership approaches. According to the Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership® Theory[4], maturity level should be a major consideration when determining which leadership style to use with groups or individuals. A participatory style that focuses on relationships more than directives can work when students have a decent level of maturity and skill. However, when students have lower levels of maturity and limited skills, they require a more direct, “telling” leadership style, according to this theory.
There is one “emotional leadership style”[5] that emphasizes empathy as the most important attribute in an effective leader: Visionary Leadership. This is when the leader shares with the team a vision or common goal but leaves it up to them to decide how to achieve it. While this approach may be appropriate with staff in a school turnaround situation (I’ve witnessed its use during a number of corporate “reorganizations”), it is not a style teachers would find practical on a daily basis. After all, too much “vision” can obscure your eyesight.
Solar Plexus Chakra
The qualities in this chakra are those I aspire to the most, and those I have found the most evasive. My Guru since college, who passed away this month at the age of 99, spent most of his abundant energy in this chakra—and it was energy well spent. The Solar Plexus qualities include will power, confidence, focus, and persistence—all attributes a person must have to set his or her mind to something and accomplish it. This chakra is also associated with fire (considered a god called Agni in Hinduism), the sun (also a god, called Savitar or Surya), and the color yellow, which my Guru chose to paint the walls of both his home and his office, the place he named “Success.”
Just as the attributes of the Solar Plexus Chakra are necessary for self-empowerment and personal success, they are also essential qualities for leaders to have in empowering others to succeed. Transformational Leadership[6] is when leaders motivate their team members by expecting their best and essentially leading by example. With this approach, educational technology leaders and students would encourage, inspire, motivate, and challenge one another to maximize the learning potential of the technology they are using.
Sacral Chakra
As this chakra is at the center of reproduction, it is often associated with creativity and nurturing relationships. The qualities here would fall into the “Concern for People” behavioral dimension on the Blake Mouton Managerial Grid[7], but not necessarily at the expense of results.
In his “Leading with Lollipops” TedxToronto Talk, Drew Dudley demonstrates the power of building and nurturing relationships. He tells the story of encountering a frightened freshman at her college orientation. At the very moment this young woman was about to call it quits and ask her parents to take her home, Dudley passed by, wearing a silly hat and carrying a bucket of lollipops he was using to promote a good cause. He told a male student that he should take one of the lollipops and give it to the frightened freshman, then joked to her parents that it was their daughter’s first day on her own, and she was already taking candy from strangers! This simple yet creative gesture—and the laughter that ensued—lightened the mood of the situation so much that the girl let her guard down and decided to give college a try after all. She also ended up dating the embarrassed boy who was told to give her the lollipop and even marrying him years later.
Dudley uses this “lollipop moment” as an illustration of how leadership doesn’t have to be some pie-in-the-sky, larger-than-life concept. Possibly the strongest expression of leadership is finding small, creative ways to make a difference in people’s lives and to nurture the power within all of us to influence relationships and effect positive change.
Root Chakra
However grand the vision, it’s important that leaders stay grounded while working with their team members to make that vision a reality. The Root Chakra is just that—the root or support, located at the base of the spine.
Take, for instance, technology coordinators for schools or districts. It’s important that these leaders be realistic and down-to-earth in their approach to technology integration. The vision may be for every student to have his or her own mobile device for educational purposes, but it isn’t practical or wise to simply hand each student an iPad and wish them luck with their learning. As some districts have discovered the hard way, there is much more that goes into an effective 1:1 rollout.
The Transformational Leader described previously as utilizing energy in the Solar Plexus Chakra must not only inspire people to buy into the vision and build relationships with these people, but also must “walk the walk” and manage the delivery of the vision. As another Mind Tools article puts it, “A vision is no use on its own: it needs to become reality.”[8] Leaders and their team members must support one another and work within their means—or work to first improve their means—in order to accomplish a common goal.
[1] The Crown Chakra at the top of the skull represents enlightenment and is therefore on a higher plane (literally) than the rest. This chakra represents the enlightened leader as a whole, and sub-attributes are not applicable.
[2] “As time goes by: To predict the future, you have to invent it.” Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/dcannell/education-quotes
[3] Leadership Styles: Choosing the right approach for the situation. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_84.htm
[4] This theory was developed in the 1970s and early 1980s by Paul Hersey, author of Situational Leader, and Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Manager.
[5] Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., and McKee, A. (2002). Primal Leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
[6] Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
[7] The Blake Mouton Managerial Grid, developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton in the early 1960s, plots a leader’s concern for tasks on one axis vs. concern for people on the other to pinpoint one of five leadership styles.
[8] “Transformational leadership: Becoming an inspirational leader.” Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/transformational-leadership.htm