demoulin, don leaders of the lost art

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NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL

VOLUME 25, NUMBER 4, 2007

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Leaders of the Lost Art

Don DeMoulin

Doctoral Faculty

College of Education

Argosy University - Atlanta

ABSTRACT

This article specifies the Effective Leader as one with distinct traits that

transforms a mere leader to an effective leader. The author emphasizes that in many

instances, people think that because a person is an effective teacher that she/he will

be an effective principal or that an effective employee will make an effective

supervisor. According to the author, an effective leader means developing or

enhancing specific leadership traits.

Introduction

omeone once said that leadership is like beauty: it is hard to define, but you

will know it when you see it. Among theorists, leadership does seem to bea difficult concept to define although there are many theories that attest to

leadership. In my 20+ years of studying and writing on leadership, I have discovered that

a few people have a high potential for effectively leading in almost any situation, but theyare leaders only when they lead.

The following are components that I have been exposed to over the years

(although non-inclusive by no means) that contribute to good leadership:

the ability to define a vision to work toward and inspire others for the criticalbuy-in factor,

the ability to define the goals that are needed to attain the set-forth vision, the ability to effectively communicate goals to appropriate people, the ability to determine the most appropriate path to reach these goals,

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the ability to instill confidence in subordinates that the goals defined and thepath to these goals are both valid,

the ability to use the power of the leadership position as tactfully as possibleto meet the goals that have been set when others are in opposition,

the ability to effectively move the organization and reach the goals that havebeen set, the ability to match people to jobs and obtain the maximum benefit , and the ability to take risks and move beyond status quo in reaching the goals.

Effective leaders are also highly skilled in Decision Making, Delegation,

Communication, Listening, Time Management and Implementation. These are criticalareas that were uncovered during years of research and are included in the DLS

instrumentation provided by PanTesting and The American Psychological Association

(see Appendix A).

In the entire realm of leadership, there are only two ways people succeed: becauseof the leader or in spite of the leader. Few people succeed in spite of the leader. That is

because an ineffective leader can dramatically influence the outcome s/he has not bought

in to. Success, then would mean that the followers would have to take on all aspects ofsuccesswithout leadership, and this is highly unlikely nor desired.

Success because of the leader means that the leader has taken control of the

situation and has provided the necessary guidance with trust and credibility to assistothers to succeed. Leadership, therefore, is a process of influence; leaders influence and

motivate others to do a task. The attention given to leadership has been increasing as a

result of ongoing research convictions that describe leadership as a significant factor ineffective organizations. The daily activities of leaders clearly indicate a broad and highly

demanding job. Leaders who are successful in managing and leading their organizations

display confidence in their leadership capacity.Unfortunately, there has been a trend over the past many years of mistaken those

who manage as leaders. There is a huge difference in one who manages and one who

leads. One can be an effective manager, but not be an effective leader. An effective

leader also is an effective manager. The difference between a manager and a leader isthat a manager is given formal authority to plan, organize, budget, staff, control, direct

the activity of others, and focuses what it takes to get things done on a day-to-day basis.

A leader defines the vision, aligns people with that vision, inspires them to make ithappen, develops them, listens to them, and empowers them to reach that vision through

established and measurable goals and objectives. In essence, an effective leader produces

effective change and sees the vision.

What It Is To Be an Effective Leader

Throughout this article, I will use the term Effective Leader because in myexperience there is a distinct set of traits that transforms a mere leader to an effective


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leader. The good news is that becoming an effective leader can be learned by people butit cannot be assumed in people. I say this because in many instances, people think that

because a person is an effective teacher that s/he will be an effective principal or that an

effective employee will make an effective supervisor. These are not always the case

because being an effective leader means developing or enhancing specific traits and whilesome can be effective in a classroom or work place, they may not be able to advance to

what is required to become the effective leader.

Effective Leadership Traits as Measured by the DLS

First and foremost, effective leaders are people of good character and know what ittakes to be effective. In essence, the leadership potential as a leader can been seen and

identified within as the character needed to be successful. They know and understandthat without character, their capacity to be successful will be greatly diminished because

people of character carry more weight in establishing the critical trust factor than peopleof questionable character. This is because people of questionable character incorporate

lies, manipulation, deceit, and other questionable actions into their behaviorbasically

putting on one face to some and another face to others. Once the behavior of theseindividuals is identified, their credibility is damaged beyond repair and they are avoided

to the point where achieving success is severely limited. That sets the stage for effective

leadership to emerge.

Effective leaders know their leadership style and can make the necessaryadaptations from developing relationships to keeping people on task. There is a delicate

balance in moving from one area to the other and the effective leader knows how tomaintain that balance. They know that developing strong relationship is critical to getpeople actively engaged in the vision, but also know that there are times when there is a

need to go beyond the relationship component and move people out of their comfort

zone.Successful leaders are not afraid of making decisions and utilize appropriate use of

committees or teams to gain valuable input. These teams are also useful to identify a

vision as a viable part of overall effectiveness and success. Effective leaders seek to

develop and nurture an effective team spirit that fosters a sense of belonging andownership while focusing attention on measurable goals and objectives proven to be

effective in similar situationsnot only goals that work, but those goals that work best.

Their attention is focused on reaching their well-established and carefully definedobjectives and the use of teams aid in the decision-making process.

Effective leaders develop carefully planned processes and procedures that

minimize individual differences by providing structured activities that enhance personaldevelopment and increasing productivity. These leaders usually see the big picture

from a linear perspective. They understand the value of following step-by-step

approaches to task completion. Emphasis is placed on a vision and set of defined goalsand the proper preparation and completion of objectives to reach the goals toward the


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who is an effective implementor is one who is actively engaged in personaladvancement and development. Individual who have difficulty implementing ideas,

plans, or strategies falls short of being a successful leader.

Concluding Remarks

According to John Maxwell, people usually follow into one of four dream

categories: 1) they never see the dreamand meandering through life without purpose;2) they see the dream but never personally act on itdepending on orfollowing others to

get them to the dream; 3) they see the dream and chase after itfinally realizing andachieving the dream; 4) they see the dream, achieve the dream and then help others findtheir dreambecoming leaders.

Effective leaders are people who do not seek recognition but seek an opportunity tohelp others improve themselves. Just like an effective referee is unseen but controls the

game, an effective leader controls the situation through laying the proper groundwork andsetting the parameters for success.

Each of the areas discussed in this article is measured in the DLS. It is good for us

to know how we measure in the different categories when compared to experts in therespective areas. It is also good to know if a person who thinks s/he is ready for a

leadership position to know what areas are his/her strength, what areas are good, and

what areas are a concern that need to be strengthened. The DLS provides this

information so proper training can be implemented to maximize the potential ofbecoming an effective leader versus a leader by position.

The DLS instrumentation also went through the rigorous analysis of PanTestingand the American Psychological Testing for inclusion in their test batteries and areavailable for review at www.pantesting.com and www.apa.org

References

Maxwell, John (1991). The 21 indispensable qualities of a leader: Becoming theperson people will want to follow. T. Nelson. Amazon.


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Appendix A

DEMOULINLEADERSHIP SERIES

The DeMoulin Leadership Series (DLS) is designed to provide organizations with aviable source of information for individual and/or group evaluations and performance

enhancement. These evaluations can be used in a variety of ways as a supplemental

informational resource, from pre-employment screening to assessing the effectiveness of in-

service programs to identifying potential supervisors/managers/principals/superintendents.The DLS contains a collection of eight instruments designed to effectively measure

individual strengths and/or areas of concern within specific leadership categories including:

Leadership, Decision Making, Delegation, Communication, Listening, Time Managementand Implementation.

Myself as a Leader

Leadership Assessment Profile Myself as a Decision Maker Myself as a Delegator Myself as a Communicator Myself as a Listener Myself as a Manager of Time Myself as an Implementor

The DeMoulin Leadership Series was thoroughly tested and normed with reliabilitycoefficients ranging from .89 to .94. Questions concerning face, content, construct, and

concurrent validity were sufficiently addressed and answered utilizing the Delphi techniqueand Principle Component Factor Analysis. Test retest reliability was conducted with theseparate components over one, two, and three week intervals, with resulting Pearson

correlation coefficients ranging from .81 to .93.

External concurrent validity for the DLS has been assessed in a number of ways. One

notable example involved the comparison of the judgment of a panel of experts with DLSscores. The Memphis area National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)

Test Center provided continuing education training in which the characteristics of

participants were assessed pre and post by a panel of 11 experts using rating scales. Apass/fail cutoff score was derived for each assessed area, and in overlapping content areas.

Preprogram judgments evidenced a 91% rate of agreement with cutoffs derived from the

DLS. Post training ratings by the panel of experts evidenced 89% agreement with DLS-derived cutoffs.

A more traditional assessment of DLS concurrent validity was undertaken using Dr.

Russell N. Cassels Leadership Ability Inventory (LAI). Assessments were made ofmilitary officers and business leaders using the two instruments. Correlation coefficients

between overlapping DLS/LAI content areas ranging from .75 to .84.


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Each area of the DLS for norming of scores utilized people deemed experts in therespective categories which formulated calculations for individual tests and where results

were transformed into T-scores for interpretation. Numbers for norming included:

Leadership (Number for Norming = 327)Leadership Assessment Inventory (LAINumber for Norming = 327)Myself as a Decision Maker (MAADMNumber for Norming = 295)

Myself as a Delegator (MAADNumber for Norming = 313)

Myself as a Communicator (MAACNumber for Norming = 267)Myself as a Listener (MAALNumber for Norming = 188)

Myself as a Manager of Time (MAAMTNumber for Norming = 236)

Myself as am Implementor (MAAINumber for Norming = 210)

demoulin, don leaders of the lost art

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