Educational leadership requires strong leadership to establish and implement a vision that successfully achieves the goals and objectives of the organization, teachers, and students. My personal theory of educational leadership is a holistic one that encompasses McGregor’s Theory Y leadership principles and democratic leadership traits. McGregor’s Theory Y represents a self-actualizing view of the individual, an empowering rather than controlling view of power, and values that are human-centered as a means of directing the organization. Theory Y leadership to me is about creating opportunities that release potential in individuals which overcomes obstacles and promotes development. Theory Y leadership, as expressed by McGregor, encompasses the following three postulates:
1) People are not by nature passive or resistant to organizational needs. They have become so as a result of experience in organizations.
2) The motivation, the potential for development, the capacity for assuming responsibility, the readiness to direct behavior toward organizational goals are all present in people.
3) The essential task of management is to arrange organizational conditions and methods of operation so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their own efforts toward organizational objectives.
The leadership style known as Theory Y provides me with a worldview of leadership that encompasses cooperation between individuals and focuses on relationships as a means of achieving organizational and individual goals. I view my leadership perspective as one that is humanistic or people oriented. It involves active input from all stakeholders like teachers, employees and students. It also focuses on the dignity, worth and development of individuals. I believe that by leading in a manner that fosters the creation of effective interpersonal relationships, I will be able to resolve the often at-odds conflict between individ...