12 Sep Review and complete at least two leadership inventories from the Learning Resources or that your place of employment recommends or uses. (My place of employment is Washington County
8085 Module 2 Discussion 1: Leading Your Own Professional Development
Developing as a professional and as a leader is a lifelong journey that requires careful reflection, concentrated attention, and dedication to learning not only who you are currently as a leader, but what your leadership goals are. This process requires taking careful inventory of your values and guiding principles, as well as learning about your areas of current strength, opportunities for growth, and how to utilize resources available to you to support your ongoing development.
For this Discussion, you will inventory your own leadership qualities and then carefully reflect on what you see as areas of strength and development. Keeping in mind the emerging issues and changing needs within the field of early childhood education, you will use knowledge of who you are presently as a leader to discuss with your colleagues the characteristics, approaches, styles, traits, and/or the attitudes you most hope to exemplify in the future.
To prepare:
· Review and complete at least two leadership inventories from the Learning Resources or that your place of employment recommends or uses. ( My place of employment is Washington County Opportunities Inc. Head Start)
· Carefully consider and reflect on your personal values and ethics. What personal factors are most important to you in decision making? How do these factors serve as a compass as you navigate challenging situations, relationships with others, and decision making?
Consider the characteristics, approaches, styles, traits, and/or attitudes you most hope to exemplify as a leader in the field of early childhood education. As you reflect on these, draw on your personal goals, as well as those advanced in theory and research on effective leadership.
Assignment Task Part 1
Write a 2-page analysis in which you do the following:
· Identify the leadership inventories you took.
· Summarize the insights gained from these inventories by describing how your results compare to your current leadership approach(es) and/or the type of leader you hope to become.
· Compare and contrast your personal leadership goals and those advanced in theory and research on effective leadership.
· Based on your summary of your inventory and description of the impact of your values and ethics, create four to five leadership principles that embody essential, effective leadership in early childhood settings. A leadership principle is a statement that includes or emphasizes a specific leadership quality, characteristic, approach, or style. It may also be a statement that emphasizes a trait or attitude that effective leaders embody.
· Justify the relevance of each of your principles by describing how these principles are contextually relevant within the field of early childhood education and supportive of your goals as a leader.
· Finally, explain where you are developmentally with regard to the principles. What do you see as current strengths, and what do you feel would benefit from additional knowledge and practice?
· Note: Be sure to cite appropriate references in APA format to substantiate your thinking
Assignment Task Part 2
Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
Respond to one or more of your colleagues’ postings in the following ways in 150 word response:
· Provide additional insights related to at least one of your colleague’s principles and its unique influence on the context of and leadership in the early childhood field.
· Propose strategies for developing the leadership principles your colleague identified as needing more knowledge and practice.
· Note: Be sure to cite appropriate references in APA format to substantiate your thinking
Assignment Task Part 3
· Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.
· Respond to one or more of your colleagues’ postings in the following ways in 150 word response:
· Provide additional insights related to at least one of your colleague’s principles and its unique influence on the context of, and leadership in, the early childhood field.
· Propose strategies for developing the leadership principles your colleague identified as needing more knowledge and practice.
· Share why you would, or would not, recommend specific leadership inventories. Explain how the inventories challenged and inspired your thinking. Explain whether the inventories did or did not provide you with the kind of information about leadership and/or your personal leadership abilities that you were expecting.
Note: Be sure to cite appropriate references in APA format to substantiate your thinking
Learning Resources
http://hepg.org/hel-home/issues/28_2/helarticle/four-steps-to-building-leadership-capacity_530
