The cornerstone of transformational leadership is vision. For our school leaders to act as more than middle managers, they have to foster a school community's vision - cultivate the school community's direction and purpose. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews with school leaders and following focus groups with their teachers to understand better how principals develop and instantiate their vision and how this vision is perceived to have manifested by the school community. This study was designed to answer the questions of (1) do principals have a clearly defined personal vision for the schools they serve, and in what ways do they enact their vision?, (2) what professional and training experiences contribute to how a principal develops a vision for a school?, (3) what the relationship between the articulated vision and the culture of the school? The four themes that emerged from this study were that ( 1 ) principals have guiding statements that serve the same purpose as a formal vision that gives them and their school communities direction for the work, (2) principals primarily invest their teams in a shared vision through a visioning process, (3) principals most cited avenue for vision development was through working with others, and (4) principals whose articulated vision most aligned with the culture of the school were successfully able to operationalize the vision. The recommendations and implications for all stakeholders from this research are that (1) principals are trained taught how to develop guiding statements, (2) principals are taught how to invest others in a shared vision, (3) the importance of mentor matching and principal reflection in the principal training and development process, and (4) principals are taught how to operationalize their vision through ongoing coaching and support. / Educational Administration

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Despite the gap between the demands of the global work environment and the maturity of its leaders, minimal research exists on the trend of the practice of mindfulness meditation and the developmental experiences of leaders, thereby resulting in a growing divide between theory and practice. Consequently, leadership scholars have little understanding of how an increasing number of leaders experience mindfulness meditation. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the perceived impact mindfulness meditation had on leader development for 20 manager-leaders who had a regular (at least 3 days a week) mindfulness-meditation practice. The primary recruitment strategy included outreach to potential participants affiliated with professionally oriented mindfulness groups on the social networking site, LinkedIn (geographic location was not relevant in this study). The primary conceptual framework was Day's conceptualization of leader development. The central research question addressed leaders' perceptions and experiences of the impact of mindfulness meditation on their development as leaders. A modified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen data analysis procedure was used in this study. Key results included the identification of 10 core themes and the associated conclusion that leaders who want to contribute solutions to global challenges will have to access more of their potential, which may require consideration of techniques that foster vertical learning. The primary recommendation includes the serious consideration of mindfulness meditation by leaders and organizational decision makers of development investments. This study has implications for positive social change in that a better understanding of how leaders experience mindfulness meditation may provide direction for leaders and organizations about developmental practices that support leadership effectiveness.

The post-9/11 security environment is one that confronts the United States, and specifically the U.S. Army, with complex problems that require development of leaders with improved knowledge, skills, and attributes to meet the challenges of defending the nation. The problem confronting the U.S. Army is that Army leaders lack a learning environment or methodology that enables effective self-development throughout their career. Research suggests that PLNs (PLNs) and a connectivist approach may address that problem, but these have been limited to civilian educational environments. This qualitative case study explored the use of PLNs with a connectivist approach for leader self-development in Army organizations. The case in this study was that of a cohort of 22 officers in a U.S. Army unit. Each officer developed a PLN and then employed a connectivist approach to connect, curate, create, and share knowledge. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed with a focus on themes that could inform future decisions by Army senior leadership on the self-development of leaders, and that could enable decisions that will reduce loss of life and destruction in wartime. The major themes developed in this study account for the approach and challenges to Army self-development, the motivation for and execution of connected learning, and the structuring and desired characteristics of self-development that employs PLNs and connectivism. Recommendations included integrating a semistructured approach to self-development into emerging educational approaches to Army leader development. More prepared Army leaders can respond to crises more effectively, reducing adverse effects, damage, and loss of life

Leader self-development, as an approach to leader development, is defined as autonomous, self-regulated behaviors focused on developing one’s leadership capacities. Leader development, as a function, is purposeful engagement in the development of human capital, often in the form of formal training programs or on-the-job assignments. It has been theorized that leaders can only learn from such structured investments if they are motivated to self-develop as leaders. For this reason, self-development is a foundational element of leadership development in general. Previous research has found that certain leader characteristics such as feedback seeking, achievement seeking and mastery orientation predict an individual’s motivation for self-development. The current study examines whether matched perceived group-norms interact with leader characteristics to impact motivation to self-develop. 134 male and 33 female leaders who manage people within structured organizations completed an online self-report survey to assess participants’ leader characteristics, perceived group norms and motivation to self-develop. Results replicated previous research using a new sample, thus establishing the importance of leader characteristics of feedback seeking, achievement seeking, and mastery orientation in predicting motivation to self-development. Although results failed to support the predicted interactions between leader characteristics and matched group level norms, for the first time, group level norms of goal-setting and learning were found to have a direct effect on motivation to self-develop. Implications of increased leader self-development under specific, advantageous group norms are discussed.

The post-9/11 security environment is one that confronts the United States, and specifically the U.S. Army, with complex problems that require development of leaders with improved knowledge, skills, and attributes to meet the challenges of defending the nation. The problem confronting the U.S. Army is that Army leaders lack a learning environment or methodology that enables effective self-development throughout their career. Research suggests that PLNs (PLNs) and a connectivist approach may address that problem, but these have been limited to civilian educational environments. This qualitative case study explored the use of PLNs with a connectivist approach for leader self-development in Army organizations. The case in this study was that of a cohort of 22 officers in a U.S. Army unit. Each officer developed a PLN and then employed a connectivist approach to connect, curate, create, and share knowledge. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed with a focus on themes that could inform future decisions by Army senior leadership on the self-development of leaders, and that could enable decisions that will reduce loss of life and destruction in wartime. The major themes developed in this study account for the approach and challenges to Army self-development, the motivation for and execution of connected learning, and the structuring and desired characteristics of self-development that employs PLNs and connectivism. Recommendations included integrating a semistructured approach to self-development into emerging educational approaches to Army leader development. More prepared Army leaders can respond to crises more effectively, reducing adverse effects, damage, and loss of life

It is no secret that the North American church has seen a decline over the last twenty years. This is especially pronounced in the younger generations. Significantly fewer people walk through the doors of a church each week. There are a myriad of factors that are driving this decline. One area that needs to be explored is the disengagement of young adults in church leadership. Engaging young adults in leadership is a proven way to engage them in the church. By listening to the voices of Canadian young adults, this dissertation offers a starting point for leaders. Making space for young adults to serve in leadership will both strengthen the church and reengage a lost generation.

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[pt] O desenvolvimento da liderança envolve a identidade de líder, que pode ser analisada a partir de diferentes perspectivas e abordagens teóricas. Uma delas, utilizada nesta tese, assume o desenvolvimento da identidade na construção social, ou seja, na reflexividade do indivíduo e, sobretudo, nas constantes interações com os outros. Para essa perspectiva, são aspectos centrais ao desenvolvimento do líder o autoconceito e a identidade. Considerando que é fundamental compreender como tal processo ocorre em contextos de desenvolvimento da liderança, e assumindo que tais contextos são campos férteis para a observação das dinâmicas identitárias do líder, esta tese tem como objetivo compreender tais dinâmicas em um contexto de coaching para desenvolvimento da liderança. Uma vez que o fenômeno é pouco explorado pela literatura, utilizou-se o método da Grounded Theory com orientação construtivista, capturando assim as representações de coaches, líderes e liderados entrevistados. A partir dos dados analisados, esta tese apresenta um framework teórico que busca compreender e explicitar as dinâmicas identitárias no desenvolvimento de líderes, explorando elementos nos níveis intrapessoal, interpessoal e contextual. / [en] The development of leadership involves the identity of leader, which can be analyzed from different perspectives and theoretical approaches. One of them, and that used in this thesis, assumes the development of identity in social construction, that is, in the reflexivity of the individual and, above all, in constant interactions with others. For this perspective, they are central aspects to the development of the leader, the self-concept and the identity. Considering it is critical to understand how such a process occurs in leadership development contexts and assuming that contexts are fertile grounds for the leader s identity dynamics, this thesis aims to understand such dynamics in a context of coaching for leadership development. Since the phenomenon is little explored in the literature, we used the Grounded Theory method with a constructivist orientation, thus capturing the representations of coaches, leaders and interviewed followers. Based on the data analyzed, this thesis presents a theoretical framework that has been developed allowing to understand and explain the identity dynamics in the development of leaders, exploring elements at the intrapersonal, interpersonal and contextual levels.