National Agenda: Establishing Authority as an Educational Leader

Educational leaders must continually refine their skills to successfully utilize the following leadership components: reward, coercive, expert, and legitimate and referent power to help schools achieve and sustain their vision. The intent of this article is to examine how educational leaders can positively and successfully establish authority to benefit all stakeholders. Article: The purpose of this article is to explore how educational leaders can establish authority in an education setting that positively impacts all stakeholders within the organization. School leaders must have the knowledge and expertise to utilize reward, coercive, expert, and legitimate and referent power to help schools achieve and sustain their vision (Hermond 2006.) Stephanie was so excited to be asked by the superintendent to serve on the District’s Instructional Development Council Committee. She had waited for what seemed to be an eternity to get to this point in her career. When the meeting began, she felt so sure of herself when the superintendent asked everyone to introduce himself. She felt so pleased when she could state her title as the new principle of the elementary school that received an accountability rating of Exemplary last year. She was on top of the world. After the break, she noticed that a former colleague was quite congenial with the superintendent. She then remembered that her former colleague had been the superintendent’s son’s basketball coach. Stephanie mistakenly assumed that her title of principal would allow her to carry a specify measure of credibility on this committee and with the superintendent. Her former colleague, Coach Jackson, would certainly have just as much, if not more, of an impact on this committee as she would. What is power? Merriam-Webster’s dictionary explains that power is “... possession of control, authority, or influence over others...