Identity-based and Reputational Leadership: An American Indian Approach to Leadership

Leadership, like diversity, is often used in education as an all-encompassing notion, applied to a wide variety of situations, or at times, used rather loosely. The danger with such an approach is the lack of specificity. Yet, specificity can set the boundaries so narrow that one is led to believe one approach is better than another or that one size fits all situations. I suggest what educators and educational leadership programs need is some balance between the broad and narrow views of leadership in order to foster congruence between individual values and beliefs and organizational missions, visions, and activities. Administrators, teachers, counselors, and others in education are individuals first and therefore, view situations though life experiences. Those experiences are influenced by academic preparation, socialization process, and job experiences. Through administrative preparation programs, potential school and institutional leaders are exposed to diverse leadership approaches and decision-making processes, such as distributed leadership (Spillane, 2006), ethical leadership (Shaprio & Stefkovich, 2005), collaborative leadership (Glaser, 2005), culturally proficient leadership (Lindsey, Robins, & Terrell, 1999), and moral leadership (Sergiovanni, 1992). Each provides valuable direction for effective leadership i