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What is a Leader, Anyway?

by Marianne Jones
November/December 2007
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Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/what-is-a-leader-anyway/5017874/

What makes a leader? While often asked in political and business settings, this question is somewhat new to the early childhood field. In fact, Kagan and Bowman (1997) cite as a “fundamental problem” the failure of the field to define “whether there is a particular set of skills associated with leadership, and, if so, what skills are important” (p. 6).

This article reports on a study by Jones (1998) that asked child care center directors to discuss characteristics of leaders �" to go beyond “You know one when you see one.” Forty-nine directors in three California counties participated in this study. Participants were divided into nine focus groups �" three for each sector: public, private, and not-for-profit. Focus group research requires homogeneity of groups with respect to experience, a condition that has been found to maximize participants’ comfort level and candor (Krueger, 1988, 1994). The focus group process facilitated in-depth discussion of directors’ ideas about the nature of leadership and how leadership is demonstrated in daily practice. The process also provided for cross-comparisons of perceptions across sectors.

As the complexity of leaders and leadership has come to be appreciated, there is greater awareness of the roles that circumstance and relationships play ...

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