Leadership and Values in Language Education - Al Akhawayn ...

106Proceedings of the 27 th MATE Annual ConferenceModeling is another crucial classroom practice that the teacher leader needs inhis/her relationship with the participants. One is expected to teach his/herstudents punctuality by being punctual; responsibility by being responsible;fairness by being fair, and so forth. In this way, the teacher leader will givehis/her learners a good model to follow, a fact which will bear a positivereputation on the part of the teacher’s colleagues and administrators. In fact,“leading by example is perhaps the purest form of leadership and the one overwhich each of us has the most control” (Barth, op. cit., :447).To be able to fulfill the above practices, some traits deem essential to the teacherleader. Although research has revealed that personal traits do not necessarily leadto successful leadership (Stogdill, 1974 in Hughes, 1993), some researchers haveargued that some traits are characteristic of effective leaders (Daft, 1999).Honesty and integrity have, for example, proved to be indispensable to anyleadership process. Whereas the first refers to “truthfulness and nondeception”,the second means that “one is whole, so one’s actions are in keeping with one’swords” (Daft, op. cit., p. 67). Through these, the teacher leader builds atrustworthy and principled relationship with his/her students, along which one isexpected to be highly consistent, that is, to do what one promises to do whenhe/she promises to do it. As Albert Einstein once said, “whoever is careless withthe truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters”.Self-confidence is another trait which appears to work in favor of leadershipsuccess. It generally refers to “the degree to which individuals feel comfortablewith their own judgment, abilities, or skills” (Hughes, et al, 1993, p. 151).Hence, the teacher leader is required to develop self-confidence in order to beable to take risks, to make decisions, and to solve problems when they occur.Indeed, self-confidence is among the traits that enable a leader to confront all thechallenges (Daft, op. cit.). Related to this is self-esteem, which refers to “how youthink and feel about yourself” (Komives, et al op. cit., p. 113). Being able to feelone’s strengths and face one’s weaknesses is, according to these researchers, afirst step toward higher self-esteem which ultimately results in a strong drive.Motivation, following Daft (op. cit.), is also one of the traits that is characteristicof an effective leader. He views that, in whatever domain, leaders “with driveseek achievement, have energy and tenacity, and are frequently seen to haveambition and initiative to achieve their goals” (p. 68). Motivation is much moreneeded in the field of education where it has for long proved to be a key elementfor successful language teaching and learning. The teacher leader with a high