| | December 20158CIOReviewDuring my career in education, I have had the privi-lege of leading digital transformation initiatives for two school districts. I have often been asked what type of leadership is required to successfully implement a transformational project. As I reflect on that ques-tion, and the past eight years leading these types of projects, it is very clear there is a distinct difference between traditional leadership skills and transformational leadership skills. When you think about an initiative that is truly transformational, it is radically changing the current conditions, functions, and culture of an organization. Additionally, real transformation means you have to be willing to abandon or stop doing things. Finally, transformational leadership cannot be limited to an in-dividual. You must have transformational leadership through-out the multiple levels of the organization.Transformational leadership is all about creating a vision, one that is going to be viewed as radical or impossible and get-ting people to buy in. Now some people will say that is true for any leader, they must create a vision and get people to buy in. The key difference is that in a transformational initiative, the vision is going to radically change the cultural foundation of an organization. For instance, when we talk about digital trans-formation in the K-12 space, it is all about changing the way teachers are delivering instruction. The way a teacher delivers instruction is incredibly personal and has been fundamentally the same for decades. Asking a teacher who is successful in Transformational Leadership: What is it?By- Lenny Schad, CTIO, Houston ISDIN MY OPINION
< Page 7 | Page 9 >