ABSTRACT
This book has proposed that leaders need to be both strategic and ethical so that leadership is both forward looking and honest. However, there is a whole range of activities in which a leader has to be competent. Using the perspectives from the competence and competency movement, I will now explore what they bring to considerations of effective leadership. Being effective requires leaders throughout organisations who are aware of their own knowledge and personal qualities (sometimes referred to as skills, attributes and attitudes) and who are able to carry out their current leadership roles successfully through demonstrating appropriate actions. They must also be able to continue to be effective in a changing world and to help other people to develop, for example, pupils, colleagues, parents and governors. Handy (1996: 5) writes of these responsibilities emphasising that ‘the task of the leader is to make sure that individuals and groups are competent to exercise the responsibility that is given to them’ but he goes on to point out the need for leaders to look to their own development, saying that ‘in the new organisations, titles and roles carry little weight until the leaders prove their competence. All authority has to be earned before it can be exercised.’
