I was invited to give a lecture at the Leadership and Management Development Program (LMDP), a DLSU program consisting of seminars and workshops designed for administrators on educational leadership and management with a Lasallian perspective. The topic assigned to me was "Instructional Leadership." I have to confess that I am not an expert on this topic which is actually a major subject in Education. "Instructional Leadership" as defined is committed to the core business of teaching, learning and knowledge management. As I reflected on the assigned topic, I realized after several reading about St. John Baptist De La Salle, specifically the book, "De La Salle, CEO" by Napoleon Almonte, that the ideal model about instructional leadership is De La Salle. Hence, the focus of my lecture was about the 10 CEO leadership principles of De La Salle. But I did not just present Almonte's ideas, I tweaked the 10 principles to suit the millennial teachers (or present day teachers as I define it). Hence, my presentation presented the 10 original leadership principles by Almonte and my 10 tweaked principles as my original contribution. For each principle, I presented my reflections, anecdotes and stories and also quotations by De La Salle and also St. John Bosco (who is also a champion on educating children). I created a slide about Almonte's list (
Download Here) and I also wrote an article on "Tweaking De La Salle's 10 CEO Leadership Principles for the Millenial Teacher" (
Download here). As I confessed, I am not an expert on the topic of my lecture, hence I have only about 8 slides on "Instructional Leadership" but I presented 80 slides about Almonte's and my tweaked leadership principles with reflections and anecdotes. My presentation is more of a sharing of my journey as a Lasallian educator, former chair, graduate studies director, mentor, teacher and community service volunteer. My lecture was attended by about 27 participants which included the dean of student affairs, chairs of various departments, directors of the library, ITS and facilities management, school principal and administrators of Laguna campus. Even our GCOE dean attended. It was indeed a challenge for me when I did the LMDP lecture.
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| 26 Feb 2018 - the day of my LMDP Lecture at DLSU HSSH Roofdeck (Photo by Fr. Nelson Tantoco) |
What I want to present here are some reflections, anecdotes and quotes related to the leadership principles.
Leadership principle #1 says "Offer a Vision." My example of a leader at DLSU who offered a vision was Dr. Romeo Estanero, the first chair of the CE Dept. who revived the BSCE program at DLSU. His vision was a BSCE program with specializations and teachers with at least Master's degree. After 20 years, the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers and CHED introduced specializations in the general BSCE curriculum for all schools. Dr. Estanero summarizes his accomplishments in a blog that indeed his works was "a vision come true." (
Read more)
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| Dr. Romy Estanero offered a vision about the future BSCE curriculum |
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My tweaked leadership principle #4 says "Be an Example." My model of another Lasallian teacher who exemplified this principle is Engr. Fred Salazar of ME Dept. He was the "
glow in the dark" at DLSU on genuine community service. It was his selfless commitment and example that earned the DLSU College of Engineering various awards and recognition for the Micro-Hydro plant projects in Malibcong, Abra. I hope his legacy will continue by sustaining and supporting more programs on MHP expertise of the college.
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| Fred Salazar is a model and example for the faculty on genuine community service |
Leadership principle #9 says "Communicate" but my tweaked leadership principle #9 says "Connect." Recognizing the modern technology - internet, mobile phones, etc - communication becomes more efficient when you "connect." My example of effective communication is our CE Department's blog -
animociv. I created this blog in 2008 to directly communicate and announce in the virtual world the department's activities and accomplishments. The blog is our virtual diary and recorder which has become very useful when we write departmental reports. It has become a source of information by the DLSU QA Office and STRATCOM, the publisher of the the DLSU 2401 newsletter. The "ANIMOCIV" blog became our bridge to the world!
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| ANIMOCIV Blog of the CE Department |
My tweaked leadership principle #10 says "Consult and Recognize." My message here is that the young teachers must recognize the wisdom of the seasoned professors and must show their appreciation to them in various ways - like inviting them to be resource speakers or holding a forum in their name. I presented two Lasallian models of good leadership and management in the name of Dr. Manuel Belino (
former vice-dean of GCOE, former chair of ME Dept and Metro Bank Outstanding Teacher, now with FEU Tech) and Br. Benildo Feliciano, FSC (
the brother who was not appointed as DLSU Manila President by technicality - no PhD dgeree ) :-(
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| My two examples of exemplary school leaders and managers |
I would like to end this blog with quotations about teaching and about the teacher by De La Salle and Don Bosco.Indeed teaching and mentoring is a lifetime profession.
The LMDP lecture was very enriching for me as I was able to share my ideas, reflections and even examples of managing and surviving as an administrator and teacher at DLSU Manila. I just hope that the seed and "genes" that I planted in this lecture will bear fruit and propagate on the new generation of leaders and managers of DLSU. The invitation by Fr. Nelson Tantoco and the endorsement by the Chancellor, Dr. Robert Roleda are deeply appreciated. - 3 March 2018
