Developing adaptability and agility in leadership amidst the COVID-19 crisis: experiences of mid-career school principals

Purpose – In an ever-changing and complex external environment, the importance for principals to be able to adapt and change while addressing challenges becomes critical. When these challenges arise as adaptive problems or challenges, leaders and their followers must use alternative approaches to problem-solving instead of known solutions to technical problems. The protracted nature of the COVID-19 pandemic over 2020–21 created a situation where principals in Victoria, Australia, had to rapidly engage in strengthening the internal integration of their schools while sustaining continuous strategic transformation facilitated by enhanced organisational agility. During the COVID-19 crisis in Victoria, Australia, the complexity of school leadership increased greatly for school principals. Emotionally intelligent leaders recognise, understand and respect their staff's needs, values and aspirations and build stronger, healthier, self-managed teams within their institutions. Principals with high levels of emotional intelligence create strong cooperative relationships and are effective in developing transformational change within their respective schools. Emotionally intelligent leaders understand their own emotions and that of others, enhancing their thinking processes and the effectiveness of their leadership practices. This study focused on the lived experiences of mid-career principals in the independent school sector from March to November 2020. It investigates these leaders’ transformative work in leading their schools over a protracted crisis.
Design/methodology/approach – The study builds on crisis leadership, adaptive leadership, agile leadership and emotional intelligence constructs, exploring the leadership approaches undertaken by twenty mid-career principals in Victoria, Australia. The main research question of this study is, “What kinds of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches were identified in mid-career school principals during the Covid-19 global pandemic?” Using a narrative inquiry approach, across three temporal points in 2020, storied productions drawn from the findings present four emergent types of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches undertaken by these principals. These leadership approaches are presented as the commander-leader, the conductor-leader, the gardener-leader and the engineer-leader, with each approach demonstrating both organisational leadership approaches as well as individual leadership styles used by these principals as they led their schools.
Evidence – The findings have direct implications for professional development programs focusing on continuing principals with emphasis on the importance of developing and sustaining emotionally intelligent skillsets in principals for use during periods of rapid change or high crisis in schools.
Educational Importance – These findings provide insights into the kinds of emotionally intelligent leadership approaches used by mid-career school principals with implications for making use of these findings in developing elements of emotion training in teacher and principal preparation and professional development programs. The findings present insight into the support useful for mid-career principals who have completed more than five years of principalship.
Perspectives – The invisible labour of school leadership must be recognised, and existing policies and systems strengthened to help mid-career leaders during a crisis and post-crisis as they lead their schools during adaptive and agile times because the leadership styles required across each of these periods of change are different.
Connections to conference theme – This study uses a unique emotional intelligence approach to understand school leadership during and after a crisis.
Keywords: Mid-Career principal, COVID-19, Crisis leadership, Adaptive leadership, Agile leadership, Emotional intelligence
Paper type: Research paper