Academic-Capital

The transformational leader who is passionate about distance learning has an opportunity to be a part of a societal change process.   America and the global community are going through a paradigm shift in regards to public perception of distance learning.   Alone, one person cannot initiate and coordinate a national or global societal change, but individually, a transformational leader can establish a vision, create a passion, and develop a leadership plan.   As I reflect on my own personal leadership plan in the field of distance education, a three-step approach was taken.   Self-reflection, honest feedback, and continual learning were the components that I used in designing my personal leadership plan. Bennis, leadership author and guru, defined leadership as “ the capacity to create a compelling vision and translate it into action and sustain it ” (2003, p. 1).   Leadership can be learned.   If one has the desire to be a leader, one can be.   " Like John Kotter, Prof Be

Organizations seek to develop stronger levels of ethical business practices in order to limit negative employee behaviors that can damage public image, lessen investor confidence, and improve upon contractual relationships with stakeholders. The first step in developing an ethical organization is to hire an ethical leader. Through proper leadership modeling in moral courage and ethical behaviors employees develop standards that apply to their own behaviors.  Developing ethical organizations, and meeting the needs of people, requires strength of character (Hunter, 2003). It is difficult for leaders to deal with the multiple issues that often face them from competing interests. When leaders use an ethical value system they have an anchored value point that allows them to judge the validity of these competing interests.  Strong leaders should have an impetus to act with moral purpose.   Such conation requires moral courage, moral efficacy and psychological ownership over one’