Page 14 - Handbook_EN

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their roles and those of their teachers. They cannot abdicate their responsibilities nor take over
those of teachers.

But we must take care at the people who are in positions of leadership but who are not
providing leadership. A leader by its meaning is one who goes first and leads by example, so
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that others are motivated to follow him. This is a basic requirement.

In educational environment, we can find formal and informal leadership. Formal leadership

is when a person is officially designated as the leader of a group. We can find examples as a
teacher of the classroom, the head of school, the captain of a sporting team and the head of a
department. His job is to organize the available resources, to work out the logistics, to
coordinate and to motivate the members of the team to do their best of the abilities.

Informal Leadership appears when the person is not officially appointed as the head of a
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group. In the group the other members look to him and trust him, he motivates and inspire the

informal of formal group. Sometimes, as an informal leader there is colleague who, play this role
even if these leaders are not in a formal position of leadership, they are recognized as leaders by
their peers.

Formal leaders have authority and certain rights and privileges that informal leaders lack.
As a formal leader there is the power over the group and has the authority to discipline and
punish the group members. At the same time, a formal leader could give rewards to the group.

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Not all of these are possible for informal leader. That`s why he must prove charisma, he must
have an open communication, a shared vision, and he must be a team guide. The informal
leader led through example, individual behaviour and personality.

Sometime in schools we will find both formal and informal leader. These could be difficult to
manage because they could not share the same vision. The group has different expectations to

the two leaders. Team members tend to be loyal to the formal leader because his power and
authority and, on the other hand, they tend to be loyal to the informal leader because he is one
of them.
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The informal leader has a greater commitment to the group, while the formal leader’s
commitment relates to the organization. In any situation, it is important for the formal and
informal leaders to work together to make sure that the group achieves the best results. In

educational institutions, it is possible to appear such informal leaders that creates factions that
would bid for power over influence towards formal ones. Real conflicts between formal and
informal leaders arise when ineffective leadership is the cause of employee disengagement and
motivation loss. This is where informal leaders are fighting against formal policies since they are
powerful, and they have the sympathy of the team members. That`s why is necessary to take
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