Educational Leaders' Success, Motivation, and Performance in Higher Educational Institutions: Serving, Striving, and Surviving (3S) Phenomena

Introduction

Leadership is a form of influence, guide, and provide a sense of the tasks (Altun, 2017; Poturak et al., 2020; Toker, 2022). According to Toker (2020) “in higher education, leaders are those who have authority in different roles inside the university” (p.1). Toker (2022) cited Budur et al. (2008) as said “Higher education leaders are influencers who provide direction to achieve university goals and objectives” (Budur et al., 2008; Toker, 2022). Leaders in educational organizations have different titles resulted from the culture, structure, and administration of the organization (Owings & Kaplan, 2010). Regardless of the titles given to a leader, her or his goal is to serve and motivate followers. Perry (2010) said, “leadership requires not only insight into the dynamics of the culture but the motivation and skill to intervene in one’s own cultural process” (p. 286). Leaders who serve goals are to “sponsor, model, coach, and mentor other leaders at various levels in their organization” (Walker, 2017, p. 54). These goals can only be achieved with the leaders’ willingness to accept the responsibility to motivate and advance human good and value of the organization (Northouse, 2013). Leadership in schools has much in common with leadership in other institutions.

The effective functioning of institutions depends on educational leaders’ skills and competencies to make decisions (Marzano et al., 2005). Serving their administration comprises guiding others in the support of the mission and goals, maintaining effective and collaborative relationships with employees, and managing leadership and management principles and practices. This collaboration ensures that learners' opportunities and challenges are supported in accordance with the standards and regulations of the organization (Onorato, 2013). Educational leaders’ success is associated with how they inspire others or followers to “commit to a shared vision and goals for an organization or unit, challenging them to be innovative problem solvers, and developing followers’ leadership capacity via coaching, mentoring, and provision of both challenge and support” (Bass & Riggio, 2006, p. 4). Effective educational leaders have no single way to lead as their effectiveness strategy encapsulates activities beyond the boundaries of creating conditions of leadership. Educational leaders should strive to strengthen their own performance, which, in return, will improve students’ orientations to achieve at their optimum level (Berkovich, 2016).

Research has shown that educational leaders need high degrees of resilience be serve, strive, and survive in this educational landscape as their job involves a great deal of complexity, intensity emotional demands, challenges, accountability, and effective decision making (Early, 2020, Earley, & Weindling, 2007; Kellerman, 2012; Nicholas & West-Burnham, 2016). Educational leaders’ success and performance involves strategies, extending, employing, and providing motivation, emotional intelligence, and coercive tactics to enforce the rules and policies of the organization while serving, striving, and serving (Berkovich, 2016). These challenges and opportunities, however, give prominence to others self-awareness and sustainability. According to Nicholas and West-Burnham (2016), there are other dimensions to (leader) sustainability that we believe are being neglected – that is the personal aspects of well-being and wellness. This might be best understood as personal efficacy (i.e. the development of the whole person) – the recognition that leadership is more than an aggregation of technical skills and that it requires the engagement of all aspects of the person (pp. 203-204).