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A Teacher Strategic leader

N.D.JOSHI, Principal
KV IIT, Powai, Mumbai

I, being a teacher for last 36 years have come to a conclusion that
a good Teacher needs three competencies in order to excel in his
profession. Those are: Subject Knowledge, effective communication
and behavioural skills. I am convinced, a teacher equipped with the
above parameters would attain highest regard in the mind and heart of
the students and the stakeholders.
Now, the question is what is an impressive personality of a
teacher? I would say, the sacrifice a teacher practices for the students,
the attitude he possesses, the behaviour he projects and at last blending
of these virtues discovers among the students, that is indeed the
personality of the teacher. A quote from Sanskrit is referred to in this
regard:
,

Now, the second question would arise how to mould the
personality of a child and give it a fine tuning? My experience goes with
the understanding that our unblemished and continued efforts take us to
the top and thus such values need to be nurtured among the students
and in the process committing mistakes unknowingly should not be
allowed to demotivate us but to be taken as instrumental to improve
upon those mistakes. As very rightly Bhagwad Geeta says that every
person is a best friend of himself and the worst enemy as well. This
clarifies that our own acts and deeds earn accolades for us and in the
same fashion invite undesired troubles and enemies in and around the
environments. Quote from Bhagwad Geeta:
,

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As such a Teacher with preplanned strategies should enter the class
with the above facts in mind and translate them into realities in his
teaching and learning sessions.
To summarise, a teacher would first practice the below given traits in his
day-to-day life and thereby germinates their seeds in the mind and heart
of the children and ensures that the children become useful to society
and owe the responsibility towards national and international
community:-
1) Accepting given responsibilities with a smiling disposition and
considering it as professional elevation.
2) Showing considerations towards the need of every child who
directly/indirectly comes in contact and transmitting the values of
unity in diversity in his mind.
3) Always owing positive attitude and to start the work with win-win
feeling and the confidence for sailing through all the odds which
might come on the way.
4) Be always careful while choosing the words during
communications which very often earn either laurels or rejections.
5) To develop self-esteem to the level where one can easily
accommodate even worst criticism with a smile and never allows
himself to go to the mode of putting up complaint against critics.
I very humbly would like to refer the former Prime Minister, Shri
Atal Bihari Vajpayee in this regard, who during his long carrer in
public life for more than 50 years, accommodated all his critics so
well, that he carried their hearts in personal life and earned laurels
as well.
6) The teachers presence in the class must sprinkle the smile ,
happiness and kindness so as to receive the same reciprocation
from the learners in order to ensure effective learning.
7) Always interpret the spoken/unspoken words of the students in
positive sense and convey his approval/disapproval through untold
gesture/body language and provide wide scope to the child to
improve upon his/her own mistakes.
8) A teacher has to be a good listener in the class so as to carry out
corrections/modifications in turn in the behaviour of a child.

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9) A teacher is expected to be highly enthusiastic while dealing with
the students and to vibrate the same enthusiasm in and around the
class for better output and to post best results.
10) The teachers unparalleled trait to accept his own mistakes in the
class and move on with the sense of highest honour for the child
who brought out mistake to his knowledge
11) To impart skills to carry on with free and frank discussions in the
class but avoid indulging in argument as discussions open up the
closed minds whereas arguments generate heat, annoyment and
enemities.
12) Always be punctual in the class and maintain due respect for time
management and avoid gossiping which may lead zero output.
Time is precious and must be utilized effectively should be
directly conveyed to the students through selfconduct.
13) To ensure that all promises given to the students turn into
commitment and fulfilled in time bound manner.
14) Be grateful to the students for their good deeds, understanding
and for posting quality results and also give them full credit but
avoid accepting gratitude in turn.
15) To behave in a way which makes students to feel that the teacher
is cent-percent dependable and always practice loyalty to the
Institution, stakeholders and uppermost to the learners.
16) In case of having experienced distaste through the raw behaviour
of the students, a teacher should always avoid bearing grudges
and provide leverage to the child to correct himself through self
realization.
17) In the process of teaching subjects like Mathematics and
sciences when the students start struggling, get block in their
minds, a teacher should develop a sense of humour to convert
heaviness of the class into lighter one and provide an opportunity
to the children so as to make them to come on the main track.
18) To make learning more interesting, a teacher should shower the
best comments for the good work done by the students and
practice courtesies with all humility at his command.
19) On meeting with heated exchanges of words a teacher should
not be sarcastic and avoid putting others down, especially with
reference to the students.

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20) A teacher indeed should be a friend alike and always behave with
careful act and conduct which may provide a wide scope to the
child to realize his own mistakes and improve upon them.
21) A teacher is expected to be empathetic towards the needs of the
students as tongue to lips service of sympathy would serve no
meaning. To clarify in a more systematic way, I would say a good
teacher is one who stands on the feet of student, goes to his age
and thinks through his mind in order to meet his real requirements
in the class.
22) In fact, a teacher is like all season fruit who is easily and always
available to his students so as to solve their problems and bring
smiles on their faces.
23) Such teachers are gifted with vision, mission and devotion and
always ensure that the requirements of every child in a class is
met with in hassle-free way without expectations in return. Infact
the teacher would always emphasize in the class and advise the
students that they should refrain from three Ts, i.e. talk,
television and telephone. The trait of good teacher is that he
would always turn out to be smart in his actions and prudence.
Precisely to elaborate Smart word, leads to Specific,
Measurable,Achievable, Realistic and Time bound Executor. To
further elaborate, teacher itself indicates that he is;
Truthful,Enthusiastic,Accommodative,competitive,Honest,Effective
and Responsible.
24) A teacher is indeed a duty bound individual and considers his
duties at the highest place which can be read in hindi word as :
if we look at the meaning of the word, we elaborate it
as = duty, = highest = place. The teachers owing
such traits are equated with Trideva, i.e.Brahma, Vishnu and
Mahesha. The teachers comprising the above proficiencies
motivate the students and flow the current of enthusiasm in their
act and conduct enabling them to spread their scope of work and
achievements like Fire. Indeed the motivation given by the teacher
works like fuel in the life of student and it works through two types
of mode and can be defined as internal mode and external mode.
Under the internal mode, a sense of pride, a feeling of worthiness
and a sense of achievement, etc. can be categorized whereas

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under the external mode- good name, fame, earning, rewards,
awards, prizes, bonus, out of turn promotions, etc. can be placed.
The above kind of motivation would earn laurels not only to the
child but in turn motivate him to promote and build the society and
take care of everyone, especially to those who belong to the
downtrodden and marginalized class of society.
25) An enlightened teacher would further apprise and awaken a child
that the motivation exists among all people at the place of work
and can be segregated in 4 categories as given below:
a) Motivated effective-under this category, people having good
experience and gifted with excellence in work fall and lead the
Organization to its success.
b) Motivated ineffective- under the category, people having less
experience but are keen to grow faster need continued
guidance and motivation as they lack experience and prove to
be ineffective. The people of this category can be groomed by
a leader to convert them into motivated and effective ones.
c) Demotivated effective- Third group of employees who might
have earned effectiveness but due to lack of assertive
behaviour and conduct, turn out to be demotivated in the long
run and prove burdensome to the Organization.
d) Demotivated ineffective- Fourth category of people are such
who fall under the category owing to their ineffectiveness and
demotivations and continue to be in the same post throughout
and to cause irrepairable loss to the Organization.
26) There are though demotivating factors exists in the
organizations/offices/institutions which turn to be instrumental in
leading to demotivation among novice employees/entrants; such
as projection of disputed behaviour by the seniors.
27) Discussing ills of someone without judicious visions, public
humiliations for avoidable deficiencies, showering honours on
incompetent people , lack of correct directions/guidance,narrow
office politics , sharing responsibilities without power,frequent
failure in attempt with good intentions are some of the factors
which germinate/ inculcate a sense of demotivation in the mind
and heart of a child/employee, to which a leader should carefully
examine and ensure that his direct/indirect actions do not lead any

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of them as narrated above into the behaviour of people under his
command.

To summarise, I would say leaders actions should be like a magnet
which attracts all objects around it in the environment and makes
everyone to feel as part of team and stronger individual, thereby,
enables to give his best to the organization and society to the best of
his ability. Other way round, if a leader proves to be an autocratic
one, then all teammates get disintegrated and leave him alone to his
fate which results into failure of a leader.
In nutshell, a teacher can prove to be a charismatic leader and can
mould every child in his dream- team of excellence and derive their best
for individuals success and the success of nation as a whole. Thus, it is
concluded that a teacher is a Strategic Leader who is empowered to
shape the destiny of the nation in right earnest manner and mould the
personality of young-minds in a way by which they become worthy
citizen of tomorrow.