Abstract
Purpose. There is a need to know more about interpersonal leadership skills of educational leaders, such as directors of education. Directors of education are in a position that greatly impacts the organization. Leading faculties in a positive direction, in an effort to meet the needs of the institution and students, can be considered one of the greatest responsibilities in today's colleges. Research Question. The research question answered in this study was: How effective are directors of education who are directly responsible for faculties at seven private, proprietary, postsecondary colleges in California, as perceived by faculty members, in relation to: conflict resolution; developing faculty members through coaching, mentoring, and training; facilitating decision making among faculty members; collaborative vision setting with faculty members; communicating; facilitating change collaboratively with faculty members; and giving and receiving feedback. Methodology. Focus groups were held at seven private, proprietary, postsecondary college campuses across California. The population was comprised of faculty members who had worked at least one year with the director of education on the campus. The participants were asked questions regarding seven interpersonal skills. In addition, participants rated each of the seven interpersonal skills on a Likert scale from one to five, where five was the high positive. The researcher also rated each interpersonal skill for each director of education. The researcher compiled the participants' comments, participants' ratings, and the researcher's ratings. Once compiled, the data were analyzed to determine whether any themes or patterns emerged. The participants' comments and ratings were compared to ratings assigned by the researcher and examined for themes and patterns. Findings. This study found that the overall rank order of the DOEs from highest to lowest was consistent between participants and the researcher. The overall rank order for the seven interpersonal leadership skills varied slightly between the participants and the researcher. Conflict resolution was ranked highest. The middle rankings varied and included developing faculty, giving and receiving feedback (ranked third by both), communicating, and facilitating decision making. Facilitating change ranked sixth for both, and collaborative vision setting ranked seventh for both. Overall, all but one of the directors of education were mediocre or less than mediocre in relation to the seven interpersonal leadership skills.