From November 20 to 22, 2016, leaders and teachers from different Yew Wah and Yew Chung schools around China met together at our Yantai campus to take part in a Leadership Conference conducted by Dr Jill Sperandio from Lehigh University, US. It was a very productive two and a half days that focused on the key issues and topics of educational leadership today and how it has continued to develop in this changing world.

Profiles of world renowned leaders were also studied and this included investigating their famous quotes on how they led others and the decisions they made, often under challenging circumstances. Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer and General Stanley McChrystal, a well-known US military leader were just a couple of the examples we looked at here to investigate their distinctive leadership styles and the way they related to people from various social and economic backgrounds. Of special interest to us was how they dealt with people who were obviously more skilled in certain areas than they were.

At the close of the session, we all gave a brief summary of a “small win” we gained from the conference and it was obvious that everyone appreciated the opportunity to share and compare while gaining valuable insight into current research about leadership practices. Special thanks must go to Dr Sperandio who kept up the momentum of a most worthwhile gathering of educators over several hours of presentations and discussions and of course, let’s not forget our Superintendent, Courtney Malone who spent many hours preparing this conference. Her promotion and setting up of this conference as well as her regular communication with staff from all over China and supportive role to Dr Sperandio were much appreciated by all of us. Let’s hope that we all will take what we have learnt to enhance the working environment around us!

Chris Danaher – Secondary Head of Academics