For Sober and Wilson (1998), altruism implies that people or leaders care about

others as an end in itself. Altruism is a selfless concern for the welfare of

others, which may be characteristic of various styles of leadership or leaders
who can be termed altruistic leaders. Despite its importance, very few studies
have thoroughly explored this dimension (e.g. Singh and Krishnan, 2008). Kanungo
and Conger (1993) consider that the high complexity of todays economy and
society call for a greater degree of interdependence (rather than
independence), more attention based on cooperation (rather than competition)
and greater organizational loyalty, moving away from individualism. To achieve
this, altruistic acts are required from people (and leaders) in organizations
and from organizations themselves, all of which seems a difficult goal in
traditional bureaucratic or hierarchical organizational contexts.
Every student has the potential to be a leader, and their teachers and
administrators have the responsibility to establish a school climate that nurtures
their growth as self-sufficient, engaged citizens, and to develop their leadership
skills.

Parma Middle School students present during a schoolwide assembly.

Social psychologist Martin Chemers defines leadership as "a process of social
influence in which a person can enlist the aid and support of others in the
accomplishment of a common task." Isn't that a skill we would like all our students
to have? When students have the opportunity to lead, they become architects of
their futures and change agents in their schools and communities.

Four themes emerged regarding the definition of altruistic

themes are as follows :

leadership. These

CHARACTER
Websters Dictionary (2000) defines character as the pattern of behaviour or moral
constitution found in an individual (p. 246). It comes down to your ideology, down
to your ethics, and down to your integrity because you stand before them. It also
related to the leaders philosophy or values, faith, and work ethic. A leader will
never embarrass anybody or talk negatively to somebody in front of other people or
their own teammates.

CARING
Websters Dictionary (2000) defines caring as to feel
liking (p. 221). A leader caring for individuals by
individual attention, and taking a parent mentality in
greater good emerged regarding altruistic leadership.
leadership also aligned with a lack of caring for others.
leadership where the focus was on meeting ones own
caring for others.

concern, interest, love, or

meeting needs, providing
addition to caring for the
The opposite of altruistic
The opposite was egoistic
individual goals instead of

EMPOWERMENT
Websters Dictionary (2000) defined empowerment as to give ability to or to
enable (p. 466). Altruistic leadership involves empowerment where the leaders
enable the teammates by teaching them a variety of lessons about building life
skills, striving for excellence, and maintaining a positive attitude. The opposite of
altruistic leadership also aligned with empowerment by not allowing independence
and presenting a negative attitude.

BALANCE
Websters Dictionary (2000) defines balance as a state of equality in amount,
value, or importance (p. 108). The importance of balance is experiences to be
altruistic leadership. The opposite of balance also emerged as an opposite of
altruistic leadership. Coach Kate described the overemphasis on athletics and
winning, and she believes in balance for her team