In Search of Zorba: Are You Fit to Lead an Online Distance Education Organisation?

Abstract

Are you fit to lead an online distance learning organisation?  Within the context of the Zorba factor, this is the focus of this paper.  Ten key questions are presented for you to self-assess your leadership capacity in online learning.  The questions address your capacity to build trust, create a vision, accept the leadership deal, lead effective change, create the right team, delegate with autonomy, deploy technology as tools, step aside and allow others to assume leadership roles, make planning continuous rather than optional and build and nurture all of these under the core foundation of the search for Zorba – the human side of enterprise. The search for Zorba is about putting humanity back in leadership and refocusing and reframing leadership with humanistic values that empower and sustain organisation and its members. The Zorba Factor is the glue that binds the organisation, its members, partners and stakeholders and society together.  It gives the organisation and its members meaning and purpose.  In the final analysis, the search for Zorba is about finding the passion and humanity in each of us.