Abstract:

The Covid-19 pandemic has allowed us to experience the challenges that have arisen and realize that both the development of the organization and the ongoing processes require more and more flexibility and adaptation in today's uncertain times.

The pandemic has convincingly shown that for the successful implementation of the educational institution's goals, not only the manager's role as a manager is essential, but also the leadership of the teacher as the organizer and executor of the study process acquires particular importance.

The challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic revealed that the administration and lecturers of the General Jonas Žemaitis Lithuanian Military Academy (MAL) must share responsibility for the success of students' learning and that responsible leadership in changing times affects student achievements.
Educational leadership is directly related to improving the quality of education. Lecturer leadership is an individual development process and systemic communal development. The lecturer’s leadership is characterized by his influence on the thinking and behaviour of students and colleagues, the organization's culture, implementing changes and achieving common goals and performance results. A lecturer as a leader needs the ability to communicate, listen, be innovative, use digital technologies in a professional context and develop resilience to stress. A lecturer leader initiates change by thinking critically in times of uncertainty, improves himself and helps students improve, and encourages the community to adapt creatively to changes.

A survey was conducted to explore the attitudes of MAL student’s view to lecturers' leadership change in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 academic years. In order to reveal the differences in the attitudes of the research participants, a qualitative research method was chosen. Data from research quality assurance surveys were used for the study.

The study's results revealed the expression of the lecturer’s leadership abilities related to communication, orientation and creative adaptation to challenges, social influence and empathy.

Keywords:

COVID-19 pandemic, lecturer, leadership skills, influence, student’s attitude.