LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW: An exploration on leadership style

[This article was revised and edited on 2nd May, 2018]

I interviewed my Head of School who also has the dual roles of Counselling Course Co-ordinator and tutor, over a coffee. The educational environment is very complex due to the many interconnected layers, and the dynamic ebb and flow of students undergoing significant change as they learn.  This environment is an intermingling of academic and experiential learning with students at varying stages of growth.

I added an extra question to my questionnaire about what supported this leader to do his job well, as I feel this is very important. I admire his ability to hold what can be challenging situations, in a way that is gentle, calm, and measured, as well as his ability to laugh and hold himself lightly. 

Q:  What has been your trajectory to the position you now hold?

A:  I was in a clinical position in youth mental health and my focus was on clinical work. I had no intention of becoming a leader and didn’t really think it was something that would suit me. There was a restructuring of the sector and I became a Team Leader overseeing the youth mental health workers and the children’s sector. This was my first leadership position and I was there for 4 years. Another restructure meant I became a Service Manager overseeing both the youth mental health and the alcohol and drug sectors, among others. It was a 7 day a week service. I was also involved with developing programmes with the DHB. I came to the College from there after being approached about the position. I don’t have a teaching background so it’s been a big learning curve.

Q: What is your philosophy about leadership?

A: My main focus is on the staff as well as the students. It’s about empowering others to make their own decisions, but I’ll make the call if I need to. I like to get alongside people. Team culture is important and keeping the fun and learning in there, so people are being enriched in their job. It’s about passion and desire, and having a “good fit” for the role and the team. I like to check in and collaborate, but I also have to retain the responsibility. Perhaps the word is perspectivism. And it’s important to me to be real.

Q: Do you have a role model of ‘great leadership’?

A: It’s a conglomerate really. My Grandfather is the first person I think of. I’ve internalised his personal attributes. Then my clinical supervisor who taught me about boundaries and professional relationships. And my clinical manager who taught me the importance of self-care and about being genuine.

Q: What are your greatest challenges in this role?

A: The teaching part! Learning the tutor role has been difficult.  Also, managing my resources and balancing the roles of tutor, Course Co-ordinator and Head of School while putting the students first. It’s a case of dual roles and relationships. Also keeping the connection with part-time staff strong. Oh, and I also need to fit some research in there…

Q: What about your greatest rewards in this position?

A: It’s the opportunity to carry the torch of psychotherapeutic knowledge and culture in a very unique environment. And being around like-minded people.

Q: What supports you to do your job well?

The people. A positive team culture, and a supportive senior manager. He empowers me. We’re similar people and he's very understanding. It’s the understanding environment, and a sense of freedom too. This job offers a different level of intensity from my previous employment. A crisis isn’t about life and death here. It helps me to recognise the level of risk within this framework. And this job aligns with my own personal values. 

This leader demonstrates a mixture of the leadership types across the three styles of leadership below: Transformative, Distributed, and Instructional. The traits observed through the interview, and my experience of working alongside him, are highlighted.

Characteristics of Transformative, Distributed, and Instructional Leadership

Transformative Leadership is about the . . .	Distributed Leadership is about the . . .	Instructional Leadership is about . . .
· Belief that leadership can occur at all levels by any individual · Sense of responsibility for growing and developing new leaders (known as individualized consideration) · The belief that inspiring others to accomplish more than they thought possible—through support, mentoring, coaching, and serving as role models (known as idealized influence) · Development of relationships that are interdependent so people are responsible to each other · Empowerment of others by aligning the goals and objectives of leaders, followers, and the organization · Motivation and involvement through good communication, meaningful challenges, encouragement of creative solutions, and a team spirit (known as inspirational motivation) · Respect for diversity and value of individual differences	· Interactions among individuals vs. independence of one leader; collegiality · Shared practices and responsibilities that rest with multiple formal and informal leaders · Reciprocal and interdependent nature of coordinated and collaborative interactions among a network of leaders, followers, and situations · Focus on the practices of leading vs. the roles or responsibilities of individuals · Routines, tools, and structures that define and/or are defined by the practices of leaders for different settings, situations, or purposes vs. fixed routines or structures · Understanding that expertise is distributed across many people in a school, not just a few · Understanding that distributed leadership requires a systems-thinking approach	· Envisioning ways teachers and the school can best work together to increase student learning · Believing that student learning is contingent on what teachers and leaders accomplish, or do not accomplish, together through shared leadership · Understanding the need for dialogue and listening to both student and teacher voices · Collaborating to establish a vision and clear objectives for teaching and learning · Wanting to be an agent of change · Using classroom observations and PD to focus on increasing student learning · Using assessments to evaluate the success of everyone’s efforts · Creating a strong academic learning culture, high expectations for students, and an environment where teachers and students view errors as learning opportunities · Maintaining a school environment that is conducive to learning and free of disruptions

Levin, B. B., & Schrum, L. (2017). Every Teacher a Leader: Developing the Needed Dispositions, Knowledge, and Skills for Teacher Leadership.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

It seems challenging to try and label a leader as having a particular style of leadership, as most people don’t tend to fit neatly into boxes, as much as we would like them to.  In exploring leadership a little more, especially in terms of leadership in complex environments, I looked at Keith Morrison’s “School Leadership and Complexity Theory”. Morrison stresses the importance of the “self-organisation” of the school system, and this is done through the interaction of a number of elements, one of which is particularly pertinent to our educational context: the need to develop a person-centred school (Morrison, 2002). Because our counselling degree has a foundational base of Person-Centred Theory, this principle is of significant importance as the leadership is then modelled, to staff and students alike, what is being taught. This point is reflected in the leader’s comment that his main focus “is on the staff as well as the students”.

According to Morrison's leadership and complexity theory, organisations that move towards greater complexity and emergent higher order, tend to be self-organised, humanistic, open and evolving (Morrison, 2002). These systems offer empowerment, have distributed leadership and are relationship driven. It is a rich environment with high-order creative thinking and offers informative feedback. All these qualities are properties that are taught in the process of counsellor training.

Furthermore, Davis’ “Spinning Innovation Leadership Model” also presents a model of dynamic educational leadership that promotes a number of processes which are underpinned by authentic relationships and motivated by inquiry-based practice (Davis, 2018). The processes include shared vision and values, trust in people and process, and freedom to innovate with collective responsibility. These processes, and the authentic relationships (or what we would call congruency) are also fundamental aspects of the counselling school.  While I would also include future-focused expectations, this is a subjective process. Davis’ model views future-focused expectations in terms of digital technology implementation, whereas at our college it would be more towards deeper relational training techniques for an ever-increasing depersonalised society.

In conclusion, I feel the leader I interviewed demonstrates most of the emergent higher-order properties as outlined by Morrison. Many of these properties are part of the counsellor training, which has a focus on encouraging students to move towards self-actualisation. I enjoyed the interview and getting to understand more deeply how he ‘leads’ our team and the college. 

References

Davis, N. (2018). Digital technologies and change in education: The Arena framework. 
      New York: Routledge.

Levin, B. B., & Schrum, L. (2017). Every Teacher a Leader: Developing the Needed 
      Dispositions, Knowledge, and Skills for Teacher Leadership.  Thousand Oaks, CA: 
      Corwin Press.

Morrison, K. (2002). School leadership and complexity theory. New York: Routledge

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