Maura Foley

Leadership Philosophy
EAD 867

This course came at a time when I was just beginning my leadership journey.
As a teacher who was just finishing her second year, I had little experience being the
leader of a classroom, but enough time to understand how important it was that a
teacher act as a leader among students, parents, community members, and,
sometimes, even other teachers or administrators. When I started this course, my
definition of leadership was the ability to organize a group of people to achieve a
stated purpose and defined a follower as someone who listens to others and
agrees to let another take charge. While my thinking about leadership has evolved
over this short semester, those two points are still integral in my leadership
philosophy. However, while I focused on what leaders must do, I did not have a
sense of how those feats should be accomplished. By reading case studies, articles,
scholarly papers, and lectures throughout this course, my ideas of leadership have
been both supported and challenged.
Leadership, I believed when I began this course, was the ability to organize a
group around a stated goal. While true, leaders must consider much more. First, the
leader must understand how to form a group, and to do this, leaders must build and
maintain a level of trust among them and their followers. In fact, Lichenin (2003)
states that the first and most important step in building a cohesive and functional team is
the establishment of trust, because followers will only get behind someone they trust. As
a leader, I know that it is important that I say only what I know I will follow through
with. In the classroom, I do this by following through on commitments to students, but it
must go beyond the classroom by being purposeful (Komives, Lucas, and McMahon, pg.
80) in my actions and consistently showing others that I trust them, thereby earning trust
in return.
Aside from trust, leaders must recognize that without followers, they are not
leading. With that being said, "followers lead by choosing where to be led" (Hock, 2000),
meaning that if a leader does not inspire others to follow their vision and pull from the
collective conscience (Hollander and Offerman, 1997) of their followers, they will have a
hard time find a group of people who will choose to follow them. By drawing diverse
viewpoints and understanding that great leaders need great teams behind them, leaders
will empower their followers. This is probably where I currently struggle the most as a
leader. As a perfectionist, I often want to do everything myself, thereby limiting what I
delegate to others. In the same sense, I have a hard time asking for help because I want to
solve my own problems. However, the ability to ask for help and trust others enough to
ask for opinions is vital to leadership. Leaders must have "a willingness to be
accountable, rather than standing aloof as a distant power figure; otherwise, the sense of
leader-follower identity in a mutual effort can be severely undermined" (Hollander and
Offerman, 1997). As I continue my leadership journey, I need to work to put more trust
in others in order to build a group of followers.
Once leaders have a group of followers, they must create a goal to work towards.
In my early definition of leadership, I used the term stated goal to describe this process.
While I do believe that leaders must clearly state their purpose and constantly remind
their followers of this stated goal, simply having the leader see the importance of this
goal will not be enough. John Gardner says that great leaders are great teachers
(Pielstick, pg. 12), so leaders must constantly work to teach their followers why a goal
matters and strive to help their followers see the importance of that stated goal. Further,
leaders must ensure that the vision is inspired by their followers, making sure that all
members are "involved in defining, accepting, carrying out, and being accountable for
their part in the mission (Bugay, 2001). Ownership and authorship over the shared
vision and their part in that vision is essential to both leaders and followers. Further,
leaders must be willing to hear dissent and to share information with their followers.
Secrecy denies you the opportunity to get feedback (Kantter, 1999), and I believe that
involves secrecy by either the leader or the follower. Once leaders have established a
learning community where they have consensus, their organization will be productive
(Seifter, 2001).
In education, many teachers have built in followers in their students. Further,
these followers are sometimes forced into a specific class with a certain teacher, meaning
the students do not necessarily choose who to follow. However, as a music educator,
students elect to take my class, and by default, choose to, or not to, follow me. By
choosing my class, many students already have a sense of who I am, whether from older
siblings or friends in school. However, as a leader in my classroom, I work to empower
my students by remembering that it is a mutual learning process of leader learning about
the followers and followers learning about the leader (Vaill, 1997). In my classroom, I
work to be an open book, so to speak, in that I am honest and willing to share with my
students. Even in my limited experience, I see greater levels of trust and respect in classes
where I am willing to share both my achievements and my faults or uncertainties with my
students. Though I always keep relationships with students professional and slightly
separate from my personal life, selectively sharing information allows students to see me
as a person they can trust instead of just another teacher, and by default, students begin to
share more with me. As a leader, it is vital that my followers share their visions, goals,
and dreams with me so that I can work to lead us all towards them. Hock (2000) pushes
us to understand that in every moment of life, we are simultaneously leading and
following. With this in mind, it is important for me as a leader to allow and encourage
that mutual learning to take place.
In the beginning of this course, I stated that my favorite myth of leadership was
that someone had to have a title to be a leader, and this course has supported that idea.
Everyone is a leader of change in their own area of expertise (Fullan & Scott,
2009). As a teacher, it would be easy for me to say that it is not my job to be a leader,
inspire a shared vision, build trust, and support a group of followers. Many teachers do
choose to lay those responsibilities solely on their administrators, but I believe that
teachers are leaders. By this, I do not mean to say that some teachers play a part in
leadership. I mean that all teachers, everyday, must recognize that they are the leader of
their classroom. Additionally, they must work to encourage their students to take up
leadership roles while simultaneously teaching their administration, parents, and
community about their goals and help to pull them into the fold.
My definition of leadership and followership has evolved from a simple truth to a
complicated interaction among members of an organization. However, I have also
learned through this class that it is important that I stay open to new ideas about
leadership and to work to let my philosophy continue to evolve. As I get older and teach
longer, my beliefs will undoubtedly change. Additionally, as I move to new schools and
take on new classes with different students, my held beliefs will be challenged, which
will only cause problems if I am unwilling to face those challenges head on and be open
and willing to change.