My Leadership Style
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My leadership style is categorized as a Statistical 5/5 by Blake and Mountons Leadership Grid. A Statistical 5/5 leadership style suggests that I lack a dominant style of leadership as well as any backup styles. When visually looking at the Blake and Mouton Leadership grid, I can be placed anywhere on it at any given time. My task versus relationship score can also significantly vary depending on an event. This fact implies that my leadership reaction is situational and dependent on the circumstances of a specific setting. Factors that may influence my leadership choices include the number of participants, the time given to prepare, the participants' attitudes, location, and familiarity with the specific situation. Being a 5/5 leader helps me feel more prepared by constantly planning for different environments and has also increased my confidence in my adaptability skills. Knowing that I can quickly alter a plan when unexpected events occur, dramatically decreases my stress levels and assists me in focusing on the most important part of a class, which is the well-being of my students.
My 5/5 leadership style is most evident within a dance classroom. I will run my classroom with slightly different values depending on the time of year (whether it is close to competition season or not). For example, during the beginning of the year (when competition is far away), I use my student's "start of the year motivation" as an advantage and make the class as enjoyable as possible. I often let my students contribute ideas to ensure they feel helpful and that their ideas contain value. Overall, I value my students more than production during this time of year. As my dancers and I approach competition season, pressures rise to produce multiple routines that best capture my student's growth thus far. My leadership style naturally becomes more strict, I do not take students' suggestions very often, and my performance expectations increase. Overall, I value production slightly more than people during this stressful time period each year.
My Leadership Idols
Briar Nolet
Briar Nolet has inspired me since I saw her on my favourite childhood TV show, The Next Step. Along with this, Briar was seen on the third season of World of Dance, where she competed individually against some of the best dance groups in the world. She is one of the most successful dancers of this decade and continues to spread her love of this art form by teaching master classes all over the globe. I have learned many teaching techniques from simply analyzing videos of her coaching. Briar is not only a dance educator but a dance competition judge as well. Due to her status in the dance world, she has been able to travel and judge dance competitions worldwide. She inspires me with how she gives constructive criticism to young, developing dancers. Through years of watching her judge, I have gathered that she takes a "corrections are gifts" approach to her teachings. This implies that she has a lot of knowledge about this art form, and every piece of criticism should be taken with appreciation rather than negativity. She prioritizes dancers' mental health by shining a positive light on constructive criticism and deepening dancers' love for this art form. From the knowledge I have gathered about this leader, I propose that she demonstrates a 5/5 leadership style. This is most obviously evident in how she can give honest criticism while also balancing a positive relationship with her students. I constantly strive to spark inspiration in my dancers as she does in hers.
Brian Foley
Brian Foley is one of Canada's most renowned dance teachers and choreographers. He has worked for and toured with many famous artists, judged dance competitions, and choreographed for a few well-known movies. In 1979, him and his wife (Fay Foley) developed a popular dance syllabus called ADAPT (Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers), in which I had the opportunity to get certified in last summer. I spent a week training with him and his wife directly, and it was an incredible experience filled with lots of learning and growth. From personal experience, Mr. Foley coaches every dancer the same, no matter their age or experience. He expects the same level of excellence from his junior dancer as he does his senior dancers. Mr Foley often demands perfection and always provides his dancers with the tools to reach this expectation. In his classroom, there is no excuse for a lack of effort or laziness; if a dancer demonstrates these attitudes, there are extensive consequences. Although these teaching techniques may seem harsh to non-dancers, this is the most common recipe to create successful dancers. Mr Foley is a leader who inspires me due to his strict and high expectations. My mentors have told me that I sometimes give unearned praise and let negative behaviour slide. my intention is to maintain a strong relationship with my students and create an overwhelmingly encouraging atmosphere; however, my production can sometimes suffer. More recently, I have been experimenting and modelling my teaching style after Mr. Foley and have seen immediate results. Considering all of my knowledge of Mr Foley, my hypothesis would suggest that he is a 9/1 leader who places a higher value on production than people.
Luke Springer
Luke Springer, better known as Mr. Luke online, is a passionate primary school educator from South Australia. He has gained a large platform of followers on social media from his overwhelmingly positive teaching style and personality. He strongly focuses on transforming his classroom into a healthy learning environment where children feel safe and valued. This is evident in the content he frequently posts on his social media. Luke continues to inspire early education teachers globally in his approach to learning. He uses a plethora of classroom management strategies to maintain structure in his classroom while also delivering fun and unpredictable lessons to keep his students engaged. As a viewer, you can feel his genuine love for each of his students, which he expresses is essential to being an educator. From my knowledge of Luke, I would argue that he demonstrates 9/9 leadership characteristics. He balances a deep concern for his students' enjoyment in school while also ensuring that all of his students meet the required learning outcomes. In other words, he equally values person and production on a large scale. I hope to model my future classroom atmosphere after Luke Springer and implement his teaching strategies to help students love for school flourish.