The father and son were walking just slightly ahead of me at the mall yesterday, the boy behind the dad by a couple of steps.  Although the dad was talking to him, he wasn’t looking at him, staying intent on getting to wherever he was going, the boy following obediently.  As we walked into a department store with racks of women’s clothing, the boy, like many boys would do, put one of his arms straight out and let it run through the racks of clothes.  It wasn’t making a lot of noise and the boy wasn’t doing it to be destructive, it was just your basic boy move.  Being a few steps behind him, I smiled, but as any mom would do, was prepared should he actually knock something off or over.  The father was oblivious because while he was in the lead, he was not leading his son.

My husband owns a shirt that says something like “if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.”  Is this the way we should view leadership?  We’re either leaders or we’re followers?  I would argue that the kind of leadership demonstrated by the father in the illustration above isn’t leadership at all, but rather an attitude.  More of a “I’m the important one in front and the rest of you have to follow me.”  I would argue that with real leadership, people aren’t behind you, they’re beside you.

We tend to have an almost militaristic view of leadership.  It’s the person leading the charge or giving orders and everyone else follows.  And that works for a while, but what if something happens to the leader?  What if a new leader takes their place?  Then the people following are either clueless at to how to continue by themselves or again blindly following someone else, perhaps not thinking for themselves or questioning the leadership.

There are a couple of things I believe good leaders should be able to do; delegate and trust people to do their jobs and spend time learning about people and listening to what they need to succeed.  Just because I believe this doesn’t mean I have necessarily been successful implementing them but I have watched others demonstrate these qualities and seen the very positive results.

I think one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in terms of leadership is not successfully helping those who are to follow in my position.  I felt I was diligent in passing on information and answering questions after the fact, but what I SHOULD have done was keep them beside me as I was doing the job, much more like a partner.  Everyone has their own leadership style, but if you’re struggling with understanding/following the strategic plan or learning the job description, you’re not really able to lead at the level you could if you were more prepared.  So instead of being that lead dog where the view only changes for you, how about bringing others along so they can see the view as well?

This is an obvious transition to teaching and student centered learning.  If I’m the only one doing the research for the information, the fount of knowledge, then I am again the lead dog while the others are just following, resulting in them not knowing what to do for themselves once the lead dog or teacher is no longer there.  We’re especially guilty of this in music education, where ensemble conductors make all the decisions, dictating to their students what they need to do and where general music teachers stand and talk about music history and theory.   Kind of goes back to the militaristic thing which explains band directors to a “T”. (Just kidding – I love band directors : ) This is not leadership, it is putting on a show for everyone to see just how good “your” groups or ensembles are.  Not the students who belong to the groups, just you.  No wonder a majority of students stop playing or singing after high school or, if we’re lucky, college.  The students have remained behind us and not beside us.

This summer I need to really consider how to adjust my leadership style to bring my students beside me as well as members of my board.  It means being prepared and being prepared to let go but always being available when needed.  It means allowing others to try things, encouraging them in both success and failure.  If making music is truly a collaborative effort let’s bring others beside us rather than leave them behind us.