by Jeremy LaCasse, Director, gcLi; Assistant Head and Teacher of History, Taft School in Watertown, CT
A new student walks through the front door on the first day of school. The bright August sunshine bathes the doorway, framing the student as they walk through– they appear a vision of innocence and potential. Within seconds, the harsh lights of the hallway change, showing a child wondering about how this experience will unfold. That child has some choices to make, some consciously, some unconsciously, many without the benefit of well-informed judgement. This student will follow teachers and peers, being led through the experience. They are the definition of a follower, with all of its connotations, limitations, and potential.
As a leader and a teacher of leadership, what do we need to understand about this person to help them best navigate this experience, helping them develop the capacity and understanding to be a leader, to be a capable member of the group, and to be the person they and we hope they will be? The first thing we need to understand is that followership is ultimately a choice and it is based in trust. A follower consciously or unconsciously chooses to follow because they believe the leader will care for them and help them achieve their and the group’s goals.
A child is unlikely to describe what they are doing in this way. Most people work a lifetime to develop the self and situational awareness to understand in a metacognitive sense the choice we make to follow. All people often have visions clouded by normal human realities. For example, “I need to do this because other people–parents, friends, teachers–expect me to do it.” People often are caught up in the expectations of other people, or their perceptions of other people’s expectations, to allow themselves the space to decide for themselves. People are also motivated by material and circumstantial factors. People desire predictability and consistency and may choose to follow a leader that promises to maintain the status quo, even if that isn’t what is needed by the group or the individual.
Our work of both being leaders and teaching leadership is to understand that a follower is going to face our moment with interest, ambivalence and reticence, often all at the same time. Going back to our new student, this person is in a new environment, learning much– in part because of the intentionality of educators and in part because of the reality of the circumstances. For the teacher, the challenge is to build an intentional experience for the student, engendering their trust to do the difficult work of learning. We all can think of circumstances where the teacher has lost the trust of the student. Sometimes those moments are about a miscalculation by the teacher, about an unforeseen circumstance, or about the child’s decision to reject the learning objectives outlined by the teacher.
Learning is inherently difficult. A person is building new and functional pathways in their brain. People prefer to use already established pathways as they are more efficient, allowing comfort over development. Teachers, in challenging students, often disappoint students in that the student hopes for things to be easier because of the efforts of the teacher. In much the same way, a group member may feel the same way about a leader. That disappointment is a key part of the ambivalence followers feel toward being led.
The leader and teacher have some control over this. Namely, a leader can outline the tasks and challenges in a way that the follower understands and can engage in the work. In the words of Ron Heifetz, the leader is “modulating the provocation.” The teacher and leader can then function in consistent and predictable ways of both holding the follower accountable and supporting them in the learning. In these instances, the follower learns, gains confidence, and sees the teacher and leader as trustworthy and committed to the good of the individual and the group.
As an alternative, a leader and teacher who are unclear, inconsistent in their support and practice, and regularly disappoint a follower and the group by failing to live up to shared expectations and shared work will both disappoint the group and erode the trust so essential to the successful learning of the individuals and the group. The examples of leaders who have promised extraordinary things to followers are long and usually filled by examples of self-serving, inconsistent, and abusive behavior.
Helping ourselves and our new student understand the functionality and expectations of trust between a leader and the follower is key to creating both a good experience for the followers and the group and creating an environment where leaders are appropriately held accountable for the impact of their actions, inactions, failures, and successes on the group. A leader who is ethical, cares about their followers, does all that a person can do to help the group navigate the challenges the leader lays out for the group still may fail and the followers may still revolt against that leader, disappointed for any number of reasons.
Still, this kind of disappointment is different from the type that results from a leader who acts in a manner that fractures the trust between the leader and the led. We, teachers of leadership and leaders, can understand the things that will fracture the trust between the leader and the followers. First, the leader functions primarily from a position of self-interest and authority. Second, the leader behaves in erratic and irrational ways, particularly changing the expectations and practices of the group without input. Third, the leader is opaque and limits information shared with the followers. While leading a highly functional group lacks a formula and requires a self and situationally aware person who cares deeply about the group, a leader can follow this very simple formula for limiting the potential learning of the group, its ability to solve novel problems, and trust in the leader and the leader’s vision.
As teachers and leaders, we have an obligation to create communities founded in trust, whether in our classrooms or in our school communities. As we do the work of educating the next generation of leaders, let’s put trust at the forefront of our work, helping our students be aware of the choices they are making of who to trust and why they are extending that precious currency in any given situation. The success of great groups is no secret: it is trust.
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Jeremy LaCasse, Director of gcLi, is also currently Assistant Head of School for Student Life at the Taft School. LaCasse held the Shotwell Chair for Leadership and Character Development at Berkshire School. He also directed the Ritt Kellogg Mountain Program; served as Dean of the sixth and fourth forms; taught European history and Medieval history; and coached the ski and crew programs. Following his time at Berkshire, he served as the Dean of Students at Fountain Valley School of Colorado, and following FVS, he was the Head of senior school at Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh, PA; the Head of Kents Hill School in Kents Hill, ME; and the Assistant Head of School at Cheshire Academy, in Cheshire, CT. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and earned an M.A. in private school leadership from the Klingenstein Center, Teachers College at Columbia University.