Running Head: INTERVIEW OF A LEADER 1

Interview of a Leader

Shelly Treleaven

ECC 509: Preparation for Professional Growth

City University of Seattle in Canada

M. Ed. in Leadership
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Our school has been blessed with some dynamic and quality leadership, so I chose to

interview three of these people. The principal is currently away on a medical leave, but as she

was my original mentor she expressed an interest in being interviewed; the acting principal is

new to our school, but has been on an administration team for some time and provided a fresh

perspective; and the vice-principal, who has been in her position for just a year, was able to offer

a new administrator’s perspective. Having an opportunity to talk with all three allowed me to

discuss their views on leadership philosophies and administration styles and to see if there were

similarities between these leaders.

My first interview was with my principal that is currently away from the school on a

medical leave (R. Irvine, personal communication, October 19, 2017). She is sorely missed, due

in large part, to the relationships that she has developed over her time at the school. She was my

principal when I was a student teacher and also when I was just starting out as a rookie teacher.

She was always approachable and graciously shared her knowledge. As she always had done,

we started the conversation with talk of what was happening in our lives away from school and

then to how the school year had been going. She exemplified the practice of ‘encourage the

heart’ that Kouzes and Posner (2012) discussed in The Leadership Challenge, which means she

offered recognition and expressed authentic enthusiasm and care for me. When posed with the

question what was the most important quality that a leader needed to have, without hesitation her

response was the ability to build relationships. She went on to indicate that the most important

part of a leader’s job was to be connected to the people that you are leading. Her perspective on

challenges was that they offered opportunity for growth and no matter how daunting the concern,

it is how you approach it that would define whether something was a positive or negative

experience. Her role in the school, in my opinion, was to take care of the business side of
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education, support the staff, and to inspire others to be better each day. In the book, The Ideal

Team Player (Lencioni, 2016) it indicated that having people smarts, hunger to achieve, and

being humble were the attributes necessary for an effective team player and this leader worked to

coach all staff in these areas if growth was needed. We all knew she had high expectations of the

staff, but using the skills of humble, hungry, and smart (Lencioni, p. 157-161) she inspired

everyone to achieve.

Our acting principal has brought with him a fresh perspective of leadership (D. Ratzlaff,

personal communication, November 14, 2017). Before talking with him specifically about

leadership, I had an issue where I needed assistance from our administrative team. He came to

provide support, but the message I received was not ‘I’ll take care of this,’ but rather ‘how do

you want me to assist?’ His focus was on how to give me the skills, knowledge or support to

control the situation. Fullan stated “capacity is often the missing element” (p. 55) and my new

principal’s focus was to develop my skills. When we finally had a chance to talk about

leadership he indicated that the people in the building were the key and that relationships and

communication were the essential elements to effective leadership. He also shared that

perception of situations or experiences was a challenge. He shared a example of a disciplinary

action that happened, where the general staff perception of the outcome and the reality of the

situation were significantly different and that this misconception created doubt in the actions of

the administrative team. Fortunately there was one teacher present that saw what had happened

and also heard how it was being perceived and was shocked at the difference. It was using this

example that he expressed the importance of communication. He also implied that through

building a staffs capacity in leadership through including them in a variety of experiences many

misconceptions or negative perceptions can be avoided. His role in the school is undoubtedly
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challenging as he is filling in for a much loved leader. He stepped into a culture that is already

developed and recognized that making changes immediately would be difficult. He started the

year working on connecting and building trust with the staff through fun activities and placing

himself in a state of vulnerability as was a strategy encouraged by Lencioni in his book The Five

Dysfunctions of a Team (2002). He has focused on the team and on developing our capacity as

individuals along with building trusted relationships.

The newest administrator of the three was my last conversation (M. McWhinnie, personal

communication, November 20, 2017). She indicates that there were a number of challenges with

rising to become administrator within the same school as she taught, but generally it has been a

great experience. She indicated that building strong working relationships with all members of

the team was especially important if one expects them to share in the vision. Her strongest area

of leadership is the ‘enable others to act’ practice that Kouzes and Posner (2012) discussed in

The Leadership Challenge by “focusing on serving the needs of others” (p. 22). Previously she

was a technology coach and her methods were always to demonstrate or model a lesson or skill

for both students and teachers in order to build their ability to use the tools. In this way, she also

developed a person’s capacity to be successful independently.

What these three leaders have demonstrated to me is that one person alone is not a leader.

They may have great ideas, be an innovator, or visionary, but in order to be a leader one needs a

team or group of people willing to do more that just listen. Through the building of trust and

connections, these great individuals have become great leaders.

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References

Fullan, M., Cuttress, C., & Kilcher, A. (2005). 8 FORCES for LEADERS of CHANGE. Journal

of Staff Development, 26(4), 54.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary

things happen in organizations, 5th edition (5th ed.) Jossey-Bass.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. San Francisco, CA:

Jossey-Bass.

Lencioni, P. M. (2016). Ideal team player: How to recognize and cultivate the three essential

virtues: A leadership fable. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.