Leading Teaching and Learning - Leadership Style

12th February

Leading Teaching and Learning - assessing my learning style.

During the session we were given the opportunity to think about which leadership style we were. Around the room were the 6 leadership styles:

• Coaching
• Pacesetting
• Democratic
• Affiliative
• Authoritative
• Coercive.

We were asked to stand by the one we thought best described our own leadership style. I went to Coaching.  I felt that I would lead a team by giving a "Try this" approach, to improve performance and give a positive impact. This style of leadership would also allow to see the development of the team, seeing if they had been effectively coached and reached the goals through this coaching.
This learning style helps the people who are being led to understand their strengths and in turn develop and achieve their long term goals. This would ensure that the members of the team would feel commitment and loyalty in their leader who has given them the responsibility and skills to perform a set task.

After a brief discussion we felt that there are limitations with this learning style however, in particular it can be very time consuming and if the team are resistant to change, it can be challenging to coach new methods. This can be a major problem in schools as a lot of staff have their own set way of doing things and can be resistant to change. If coaching becomes too controlled, it can become coercive and this may lead to a team which resents the leader and demotivation.


There was the chance to complete a leadership style questionnaire which would give an assessment of our leadership styles based on 5 questions. I felt that this questionnaire would still point to me having a coaching style of leadership. This however, was not the case.

The assessment gave the results that I was primarily a Democratic leader.  This does make sense as I would rather get a teams consensus and solve problems together rather than just impose my ideas on them. Involving people in decisions and strategies is a sure fire way to maintain motivation as everyone feels that they are working towards a common goal which they all have input into. This leadership style should lead to a positive impact on the team. This leadership style does lead to improved trust and respect within the team and teams feel valued.

The issue with this is that in times of stress a team may just want to be told what to do rather than have a discussion. This can lead to quicker solutions rather that deliberating a pressing issue.

When working in the department and leading a team on Boys underachievement, it will be crucial to use a range of the leadership styles, depending on the situation and the member of staff involved.