Leadership Theory and Event Planning

PME 803 - Organizational Leadership

Term Paper

James Waller

20142748

Queens University
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PME 803
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Introduction

Leadership theory has always seemed like an abstract concept to me. A way of

compartmentalizing or defining styles and approaches of others in order to assess their varying

degrees of success or struggle in relation to their practice as leaders. The learning I’ve done in

this course, PME 803 - Organizational Leadership, happened to coincide with one of the largest

leadership challenges of my entire career. The focus of this paper is to recount a case study, in

which I was made chairman of an event planning committee with very little prior notice, my

struggles with that role, and how the leadership theory I learned throughout this course has

allowed me to analyze, reflect on, and perhaps even come to an understanding of how to improve

in the future by incorporating leadership theory. I now have tangible ways in which this can be

applied to my experiences in leadership, my increasing responsibilities in the field at work, and

my life in general.

In order to do this effectively I’ve broken the paper into three main sections: Examining

specific aspects of leadership theory that are relevant, an in-depth recount of the case study itself,

and then a reflection of how these two things meet and inform my decision making in terms of

leadership styles and approaches going forward. The first place I need to start is with leadership

theory itself to put my case study and subsequent reflections in context.

Leadership Theory

In order to address leadership theory and how it could have been applied to my case

study, first I would like to take a look at a few different approaches to gain a better

understanding of how they work, and then how they could potentially have helped in my case
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study should I have had this knowledge at the time. The first two approaches are adaptive

leadership and situational leadership. In some ways these approaches could be used

harmoniously, and in others they may be contradictory. Starting with adaptive leadership, it is

described as, “the behavior of and the actions undertaken by leaders to encourage others to

address and resolve changes that are central to their lives” (Northouse, 2019, p. 258). An

example of this is the case study of Rudy Giuliani, where we see that authority is seen as

effective when they provide their presence, their empathy, and an ability to calm us down, which

is what his approach was after the events of 9/11 (TEDx Talks, 2011). Adaptive work comes

from change to a personal belief system. To ask someone to adapt to a new reality is asking that

person to give up something important to them. This distribution of loss is something that needs

to be managed by an adaptive leader (TEDx Talks, 2011). This sentiment is reinforced by the

statement, "The leader may act as a resource and provide support, but the people need to do the

work-- they need to learn to change and adapt" (Northouse, 2016, p. 262).

An example of this is in the Barack Obama 2020 presidential memoir, A Promised Land.

In Obama’s quest to reform health care he would reflect on going so far as to attempt to work

with Mitch McConnell who he describes as, “lacking in charisma or interest in policy he more

than made up for it in discipline, shrewdness and shamelessness — all of which he employed in

the single-minded and dispassionate pursuit of power” (Obama, 2020, p.468), unlike the younger

generation who Obama describes as using a “sharper ideological edge that had come to

characterize the House of Representatives after the Gingrich era” (p.468). These old school

Republicans required an adaptive leadership approach to help them come around to the idea of

fundamental change to the healthcare system. This approach to developing real change in the
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firm stances of Republicans in both the house and senate is no more apparent than in what many

consider the biggest policy achievement of his presidency - the ACA or Affordable Care Act

healthcare law and was possible because of his adaptive leadership style.

Situational leadership, as outlined in the Blanchard video, views the leader as having a

different responsibility. In this approach, leadership is a partnership between the leader and

followers (SetonaHill, 2012). This leadership approach is much more about understanding the

needs of the followers, and providing them the tools and support they need to reach mutual goals

to benefit an organization. Another way the Blanchard video describes this is as servant

leadership, where the leader needs to ask the question, "What do I need to do to help you get the

job done?" (SetonaHill, 2012). This appears to be a contrasting approach to the previous

analysis of adaptive leadership, as we are not asking the followers to change their belief systems

to reach the goal, rather, we are asking what we as the leaders can change to accommodate their

needs.

As my case study will go on to show, there are constraints in the achievement of any

goal - time, budget, personel, that need to be accommodated for organizational change to happen.

This is why I think the two approaches do have something of a harmony. To be effective, I

would need to both change my approach to leadership in order to better achieve a goal, while

also asking members of my team to change things that could be considered core values of theirs,

something I learned too late to accomplish effectively.

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The last part of leadership theory I would like to describe focuses on inclusion in terms of

gender and culture, as this would go on to play a major role in a problem I would encounter in

my event planning. In the Kenny & Fraser piece there is a passage about how much feminism

has influenced indigenous leadership, yet how it is something that is purposefully given a

backseat in writing so as not to distract from issues in indigenous populations that are being

impacted by the effects of colonization. They write, "They did not want feminist ideas to water

down social action to mediate the negative effects of colonization" (Kenny & Fraser, 2012, p.

10). I would go on to encounter a similar argument surrounding the focus of the keynote speaker

I chose to book for our school professional development event. I found the readings in this

section particularly helpful, as it allowed me to understand the merits of the opposing view to

something I had initially viewed as uncontroversial.

One aspect of a particular model of indigenous leadership helps me bring into focus this

need to consider the opposing view more critically. It's called the Two Eyed Seeing Model of

leadership. It is described as, "In Marshall’s words, Two-Eyed Seeing is: 'To see from one eye

with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and to see from the other eye with the

strengths of Western ways of knowing, and to use both of these eyes together” (Peltier, 2018).

This model of indigenous leadership asks the leader to view decisions as both an Indigenous

person as well as a Western one, taking into account the existing history, biases, and potential

conflicts that leadership decisions may have.

Given the tumultuous relationship between the political left and right in the current

western world, this Two Eyed Seeing model would be incredibly valuable for me as a leader in
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my reflections on a conflict which I did not do a particularly good job of resolving. If this model

has helped accommodate cooperation between indigenous and western leaders, who are worlds

apart in life experiences, influences and goals, I think this framework could be adapted to

approach a collaborative effort to bring at the very least, educators whose views vary from the

political right and left together on some issues, or at least provide a chance for understanding

instead of causing division and disagreement. With these approaches to leadership better

explored, we can move onto the case study itself and see how the opportunities for these

leadership approaches presented themselves to me.

Case Study

My case study is a very recent (ongoing) personal example that includes aspects of

planning, delegating, decision making and finally, conflict resolution. My organization has

roughly 100 members of the teaching, support and admin staff. Once every year we host a

professional development event. This is a full day event with an opening keynote, several guest

speakers, teacher presentations and a catered coffee break and a catered lunch. In my role as ICT

Educational Specialist, I have helped to book a presenter or two in the past, and I’ve also

presented several times myself. This year I was named as the chairman of the PD day planning

committee, which basically makes me ultimately responsible for all of those key pieces which

ended up being 40 sessions in total.

I was not tasked with doing this alone, I was given a team, which is where the leadership

aspects come into play. My team was made of full-time teaching staff (I have a part time

teaching schedule since I also have responsibilities in the technology department). This
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essentially positioned me as the leader for the event planning, with a number of other teachers, 5

to be exact, with whom I would need to collaborate and even delegate tasks to. I would be the go

between with the Head of School in order to secure funding, but ultimately the decision making

was up to us.

The first thing for me to do was arrange a committee meeting (we are currently doing all

staff meetings virtually, so I set up a Google Meet through my calendar). In the first meeting we

were going to split up the workload and set a timetable for the day. This turned out to be easier

said than done. As the chairman, I led the meeting. I had a template for the day set up , but right

away there were issues the other members had with it. Someone felt there should be more

sessions in the morning rather than in the afternoon, as most people are more focused at this

time. Someone else felt there weren’t enough break times between sessions. We made these

alterations and moved on to booking speakers.

This is where delegation came into play. I wish I could go back and start over on my

approach to this. I asked for volunteers, instead of delegating topics and teachers who would be

responsible for them. This led to each teacher saying they would find something in their area of

interest (PE, classroom management, social justice, english as a second language, IES). This

didn’t account for: the opening keynote, the closing session of the day, the technology

presentations or the outdoor education session, the catering and the logistics of scheduling it all.

The remaining tasks I foolishly said I would take care of, not wanting to burden busy teachers.
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The next instance in which I realized I had made a terrible mistake of leadership was

when I started searching for a keynote speaker. I had no idea where to begin or how to narrow

down my search! There are public speaker bureaus, and some of them have sections for speakers

in education so that’s where I started. After sending inquiries to too many bureaus to count, I

only had one write back and say they were willing to work with me. Their first suggestion was

Sugata Mitra, the educational guru famous for his Hole in the Wall project. His one hour virtual

keynote was quoted at $8000! I said that was out of our budget and they sent me back Graham

Norton Brown, an educational futurist who was charging $4000 US dollars. A steal, I thought,

after my initial inquiry. I brought his proposal to the Head of School who loved the content, but

wanted us to get an educational discount of half the price. This was non-negotiable with the

bureau, so my only fruitful lead was gone.

I went back and asked the other teachers to reach out to their guests and see if one of

them could do a keynote, but only 1 had an option. I was running out of time with the Chinese

New Year holiday fast approaching, and I knew this was about to be a working holiday for me

since I hadn’t secured an opening keynote or delegated the task to anyone else. I usually like to

leave work at the office on major holidays so I can spend more time with my family, but this

year was going to have to be a split of my attention which I believe is a direct result of my failure

to delegate important tasks.

After finding what I thought was a very solid keynote speaker over my CNY holiday in

Dr. Randa Abdel Fattah, a sociologist, author, lawyer and educator who specializes in changing

social justice from a buzzword to actionable practice in the classroom, I felt a little better about
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my situation. This, surprisingly, caused a conflict at work. After seeing the keynote event

description, a colleague reached out to me, unaware that I had made the decision to book her, and

expressed displeasure in the fact we were using the term “social justice” in the school. He went

on to explain his view and disdain for what he calls “identity politics” and how he felt we may be

doing more harm than good by bringing in someone who is heavily influenced on her

experiences with Islamophobia.

This was not a conflict I expected after finally settling the keynote issue, and as a result I

became defensive in my responses to him. Instead of allowing myself to think critically about

what may be behind his fears or lack of comfort with a focus on feminism, religious inclusion

and actionable social justice, I proceeded to tell him why he was wrong, and why that kind of

thinking is why a keynote speaker in this discipline is needed. Since that combative,

uncomfortable conflict with my colleague, I have been reflecting on leadership approaches,

inclusion, and critical thinking. I will use my reflection portion of this paper to explain how

leadership theory has helped me understand this case a little bit more, and how I believe I can

apply this learning to similar situations in the future in the areas of delegation, collaboration and

conflict resolution.

Reflection

The first leadership mistake I made was a result of my lack of clear delegation of

responsibility and attempt at being accommodating by taking on more responsibilities than I

could handle on top of my own busy work schedule. In reviewing leadership approaches, I think

my readings on Path-Goal theory could have really helped me plan in advance for the possibility
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that without clear delegation, I would be left in a difficult situation that didn’t bend towards

success. In the Path-Goal theory, “Leaders should adapt their styles to the situation or to the

motivational needs of their followers” (Northouse,2019, p.106).

I think this would pair well with the situational leadership approach which was described

in the leadership theory section of this paper. If I had recognized in advance the scope of the

workload that was needed and the necessity that more of it be delegated, I could have delegated

more tasks and instead of doing it all myself, worked to provide the support and tools my team

members needed to reach our mutual goal. This is an approach that needs to be balanced with

their needs, as without this element it can bend toward authority complaince style leadership,

which Northouse teaches us, "places heavy emphasis on task and job requirements and less

emphasis on people, except to the extent that people are tools for getting the job done", and

leaves us with a leader who is, "controlling, demanding, hard-driving, and overpowering" (p.

77). This is why a situational approach in which I were not to “…focus exclusively on goals but

uses supportive behaviours that bring out followers’ skills around the goal to be accomplished”

(p.168), would be the best way for me to get the support I need, while also helping to

accommodate the needs of those on my team so we could all reach our goal.

Another piece I read that is useful in developing this leadership approach is by Donna L.

Russell, and Art Schneiderheinze and titled “Understanding Innovation in Education Using

Activity Theory” From the Journal of Educational Technology & Society. In this piece,

Schneiderheinze and Russell explore Activity Theory in educational practice and how this can

develop innovation through understanding the needs of the members of a team working together
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to reach a goal. Russell writes, “Identifying and understanding teachers’ goals and beliefs is

critical to creating a evaluative analysis of reform efforts in education. Researchers have

primarily understood innovations as independent variables; however, once they enter the

classroom, the innovations become part of a complex system of social and pedagogical

interactions.” (Russell et al, 38). To me, this means that based on the core values of the members

to whom I have tasks to delegate, I would need to listen, change, and accommodate them by

helping in ways that fit their individual situations, which relates back to why I think situational

leadership approaches would have been the most effective in this instance.

It also leads me to the last dilemma, that of conflict resolution, as the part about a team

having complex social and pedagogical interactions is what led directly to my poorly handled

disagreement with a colleague over the choice of keynote speaker. Here, something from

Northouse, 2019 speaks directly to what I believe happened in my communication breakdown.

“Skilled leaders are able to negotiate the fine line between trying to overcome ethnocentrism and

knowing when to remain grounded in their own cultural values” (Northouse, 2019. p. 435). My

vocal disagreement over whether we should be including Islamophobia and feminism as essential

learning points, and my inability to approach the conversation with tolerance for his cultural

values caused an increased level of conflict that could have been de-escalated with an approach

such as the Two Eyed Seeing Model. If instead of pushing my cultural values as paramount, I

were to approach this conversation in this way, I could have taken a breath to step back and

reflect on the reasons behind holding the opposing point of view. “To see from one eye with the

strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing, and to see from the other eye with the strengths of

Western ways of knowing, and to use both of these eyes together” (Peltier, 2018). I really
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believe this would have led to a much more civil, interesting, and educational conversation in

which we both could have learned something about each others’ cultural values and maybe even

come to an understanding that would give us a refreshed perspective and approach to dealing

with conversations of an adversarial nature based around cultural differences.

Conclusions

Without being conscious of it, I set out to plan the professional development event from

the perspective of servant leadership. “serv[ing] the greater good of followers, the organization,

the community, and society at large” (Northouse, 2019. p. 253). I wanted to take on tasks that

would cause other teachers stress and hardship, I wanted to book a keynote speaker that would

inspire and excite everyone, and I wanted to take responsibility for final decisions that were

made and the consequences that would come as a result. In taking this approach, I was not as

effective as I could have been if I had a deeper understanding of the leadership theory and other

approaches to leadership that could have arguably helped me as the piece that I was missing was

that, “servant leaders put followers first, empower them, and help them develop their full

personal capacities” (p.227). It is through my constantly evolving understanding of

organizational leadership and differing leadership approaches that I have been able to reflect on

my past mistakes, and develop a framework of approaches and strategies that I believe will help

me succeed as a leader in the future.

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References:

Northouse, P. G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice (8th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Chapter 11: Adaptive Leadership. In Leadership: Theory and practice

(7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Obama, B. (2020). A promised land. New York: Crown.

SetonaHill. (2012, March, 7). Ken Scott Blanchard - Situational Leadership II - YouTube.wmv

[Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_YDOpxpWrU&t=1s

TEDx Talks. (2011, April, 13). TEDxStCharles - Marty Linsky - Adaptive Leadership-Leading

Change [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af-cSvnEExM&feature=youtu.be

Peltier, C. (n.d.). An application of Two-Eyed Seeing: INDIGENOUS research methods with

Participatory action research - CINDY Peltier, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1609406918812346

Kenny, C., & Fraser, T. N. (Eds.). (2012). Living indigenous leadership : Native narratives on

building strong communities. ProQuest Ebook Central https://ebookcentral-proquest-

com.proxy.queensu.ca
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Donna L. Russell, and Art Schneiderheinze (2005). Understanding Innovation in Education

Using Activity Theory. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 8, no. 1. Retrieved

March 17th from JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.8.1.38