6 Traditional Leadership

The Traditional Leadership Model

  • Organizes the leadership as a pyramid or top-down graphic with more workers at the bottom and few at the top.
  • Views organizations as mechanisms where people are assigned a part of the work like a wheel in a machine.
  • Makes decisions from a top-down perspective (the person at the top is the ultimate authority).
  • Operates with the assumption that people need to be told what to do (they will not or can not think for themselves).
  • Believes that the one person (at the top) has the skills and talent to create success for all.

Pause to Reflect

Can you think of a school or business you are aware of that follows this model?

What evidence is there that the organization follows a traditional leadership model? In the setting (business or school) that you are thinking of,  is the model successfully implemented?

Are there implementations of the traditional model that are not successful?

Can you describe them?

Who has the power in a traditional leadership model?

What Might This Model Look Like in Early Care and Education? You ask great questions! Before we move further let’s take a look. The traditional leadership model in early care and education might look like this:

Scenario

Director Marcy is well organized, always on time, and makes sure all details are handled. She can come across as stern sometimes with parents and staff. Marcy organizes the classroom calendar and instructs lead teachers on which curricular themes to plan for each month. She has a process for scheduling staff (based on length of employment) that she uses regardless of the personal needs of staff members. When a staff member shares a concern, or makes a complaint, Marcy decides on a solution and informs the impacted staff of her decision.

Staff Input on Marcy’s Leadership:

  • Cook Mindy reflects, “I don’t mind Marcy, except I wanted to implement some fun recipes for the kids and she said no. Hey, it’s a job, I get bored, but I know what I’m supposed to do so it’s all cool, I clock in and clock out.”
  • Lead Teacher Juanita comments, “I want to do my own planning, I don’t like the curriculum Marcy makes us teach—in fact, I really just do the minimum with her plans—Teacher Heather in room B agrees with me and we basically ignore her planning emails, I don’t know if Marcy notices. I think Marcy is a micro-manager. But I love my job and my classroom!”
  • Dad Richard asks, “Who is Marcy? The lady at drop off with the clipboard? She keeps the line moving along for sure, I always get to work on time. I don’t know what they do in that school, but that’s ok, our son Mark is happy!”
  • Teacher Assistant Jenny states, “I have been here for fifteen long years, and my knees can’t take it anymore, I arrive in time to monitor the playground and leave before clean-up at the end of the day—I don’t care if Heather doesn’t like it, I’ve earned a break—what’s fair is fair, I’ve earned the right to have the schedule I need.”

Pause to Reflect

What do you perceive might be positive about Marcy’s choice of a traditional leadership model?

What do you perceive might be negative?

Attribution

Leadership: An Introduction to Leadership Skills in Early Childhood Care and Education in Leadership in Early Care and Education by Tammy Marino; Maidie Rosengarden; Sally Gunyon; and Tanya Noland published Open Oregon by under a CC BY-NC-SA license

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Administering Early Childhood Services in Nova Scotia Copyright © 2024 by Nova Scotia Community College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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