Week 2 At Higher Achievement- Leader/ Follower Relationships

My internship experience this summer is unique in that I am not technically an intern and I am not working in a “normal” office setting, but rather I am gaining fist hand experience working as a summer teacher. Because of this, examining the leadership is quite interesting, since I am both a leader and a follower. When the program first started and we had to attend our training sessions, the dynamic between leaders and followers was very formal, and the division between the two was very clear; I was a “follower”, being told what to do by my superiors. However, after moving into the actual program these last two weeks, that formal power dynamic has almost completely gone away, since all the teachers are also leaders to their students. I design my lesson plans, and then teach my class how I want, with very little input from my boss, and as I am the head teacher in my classroom and responsible for my students, I carry that position as leader. Additionally, there are interns working at Higher Achievement who are technically work below me, however, it has never felt that way. The power dynamic has always felt relatively non-existent, as we all hold some sort of leadership role and all depend on one another for guidance; everyone has some sort of influence within the team, regardless of position. Therefore, the leader/ follower dynamic is interesting in that it is context dependent, since at times I am answering to my boss, whereas other times people are answering to me. Furthermore, there are different types of relationships among leaders and followers depending on what leader/ follower dynamic we are looking at. For example, as mentioned, the relationship among the center director and the rest of the staff is informal and friendly, with a very small power distance, whereas the power distance is much larger between the teachers and the students, as we have to be much more formal with them than our boss has to be with us.