By Mac Bogert
“True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to.”
– Jim Collins
What does leadership look like?
When I worked on leadership development with the Defense Logistics Agency, my audiences were mostly men, many retired from the military, and strikingly direct. I never had to guess what they were thinking. Our discussions ranged across many perspectives, and one easy entry point was film heroes: I showed clips of John Wayne’s Sergeant John Stryker in The Sands of Iwo Jima and Tom Hanks’s Captain John Miller in Saving Private Ryan.
Stryker is feared, brutal, and admired; estranged from relationships and drinking heavily. Captain Miller is loved, transparent, and also admired, with his family at the center of his life. They could not be more different, yet each led effectively. From that group I learned a simple truth: leadership is not a single style. It’s about connecting in whatever authentic way you can to give people a clear path forward.
After some debate, the class offered a compact taxonomy for leadership that still serves me: Vision. Courage. Influence. They explained: “We need a positive vision of the future, not complaints about the present or constant rehashing of the past. We may never have to run into a burning building, but we must have the courage to be open even when it’s unpopular. And if we can’t change hearts and minds, we’re wasting time.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Management and leadership
We switch between management and leadership constantly—whether we are parents, teachers, troop leaders, administrators, or neighbors. Management organizes people; leadership shows them why the path forward matters. Marking wrong answers is management; helping learners understand the right answers is leadership.
These categories blend in practice, but for analysis they’re useful. Managing learning means providing structure: platforms, schedules, learning management systems. Those tools “hold up the tent,” but they are not the tent. The tent is learning itself. When control becomes the objective, especially in virtual environments, we risk communicating distrust and diminishing learners’ sense of efficacy.
In the collision of a pandemic and rapid technological adoption, we must assume less external control and restore each person’s capacity to act: management controls others; leadership governs the self.
McGregor, TESA, and Drive
Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y from the 1960s remains remarkably relevant. Theory X managers assume people need to be pushed: “You have to watch people carefully or they’ll goof off,” or “Because I said so.” Theory Y managers see their role as creating a context for excellence: “Can you tell me more?” or “How can I help you implement this?”
Remarkably, when everything else is equal, each management style tends to produce the behaviors its assumptions predict. You cannot command people into genuine learning without undercutting the qualities you want to develop.
I worked with Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (TESA) to help elementary teachers confront their unconscious assumptions about performance—assumptions tied to gender, race, speech, seating, and appearance. When teachers set those assumptions aside, many students previously labeled “low performers” showed greater participation, leadership, social interaction, and improved grades. The change wasn’t magic; it was the result of shifting expectations and opening space for possibility.
Daniel Pink’s book Drive synthesizes much of this research on motivation. He argues that people are driven by three intrinsic needs: an urge to direct their own lives; a desire to learn and create; and a wish to improve themselves and the world. Virtual learning, properly designed, is an ideal environment for these motives to flourish. The old factory-model of schooling is largely incompatible with intrinsic motivation. As the pandemic reshapes education, web-based learning offers a chance to cultivate curiosity, engagement, and accountability.
Teacher-as-boss fails in this context; teacher-as-leader succeeds. As Ben Zander observes, “The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He’s the only musician who doesn’t make a sound. He depends for his power—and his power is very great—on his ability to make other people powerful.”
Motivational sneakers
The intersection of pandemic, technology, and a struggling public education system brings crisis, fear, and discomfort—but those conditions also open possibility. A scientist once reminded me that the caterpillar does not gradually change inside the cocoon; it dissolves into a sort of organic paste and rebuilds. If we see this upheaval as a chance to discard old assumptions and start fresh, we can invite everyone into discovery and co-create a new model of learning.
Imagine letting go of incremental tinkering and instead rebuilding from that “paste,” involving teachers, students, parents, and communities in designing learning that fits a digital world. That mindset shifts the question from “What am I protecting?” to “What am I willing to create?” I try to ask myself daily: “What thought is preventing me from pushing forward rather than pushing back?”
I’ve recorded a podcast episode about creating opportunity amid chaos; it explores ways to harness disruption productively. If you’re interested in practical strategies for leading through change, it may be useful to listen and reflect on how you can enable others.
About the author
Mac Bogert is president of AZA Learning and began his career as an English teacher. For more than 25 years he has worked at the intersection of leadership and learning. He is also a musician, professional actor, yacht charter captain, staff development consultant, curriculum designer, and the author of Learning Chaos.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub focused on the ongoing shift in education toward digital curriculum.