Host Leadership session by Michaela Sobotková

This August I worked for the SeltAcademy as a trainer in Istanbul where I taught the Leadership and Management course for Heads of English of the Marmara region. I have to say that I really liked the content of the course which consisted partly of teacher training sessions and partly of management sessions. One of the sessions which really stuck out for me was the one called Host Leadership. I have to admit that it was quite a relief for me to find out that none of the trainers knew what the session was supposed to be about apart from Leah Davcheva who wrote the lesson plans and who also kindly and patiently explained to the rest of us what the concept of host leadership was about. I think that the concept is really powerful and it works really well when transferred to a teaching environment. That’s also the main reason why I decided to share its main ideas with others.

The concept of host leadership is based on a relationship between a host and a guest. This relationship is used as a metaphor for a relationship between a leader and people he/she leads. This can easily be transferred into teaching environment because every teacher has to be a leader. Basically, to keep a harmonious relationship a teacher should do all things a host does and a student should behave the same way a guest does. You can see in the pictures below a list of activities written by the participants of our course when they were asked ‘What does a host do?’ and ‘What does a guest do?’. If you look at the lists and think about a teacher as a host and a student as a guest you’ll see that most of the activities overlap. A student as a guest should definitely obey a teacher and be kind to him/her, he should knock on the door, get permission before doing something, be thankful and appreciative and definitely eat what’s offered which in this case can be understood as a metaphor for doing activities which the teacher has prepared. This works the same way for a teacher as a host: he/she should definitely make a good plan and prepare for his/her guests-students, entertain and engage students, welcome students in a kind and warm way, create pleasant atmosphere for students and make them comfortable. The important thing is that seeing the similarity of the relationships can help teachers realize that some problems they have with their students might be caused by malfunction of the relationship.

The concept distinguishes six different roles a host has to perform. A suitable situation which can help us understand the function of the individual roles is organizing a party. 

The first role is called Initiator. A host is in the role of Initiator when he/she decides that he/she wants to throw a party. The decision is usually based on asking people whether they’d be interested in coming to a party, thinking about the theme and other details. In teaching environment, this is the phase when you get an idea that your students might enjoy listening to songs in your lessons and you start thinking about how to make it work.

The second role is called Inviter.  When a host acts as Inviter, he/she starts inviting people and doing steps which are necessary for organizing the party. If we use our example from the previous role, a teacher here would start planning using specific songs in specific lessons, planning stages of activities, getting lyrics and recordings of the songs.

A host as Gatekeeper opens the door for his/her guests and invites them in. He/she also has the right to decide who’s allowed to stay and who should leave the house. A teacher can also decide who’s going to stay and leave the classroom. If a principal interrupts your lesson telling you that he/she needs to talk to you, you can always turn him/her down saying that you first need to finish the activity you’ve just started and then you can talk.

The next role is a role of Space creator. As a space creator a host decides about a position and number of tables and chairs, and all other things in the house. Similarly a teacher can decide to put posters on walls, rearrange a seating plan and bring things he/she wants to have in the classroom. 

A host as Connector introduces people and makes sure that everyone has a suitable person to talk to. Teachers do this when they divide students in pairs or groups and decide how to pair their students up so that they benefit from working with their partners. 

The last role is a host as Co-participator. As a co-participator a host takes part in various activities together with his/her guests. He/she has dinner with the guests, plays games with them, chats with them. A teacher is a co-participator when he/she joins a group of students and works with them. 

This is what the host leadership concept is about in an extremely simplified way. I’m sure that Leah would be able to give much more details and information but I think that this is quite enough to get a grasp of the concept and realize the importance and power of the relationship. 

What makes this concept particularly suitable for Turkish environment is the fact, that in Turkey the host-guest relationship is much stronger than in other European countries and a guest is perceived here as something sacred which makes the comparison even more powerful for the local people. 

The main reason why I decided to write about the host leadership session was that I not only enjoyed teaching the session but I also learned a lot from it myself. In this way I would like to thank Leah again for giving me the opportunity to get acquainted with the concept.

Here are some photos from the session. First the participants brainstormed metaphors for a 'leader': 

Later they explore the roles of guests and hosts. Here are the ideas brainstormed by the group. 

The participants explored the difference facets of the 'host leader': 

Extra reading:

There are some excellent resources on the web about the use of metaphor in professional training, and for teacher training/development programs. 

We would recommend reading Metaphorically Speaking by Steve Darn and Ian White) based in Turkey.) 

This webpage gives a lot of information about metaphors and why they are powerful. 

This article points out the importance of choosing a metaphor for teaching that has "a high degree of resonance" with the learners. 

What are your favorite articles about metaphor in (teacher) education? Please share in the comments.