Welcome to the Dance Floor
Derek Avery’s Mission to Build Fearless Leaders
As the C. T. Bauer College Chair of Inclusive Leadership, Derek Avery fosters a classroom environment that encourages mistakes as an essential part of learning, and embodies the belief that the best way to learn is by doing.
As a professor in the Department of Management & Leadership, his teaching style involves active participation and practical applications to real world examples. The topics that he brings to class and the research he primarily focuses on is centered around the psychology of how differences affect behaviors, specifically in organizations.
Avery said his approach when teaching is to meet students where they are and making sure everyone feels comfortable in participating in conversations, without fear of being wrong.
He compares it to getting out on the dance floor.
“The only way you get better at dancing is by getting out on the floor. You can watch from the sidelines and maybe that helps you pick up the rhythm or learn a step, but then you’ve got to get up and try it.”
Avery knew he wanted to be a teacher since he was in sixth grade, inspired by his grandmother who was a schoolteacher all his life.
Throughout his academic journey, he went down a few different avenues and tried out different disciplines. He studied psychology and sociology, saying he was always fascinated by the way people think and behave.
He has always considered himself to be a people watcher. Avery also said he understood from an early age that others would have pre-conceived notions tied to his identity, further inspiring his desire to study psychology.
“My identity is related to the reasons that I study these topics,” Avery said. “It drives my curiosity and has some bearing on what makes me such a big social justice advocate.”
He married his two passions for teaching and psychology when he joined the University of Houston faculty as an associate professor of psychology and management in 2007.
He worked at different universities throughout his career but always continued his studies in workplace behaviors and managerial leadership. When he returned to UH in 2020, specifically Bauer College, he said this was exactly the place he wanted to be to continue his work.
In a perfect world, he would be able to align what he wanted to do with what he needed to do, Avery said. As faculty, his responsibilities were largely centered around research, teaching and service. As a researcher, he wanted to have an impact on a future where everyone has a seat at the table, or a place on the dance floor.
Bauer was the venue where he said he could see that alignment being met.
“I don’t have to explain why these topics are important,” Avery said. “Students can look around and see on campus, in their classrooms, why it’s important to understand how to relate to people who come from different backgrounds.”
In the classroom, Avery said, he works to establish mutual respect with his students and among them as well.
He does not shy away from difficult conversations, and he prepares them that there will be moments they may require correction. However, none of his feedback comes from a place of criticism — it is from wanting to see them grow.
“We’re all works-in-progress,” Avery said.
Avery said he wants his students to throw away any negative perceptions they have of themselves, or self-imposed limitations, and help show them they can accomplish so much more than they realize.
“They might think, ‘no one who looks like me has ever done this.’ So then they tend to think, ‘that means I can never do it.’ That’s just not true,” Avery said. “There is always a first person to do anything, and if that person believed they couldn’t do it, then nothing would ever get accomplished.
My goal with all my students is to inspire them to believe in themselves. I want them to know they’re capable of so much more than what anyone may have told them, or what they might personally believe. So many of those limitations or perceived ceilings in terms of what they can accomplish are just not real.”
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