New leaders arrive without preparation

Advice on building experience and seeking mentorship

Lynn Wells: one of the, the best things you can do is to build that experience. As I said, I've been very fortunate over a number of jobs. in a number of jurisdictions, you know, to, to have learned a great deal. As I said, I learned a great deal at First Nations University about indigenous education and reconciliation. I learned lots at MacEwan about what it means to be a student-centered leader. I learned lots at, at Grok about, you know, program development, academic restructuring. I learned a lot as an associate dean research about supporting the research mission. So every job has taught me something. And I think, you know, kind of building your reservoir of knowledge and experience is really important. It helps, it helps me every day to navigate, you know, when I hit a, a difficult situation, I think, okay, well, you know, how, how did we deal with this in another institution? How does the sector deal with this? I would say, I said it's very important, to give yourself the time to develop as a leader, to take that journey, to take the time to build some Experience to not try to race to the end, but to actually give yourself the time to grow as a leader and, and to get some, some mentorship. You know, one of the things that I, I wish I had done more in my career was seek out mentorship around my own leadership development, to have a, you know, an executive coach, to have, you know, people around me who were kind of advising me on, you know, where are you trying to get and why. If, you know, if you haven't taken that step and you're interested in leadership, do, you know, don't, don't go on the journey by yourself. It's, it's, it's lonely and it's really hard, to do it on yourself, by yourself. And if you face, you know, a failure or rejection, you feel it very much more intensely because you don't have a, a team around you to help buck you up and keep you going.

What surprises new vice chancellors: detail and loneliness

Tania Rhodes-Taylor: Certainly some of the conversations that I've had with vice chancellors over the years is that they've been surprised by the level of detail that they're supposed to get involved in or they're expected to get involved in. There's individuals where I've helped them come to a position where they've understood that you can have management without leadership, but it's much more difficult to have leadership without management. They're expecting to go in and direct and change, you know, some pe- I can think of at least two vice chancellors that have said to me that they've been surprised at how difficult it is to change the organization that, that they are overseeing. Organizations have a life of their own and a vice chancellor position is about stewardship as much as anything. I think the other thing that surprises people when they come into senior leadership roles, especially if they've come up through academia, is how lonely it can be. So you've worked as, if you've worked as an academic for your whole career up until that point, if you've been part of, a department within a university, if you've been part of research groups, if you're used to working with like-minded people who have similar interests, who support and get you, and where you, you can talk in the shorthand that we all talk to with those people that understand us the most. And I think, I think for some senior leaders, thinking about as they go into those positions, Where am I going to find my tribe? Where am I going to find the, the sounding boards, the people I can talk to honestly, those that I can trust, those that I can engage with as I try and navigate this? I think that's really important. And I think as we're appointing people, and it does, actually this doesn't just apply to, you know, academic colleagues. I think, you know, I see it in, in people in my, in my own functions as I promoted them, and they're no longer part of their peer group. We should be seriously thinking about how we provide that level of support, how we provide people with, with a trusted circle. That they can engage with. So I think some of it is about actually current senior leaders in universities being honest about just the amount of stuff they have to deal with and how they do that. So how do we ensure that people coming into the roles understand that and understand the mechanisms for coping with that? And how do we understand that people are not promoted to a point of loneliness and, and actually have that opportunity to build that network that will support them in their new role?

Why leadership investment matters in uncertain times

Heather Anderson: Well, Daniel, I think you are for sure right that we are in uncertain times and that, the world is rapidly changing. And, you know, I'd say that there's more that we need leaders who can lead well in these conditions. So our resolve at GHC is to keep going as strong as we can. Because I, what we've seen, and we've seen this at times, you know, even historically during different times of crisis or change, that, You know, often the leadership development or the systems change thinking really fall to the back burner, and that sort of the long-term thinking is, you know, taken out in favor of what's needed in the short term. And that's a real missed opportunity. We have to continue to be intentional, focused on getting out of this cycle of being reactive. And if we want to get ahead of other crisis, which, you know, no doubt we will also face in the future, you know, investing in leadership now is one of our surest bets.

Decision-making: teams, distributed leadership, and hard calls

Duncan Ivison: I mean, the first thing is, although, you know, the buck stops with you when you're in these roles, and you always need to remember that, you have to have, you have to focus on your team. You, you have to build a great team. And I certainly made lots of rookie mistakes in various roles in the past where I didn't really understand that. I didn't really understand that profoundly enough. So the first thing is, You need to build a team. You need to be in a situation where you're making decisions collectively, and you're drawing on the talents and expertise of the people around the table, around the organization that can help you get to the right answer and get to the right decision. So I think for me, the first thing is, you know, there are many aspects of the job that are kind of lonely, if I could put it that way, where it really is you that has to make the call, and often it's between two bad options rather than a good option and a bad option. But it's also important to, to create an environment in which you're, you're making decisions collectively, you're, you're working as part of a team. And in my experience, the best universities have very strong cultures of distributed leadership in that sense. And I think really university presidents who I've really admired and learned from have been able to get that balance right between Giving people a sense of empowerment and allowing those who are closest to the action to make the decisions in the best interest of the organization, but then also knowing when to step in and say, look, no, this is the direction we need to go in, which means we need to make this call and this is the way it's going to go. So I think for me, the first thing is you're, you're building a good team, you're, you're investing in that distributed leadership model, but then you're crystal clear about your role and, and the unavoidability of having to sometimes make a decision that will be deeply unpopular, but you feel is the right one for the organization. You know, there are moments when nobody wants to make the call because it's too hard, too painful, too difficult, and that's your, you've got to take on that responsibility. You can't, you can't sort of chuck it over to a committee, you know. But if you get it right, you're, you're in a dialogue with people about The organization, you've got the information and, and inputs that enable you to, to, to make the best possible decision in the circumstances.

Advice for new public institution leaders

Sir Anton Muscatelli: I would start with, again, one of the points I made earlier, which is, I, I do think there's a huge advantage in Deploying your curiosity. And frankly, if you're not curious about the institution or the world around you, you probably shouldn't be in a leadership position because it's all about exploring what might be possible. So I, I would like to think that that's one of my, my, one of my bits of advice would be enjoy, give yourself time at the beginning at least to Be curious about the institution that you lead and the different dimensions, because especially with large or complex institutions, that takes a little bit of time. It will take quite a lot of your time to learn about your environment. And it's back to your, sense-making point. You can't just kind of come in and say, well, I know everything. You don't, you don't know anything when you start in a new institution and a, and a leadership position. And actually for me, you know, if I think, reflect back in my leadership at Glasgow, having been in the institution for most of my academic life, you'd think I would know it, but actually you might think you know it from working in one part of it, but you don't really know it when you first head an institution like that. So I think give yourself time, be curious, understand it, understand the lie of the land, I think is really important. And the second, again, I'm sorry, I'm going to come back to the team point, but that's because it works for me, but, but I, I really think You cannot run organizations like that either single-handedly, which is generally a bad idea. You need, you need a very capable team. But also, I think you cannot, I think the player coach point you made is really important. I think you need to be part, an active part of that team. You can't just stand back and say, well, look, you know what, I've given you individual jobs and you're, you're all going to go out and do these things, and I'm just going to stand back here and, and watch you, watch you play to the best of your ability. I think leadership is active leadership. I don't think it's about standing back. I think it does involve occasionally getting onto the pitch and, and, and working with the others. So what I think the player coach description that you, you had is a really important one. Certainly, for me, that's the advice I would give, but then that, because it suits my style of leadership, I suppose.