Discussed leadership not only in work environment but related to home/life situations. Pointed out that everyone is a leader.
Talked about delegation. Based on this presentation and observations on various committees I've worked on, I'd say delegation is a popular strategy of Helen's. The ability to delegate well is something I believe as a vital skill for an effective leader. Delegation in itself brings up a question for me in relation to the balance between authority and responsibility. That is, I believe that true delegation isn't about getting someone to do the work and then the leader picks it up at the end, but effective and empowering delegation comes when responsibility and authority are passed on to an individual and they are given space and support to carry through the job. Yes, the manager or leader has ultimate accountability and it's not about shirking that, but provision of the opportunity to be responsible and to have authority provides a much more rewarding experience for the leader/manager and person that has taken on the job/task: leader gets to demonstrate support, learn from someone else's way of doing something and fosters skills in staff and the workplace and the staff member has an opportunity to work with support (if required) but isn't held up by needing to ask permission to do things. Ultimately a win, win. I try to adopt this approach when working with the technicians who support delivery in the courses I teach. It is important to me that they have 'ownership' of the areas of the programme they are working on and responsibility and authority over things like studio set up, equipment sourcing and development of the facility connected to this area. This is working now, but took some time for 'ownership' to occur. My experience was me wanting to hand it over for them to manage/run totally, but I experienced constant 'checking in' - the need for reassurance, I guess. Although I reiterated that I was happy for them to decide/run/organise how suited them, there was reluctance.
Thoughts on this: some of this reluctance came from a need to reiterate that I would be happy with however they did it (I think there was a bit of fear of my high expectations), perhaps some from the culture of not delegating responsibility AND authority in our environment, and some from an overly complex infrastructure around to whom techs are responsible.
Learning from this: be REALLY clear re expectations, don't expect change to happen quickly, reiterate support.
SOLO questioning technique: useful strategy but clunky language. Found it a little difficult to formulate lower level questions.
Learning from this: I might benefit from not launching into complex things to start with - give people 'warm up' space. But don't ya hate small talk!
TIna Fitchett case study presentation:
"When you're in a place that seems uncomfortable, most learning occurs"
role confusion was a major cause of the problem here - emphasis on clarity in communication ALWAYS
role overload impacted on the situation. ALWAYS important to have someone to go to to seek support.
5mins reflection at end of session:
issues/strategies pertinent to me from tonight's discussion:
- continue to deal with things first up/straight away
- communicate directly
- don't winge to other people, do something
- stress is a buzz - use the excitement
- listening is important - people in office or come with a problem, often have the solution - take time to listen fully
- email peer lecturer re my reflection on my teaching this afternoon (share reflection/peer support/seek feedback)
- sort issues before appraisals so no surprises at appraisals (talk to staff re teaching support)
- intro questions as warm ups - take the time
- consider how I'll deal with (action) bullying/witchunt situation
A good leader brainstorm
integrity
visibility
support - what can I do for you?
risk taker
direct communication
not a yes person
someone who can tell me off (I respect in that they'll critique me)
someone who challenges and extends me
honesty
empathetic
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