Aurora Leadership Foundation for HE

Aurora Leadership Foundation for HE

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to take part in the Aurora Leadership Foundation for HE. The aim of the initiative is to encourage more women in academic and professional roles in higher education to think about leadership, themselves as leaders and put themselves forward for leadership positions.
The programme consists of four development days, self-directed learning, action learning sets and in- house mentors.
The first development day was on Friday 6th December at Glasgow Caledonian University. There were some tasks to do beforehand which were outlined in an email. (The email communication from the leadership foundation has been very good).
One of the tasks was to bring "an image/photo/picture/object that signifies your current professional identity". Other tasks were to read some articles and think about your top 5 values.
The day was a mixture of talks by invited speakers and role models, group discussions and activities. Also opportunities to network and talk to other delegates - there were about 100 people there.
The introduction was by Ginnie Willis who is the Aurora Programme Director who explained the rationale and purpose of the initiative and what was going to be involved. Much of the activities of the day were led by Jackie Arnold, Associate Leadership Foundation.
The first speaker of the day was Lesley Yellowlees, Vice-Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering, University of Edinburgh. She is a very interesting speaker - a mix between authoritative and appealing - she is inspirational although it's hard to see how to achieve all that she has achieved but maybe that's the point, you have to find your own success.
The messages I took from her talk were:
Take opportunities as they come along
Find a niche, be known for something
Self belief - be yourself, your own style
Find solutions but you don't have to own all your own solutions
Hard work
Be positive, don't worry about negatives, don't have regrets

During the day we discussed in groups at tables a number of themes and issues. It was good that people moved around and swapped tables at various points. I think because this was an expectation it made it easier for people to do so.

We talked about the images or objects that we had brought along. There was a good variety of different things. As ever mine was a printed text based thing (see below) - I think that this is because my way of working is to think and reflect and write things down and try to cover everything.  I found the 'team manifesto' and I'm debating whether to share it with my team or not.
 I should just pick one good thing as it has more impact. Some people brought items that they use in their work e.g textiles and tools or things like a toy bridge, or lego or a fire extinguisher..........

There was a good section when role models at each table talked about how they had got to their current role and what sort of issues they had encountered and how they had overcome them. The person at our table was Catriona Tedford, Campus Director, UWS.
I think that was one of the best parts of the day, to listen to role models and consider what they have done and look for commonality of experience.

We had a discussion about what qualities successful leaders should have and what qualities etc. we would aspire to have. This is difficult because it is quite easy to explain what should be the case but a different matter to influence what leaders are currently like in our institutions. Ideal behaviours is different from actual behaviours. Perhaps this is something that I need to think about more.

There was a session about leading at your BEST - being a unique leader, embracing who you are, standing up for what you believe and trusting yourself to take the next step. I think it's good to consider these aspects and i think you do have to have your own approach and own beliefs but from my experience there are many occasions when to be successful you fit in with the current ethos of your environment. Do successful leaders 'toe the party line' and 'promote the ethos of the institution' in order to get to the top? That may be cynical but i think it's important to find and recognise that it is a balance .....and there are politics involved.

We had a brief session about mentoring and a chance to discuss with a partner about what is involved with mentoring. I'm looking forward to having a mentor - I've been mentored before as well as mentoring and it is very useful. I think also as time goes on and you become more experienced you realise that it is good to ask for support from other people

All in all it was an excellent day, better than I'd expected. It would have been good to have another invited speaker at the end of the day to give it a focus but apart from that it was very good and I'm looking forward to reflecting on the day and the next event in January.