August 2024 – Emma Sykes

For the penultimate Aurora session, the Northern cohort met in person for the first time. As our final facilitator-led session it really felt like the end of the Aurora programme. We met in the Queens hotel in Leeds and it was quite an experience being in such a big space with so many people. There was definitely a buzz and an energy that I don’t think you could have created online.

A large conference room with high ceilings and ornate arches and architraves is host to the Aurora session. Many women sit at tables, facing the platform where a speaker is talking, with a backdrop reading Aurora and an illustration of women's faces.

The event included a panel Q&A and several presentations that we then took back to our table for further (albeit brief) discussions. Some of the things that struck me as interesting from this day included:

We’re just starting our leadership journey

There was a definite emphasis on how we can keep up the momentum that we’ve generated through doing Aurora, continuing to be reflective and self-aware, as well as proactively managing our career.

One suggestion I particularly liked was that we make a note of our “light-bulb moments”. I took that to mean not allowing points of learning or self-awareness to slide by. Noting and then reflecting on them will allow us to build a better understanding of ourselves, and our environment.

Build a support network

Aurora has helped us make some connections with other Aurorans, and our mentors, but how can we continue to seek out new contacts and build a support network as we progress? I was struck by how this needs to be an active conscious process, and will change and evolve as we move through our career.

I’m planning on staying involved in the Aurora networks both at Leeds and from Advance HE, and remaining in contact with my Action Learning Set and my Mentor. However I need to think about what I’m looking to develop next and who I might be able to engage to help me.

We ARE the future

We’re all able to help shape the future that we want to see. As we progress and hopefully take on positions of leadership we should be using that opportunity to help promote a more equitable workplace. Be the change we want to see, and work to break down the obstacles we had to face ourselves.

Even with no conventional power we can still promote this. It might look like amplifying the voices of other women or people from minority groups in meetings, encouraging colleagues to apply for leadership roles, or taking on a mentor role ourselves.

And finally: Is there even such a thing as Leadership?

One of the Panel members Professor Linda Evans presented herself as leadership-agnostic and I thought it was an interesting viewpoint.

The suggestion is that leadership is a process, and doesn’t present as the few exerting control over the many, in a single direction. Influencing happens both ways, which means we are all leaders and can all exert influence. It doesn’t just happen through grand actions, but can often go without noticing, through micro gestures.

I really enjoyed the day. It was lovely to feel the energy of the Aurorans in the room and end the programme on a high.

I’d like to thank my table for really engaging with the work that we were tasked with, although I’d have loved to chat to you all for much longer!

Eight women sat at a round table smiling at the camera. They are all wearing turquoise Aurora lanyards. They are in a busy room filled with similar tables. Water bottles and notepads scatter the table.

In the last of the facilitator-led online sessions, the introduction by Vajaya Nath reiterated that Aurora should not be about changing us as women, but rather about giving us an understanding of our space in leadership. She also mentioned the upcoming election and that we may wish to do what we can, within our power, to build the society that we want to see.

I made a lot of notes on this session, but it was quite “bitty” in that there were lots of concepts that I felt didn’t clearly lead from one to the other. I felt like the Adaptive Leadership title was a sort of catch-all that meant it was somewhat ill-defined by the end. Again I imagine this was due to time limitations and the vastness of the topic.

Barbara Bassa and Rachel Witton co-delivered the session and started by talking about their background, key values and interests. This helped build an understanding of where they were coming from, and for allowing me to connect where these intersected with my own interests, and values. They also encouraged us to bring our whole selves to our working environment, including things not typically part of our work approaches. We should be trying to use all the tools and identities that are available to us as only we have our unique combination and those differences are key to a varied and balanced workspace.

Adaptive Leadership

I definitely felt like I needed to do much more reading on this to understand the concepts more clearly, but our speakers presented this as a more accessible (and effective) form of leadership. Adaptive leadership (as I understand it from this session) is differentiated from formalised and top-down traditional structures. It is a more social, collective process without a small number of specific individuals holding all the power.

I looked into a summary of Adaptive Leadership and found this:

According to Heifetz, the adaptive leadership process has three stages:

Observing events and patterns.

Interpreting and developing hypotheses.

Designing interventions.

These steps are iterative, so once you’ve completed them all, you repeat the process and refine your observations, interpretations and interventions until you’re satisfied with the solution.
https://www.mindtools.com/a9irp3t/adaptive-leadership

Adaptive leadership utilises a collective purpose to tackle specific types of tough challenges.

Adaptive challenges

Some issues aren’t supposed to be addressed with these adaptive techniques but how we know if this is a an adaptive challenge? In the session, non-adaptive challenges were described as technical, and whilst both may be complex or critically important, they can be described differently.

Technical Challenges

Known solutions.
Available expertise.
Procedures and structures are already in place.

Adaptive Challenges

Can only be addressed through changes in peoples attitudes, habits, etc.
Moving beyond expertise and existing authority.
Decide what to keep, what to get rid of, and what new ways to work.

Tools Of Adaptive Leadership

There were some tips on how we can gather information on a situation to help diagnose and resolve adaptive challenges that need addressing. These are continuous processes that we can use at any stage.

Balcony vs Dancefloor

From the balcony we can get distance from what’s happening and see it in it’s wider context. Observing all aspects of the big picture allows us to see patterns and themes more clearly.

On the dancefloor we become part of the action – we can engage with people who are directly impacted and being up close with the issue allows us to understand it better. We also get more diverse stories and clarity on challenges.

To my mind, this approach complements what I know of Continuous Improvement methodology. Taking a local problem, then giving those who are closest involved the opportunity and tools to take a step back and view it from the balcony. They then suggest small, iterative changes, based on the understanding they bring from the dancefloor.

With this technique we can ensure we’re getting both the hands-on detail and the bigger picture.

Head and Heart Check-in

If we’re going to challenge the status quo, and risk our political capital at work by doing so, then it’s advisable to check-in with ourselves to be sure that we’re not missing any clues.

As well as logically assessing the issue with our “head” (intelligence) we can also check-in with our “heart” (intuition) to ensure we’re not missing anything. We can observe our own feelings for an indicator – how do I feel about this? Am I having an emotional response that might be disguised as something else? If so, what does that tell me about the situation?

We can also do a check-in at a Social/Organisational level. Just like we might run a practical process by a colleague, we could instead ask others for feedback on how they feel about an upcoming change. Or we may see spontaneous emotional responses coming from colleagues that suggest that we might need to give people reassurance or more information, or even amend our approach.

Success

One of the other aspects of adaptive leadership that I liked was the idea that rather than throwing out everything and rebuilding from scratch, we take more considered approach.

Preserving what’s essential, discarding or rearranging what no longer serves the current needs are ways that we can enable a thriving environment. If we clearly communicate this, and involve people in picking out what needs to change, it can help us get buy-in for change.

Exploring Adaptive leadership

There were three elements that we were asked to take away with us about how we continue our Adaptive Leadership journey and I think that these are the same for our more general career paths too.

Don’t do it alone – Being alone can make you vulnerable, so where possible seek out allies with a common purpose.
Resist the leap to action – Often we’re pushed to do something, but take the time to consider and diagnose the issue first. Make sure you’re taking the right actions.
Live life as a leadership laboratory – Experiment and be playful. Don’t aim for perfection – change and iterate.

Month: August 2024

Aurora Day 7 – Your Future in HE