After 5 months of build-up, I’ve just submitted my PRiSE / HEA Associate Fellowship application.
I’m really proud of myself for the work I did on the content and (as a chronic procrastinator) for turning it in early, but even so, I have to acknowledge that I couldn’t have done it without the support of others. Proof-reading and application expertise, references and data, reassurance and advice, mentors and moral support – all these things have helped me complete my application.
Therefore I wanted to thank the many people who supported me throughout the process in various ways, including:
Katy Dobson
Neil McKeown
Hayley Whitehead
Paul Cave
Stuart Robinson
Michael Thomas
Debbie Gibbs
Ellie Dunn
Digital Education Systems team
IT Service Desk Staff
Andrei Ungrean
Maria Stopyra
Aurora cohort from 2024 and 2025
Dom Owens
Caroline Harper
Jas Brogden
Antonia Jones
OD&PL Team
Sarah Copeland
Katie Farnworth
Richard Sykes
Support comes from all sorts of places, and I’m so grateful to everyone who helped me get to the point of submission.
It’s been over a year since I started the Aurora programme so I feel like it’s time to draw this chapter to a close. I’ve talked about my Aurora experience and making the most of the programme so for my final Aurora post, I wondered if I could sum up how I see leadership in the wake of the course and how it relates to me now.
Leadership is… self understanding
To lead well is to know yourself, you strengths, your limitations, your values and with that information give a genuine account of yourself and your actions.
What does this mean to me? I’m very aware that I’m not great at reading myself so this is an area that I’m working on. I find that whilst I still struggle to define things, I’m beginning to notice when I see something that is a core part of my nature. It’s as though shining a bright light doesn’t help, but I can now spot when something glimmers.
Leadership is… reflection
The ability to look back at your past experiences, learn from them and make improvements for next time make for a good leader who progresses, rather than repeats the same mistakes or doesn’t learn from hindsight.
What does this mean to me? During Aurora I did a lot of reflecting on what we’d learned (most of it for this blog) and I’ve been able to carry on that reflection into other things such as my HEA/PRiSE application. I’ve not yet built it into all my work activities, but I do a end-of-week diary which is great for capturing things in the moment and refining this practice.
Leadership is… confidence
Even the most put-together people have self-doubt and struggles that you might not see. Confidence is in the “feel the fear and do it anyway” moments, not just the “I can do this” ones.
What does this mean to me? Seeing “behind the curtain” of some very competent people made me realise that anyone can feel imposter syndrome. The act of being open about these fears is one way that we can help empower others, and build up their resilience in the face of their own uncertainties.
Leadership is… knowing when to take action
Sometimes a leader needs to take decisive action, and others times they need to escalate, or hold their nerve and wait things out. Knowing which route to take is something that comes from experience, but can be the sign of a good leader.
What does this mean to me? The Aurora experience taught me that even though I have no official leadership responsibility in my role, I can still step up and take the lead when I feel it’s appropriate. I have knowledge and expertise that gives me a certain level of authority on some things and since the course I have acted on that on a few significant occasions. This has given me examples to use in interviews and the confidence to start to see myself as a leader.
Leadership is… networks
Leaders don’t spontaneously form, and they don’t manage to do everything alone. We learn and shape our leadership in context with other people and so having networks where we can share experiences and offer advice makes us better leaders.
What does this mean to me? Aurora gave me an instant network of colleagues across various universities and even after the course I continue to meet with my mentor, my Action Learning Set and other Aurora Alumni. Whilst the onus is on me to find my direction, I know I can reach out when I get stuck or hit a problem. Likewise, supporting others with their problems helps me learn about perspectives that I might not be familiar with and builds bonds between us all.
Leadership is… adaptive
A career in leadership is not linear and is not a fixed state. External factors (family responsibilities, work changes, health issues) can impact our ability to lead and we can also choose when to step up and step back from responsibilities.
What does this mean to me? Thanks to Aurora I feel better equipped to manage changes that are out of my control, and know that managing my workload and my own expectations is part of handling my career.
What does this mean to me? It proves that we should question everything!
Leadership is… a journey
It’s cliched to call any experience that transforms us “a journey” but we shouldn’t be thinking of leadership as “one and done”. It’s how we continue to conduct ourselves through our career, in a way that is authentic, even if what that means for us changes over time.
What does this mean to me? I’ve never been one for lofty ambitions but if Aurora has bought one thing home to me, it’s that aiming for something is not pointless or self-indulgent, it’s a way to guide yourself through your career.
Looking back at my first Aurora post on feeling lost in the woods I realise that whilst there will always be many things that are uncertain, there are things I can do and things I must learn to accept.
To continue the metaphor, I’m now better equipped to head out into the forest, thanks to the lessons and networks I have from Aurora. I can chip away at the things blocking my path by shadowing colleagues and taking on additional responsibilities to build up my knowledge of my destination role. I also understand that if I want to (or have to) change direction I can still use what I’ve gained to help me get there. I’m starting to step out into the forest with greater purpose, a goal in mind and a network to support me.
Forests aside – I can safely say Aurora has been a important career experience for me and I think what I’ve learned will stand me in good stead for whatever lies ahead.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Aurora blog. Please feel free to comment on any of the posts with your own thoughts on the topics.
I drafted most of this post last year, but when I realised it was going stale in the drafts I dusted it down and finished it off. It gave me the opportunity to review my notes and refresh my memory on these ideas.
Change can be hard for people and in our Aurora session on Adaptive Leadership we discussed the idea that people aren’t fearing change itself, they’re fearing what they will lose when the change happens.
Adaptive Leadership challenges, as presented to us at Aurora, are ones where we’re looking to change a “hearts and minds” situation, rather than implementing an established change. It suggests that we assess the features of the situation, deciding what to discard and what to keep,
After the session I was thinking about how breaking down these elements of a change can help “show your workings”. If people are struggling with getting on board with a change, letting them see the bigger picture can help them appreciate what’s going on. For example you might want to share:
What we are leaving behind? – Clarifying how the activities we are leaving behind are not serving us anymore and reassuring colleagues that these are what we want to move away from.
What we are doing instead? – Discussing how we’re keeping the good bits, and what ideas we’re bringing in to replace the discarded activities.
What will the new thing look like? – Breaking down the new solution so that people can see where it differs and where it matches previous approaches. Showing what tools will be used and how they work.
Why we are doing this? – Stressing that this isn’t change for change’s sake – we’re aiming for a better solution – we want to thrive!
What will happen if it doesn’t work? – Clarify how people can feedback and how it’ll be reviewed. Will we be looking to iterate improvements or revert to previous methods?
How we feeling about this? – Emotional responses can reveal things that might not have been addressed already. Acknowledging our own fears, and listening to other peoples worries can shed a light on more hard to define issues.
Having experienced bad change management (where an entire department were sent on a course about accepting change, rather than being asked to meaningfully contribute to, or offered a breakdown of, the changes that were coming) I can see how this sort of information would have helped me. However these only work when the changes are genuinely there to improve things, so building trust with your colleagues is really important. They need to see that you are committed to making your workplace better, and that the changes are well thought out.
In the talk I gave to the 2025 Aurora cohort, I spoke (amongst other things) about how I thought others could get the best experience. I really feel that you get out of Aurora what you put in, so what can Aurorans can do to make the most of the programme?
⌚ Invest the time
In doing Aurora I was determined to give it my full attention, and for me that meant blocking out my calendar for the full day, and not dipping into work at all. There were certainly some people across the cohort who had to drop out to attend meetings, or deal with personal events during the session, and there were probably many more that checked their messages or dealt with tasks before or after. Whilst I’m sure most of these couldn’t be avoided, I knew that if that was me, I’d not be able to concentrate or focus on the session at hand.
Protecting the time meant that when the session finished at 3pm I could immediately start to reflect on my learning. After one session I went out for a walk in my local park, which allowed me to digest the topic more thoroughly and I really embedded what the speaker had been saying. On other days I used the time to reread my notes and fill in some of the ideas that I’d not completed, or look at the homework for the next session.
👀 Be engaged
We’ve all been in meetings where our focus starts to drift and we zone out a little. It’s hard to spend a whole day actively listening and being fully engaged throughout. To help yourself, have a think about what works for you to help you stay engaged.
I find that if I task myself with making notes, my mind is less likely to wander and I can concentrate on the content longer. As an added bonus I have notes at the end! Others might find that remembering to eat breakfast helps their concentration, removing distractions, or even doodling. The trick is to work out what helps you and equip yourself accordingly.
This leads nicely on to…
🎭 Be self aware
Aurora has reminded me how useful it is to understand your own limitations and work within them. Planning around distractions, motivations and strengths can make anything easier, so listen to your body and brain and think about what you need to succeed. It might require boundary setting and changes to your usual approach, but if you can identify what can help you, you will be able to get more from Aurora, or any activity.
🎁 Take what you need…
Whilst it is tempting to think that you must capture everything, there is so much content in an Aurora session that it’s not possible to absorb every single point. The sessions aren’t recorded so that means that there can easily be even more anxiety about missing things. However, please don’t worry that you’ve missed something. There is so much content that you will always get something from each session.
…and leave what you don’t 🛒
Not everything is going to be relevant to you and your experiences, so being able to recognise these parts and choosing to put them aside is a good way to approach these. You can also use them as a way to understand yourself or others better.
For example, there was a focus in one session on presenting yourself online with confidence, which I know was very useful for some people, but is something I’m familiar with through my Training experience. I tried to concentrate on the things that were new or interesting to me at this point in my career, and also listen to what others said they found hard so I could understand my colleagues better.
You may also find small parts that you disagree or feel uncomfortable with and again this tells you something about yourself. One option for these is to use the end-of-session feedback, or the Aurora Champion in your institution to give your thoughts. The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to improve things.
💘 Don’t beat yourself up
If you don’t do the homework, have to miss some of a session or aren’t fully present for whatever reason, don’t beat yourself up about it. It’s not helpful for your mental health and as most sessions are largely stand-alone, you can always start afresh at the next session.
Early on I realised that the number of topics we covered was making me feel like I was missing things. However I realised that the nice thing about Aurora is that there is no test at the end! Whatever you take away from it, you’ve still learned more than if you hadn’t attended at all.
☕ Take care of yourself
There are times in Aurora where you might feel a little overwhelmed, or vulnerable. The rapid fire chat messages might be too distracting or the guest speaker’s story might resonate too closely for comfort. In those moments it’s important to take care of your needs, even if it means stepping away or disengaging at certain points.
For me that meant not joining the myriad of WhatsApp chats that were set up by Aurorans, and avoiding bringing more personal topics to my action learning sets. Knowing (or learning) about your boundaries allows you to be better prepared to defend them when you need to.
Good luck! 🍀
Hopefully all these tips will allow you to make the most of your time on Aurora. You’ll meet all sorts of people, learn a lot, and maybe even find a new understanding of leadership and what that means to you. Good luck on Aurora, and I hope you enjoy the journey!
Anyone got any other advice for new Aurorans? Please comment below!
