Navigating as a novice leader

Author: Emmanuelle Fick

Importance

After ten years of working as a partial-load professor and as a part-time support staff member at a college in Toronto, Canada, I found myself, for the first time, not on contract, not on the periphery of an institution but in a position of leadership at another college, now polytechnic. After completing a PhD in Education from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto with a thesis focused on the Ontario college sector, specifically on partial-load faculty, I decided to leave teaching. I loved it, but it was not a sustainable career. Partial-load teaching felt like “a revolving door” (Park, 1996, p. 46 as cited in Rajagopal, 2004, p.52). I felt anchorless and far removed from any real decision making or meaningful involvement outside of my own siloed classroom.

Last year, I started on contract at Seneca Polytechnic. Within a few months I interviewed and was the successful candidate for a leadership position in Program Quality. While I had accrued years of educational and work experience in the post-secondary sector directly related to pedagogy and curriculum, I keenly felt, as is likely relatable to anyone in a new role, the gaps in my knowledge. Some of those gaps related to developing an understanding of internal college processes and the vast network of personnel.

I view the principle of respecting the gaps in knowledge of others from three angles: 1) leaders who respected the gaps in my knowledge, modelling an inherent care and respect for my onboarding and professional journey; 2) sharing my own gaps in knowledge with others, and 3) respecting the gaps in knowledge of others. While I have organised what follows into tidy enumerated headings, these angles, perspectives, and leadership approaches overlap. For example, the leadership that was modelled for me (1) informed my own approach to leadership (2 and 3). Sharing my own gaps in knowledge with my team (2) was integral to respecting the gaps of knowledge in others (3).

Scenario

1) Modelling: leaders who respected the gaps in my knowledge and who modelled care and respect

I knew quite quickly that the director in my new college setting was the kind of person from whom I would learn a tremendous amount, with regards to the work and to leadership. She was open and approachable, listened with care and attentiveness, provided ample context about the institution, expressed great enthusiasm for the work, and made me feel like an important member of the team. I was hired on a one-year contract. In my first week, she met me in person and gave me a tour of the campus. That gesture alone meant a lot of me, both personally and professionally. When I became a permanent member of the team in a leadership position, I was elated, but a new role and unknown terrain can be scary and, at times, overwhelming. If I expressed any self-doubts or shared that I didn’t know something – she made me comfortable enough to open up – I was only met with strong reassurance, resources, and a belief that I would step up to the challenge, and, as we say at Seneca, ‘challenge accepted’!

2) Sharing my own gaps in knowledge

I stepped into an emergent leadership role where there was a combination of direct reports who had been in their positions for many years (these were individuals whom I leaned on a lot) and one faculty who was relatively new into a secondment. I also later hired an additional faculty member. I asked many questions and was forthcoming with all (experienced and new alike) regarding the gaps in my knowledge. I listened and expressed my desire to learn. This approach was well received by the experienced team, specifically, and I felt supported by them as I slowly gained my footing in the role.

A few months into the position, I started to be able to draw connections across the various processes under my portfolio, tease out connections between my new and old knowledge, and build a network within the community. I felt a thrilling sensation of picking up velocity. I felt I could start to give back to my co-workers. It felt less and less like an uneven exchange and more like a reciprocal relationship. I am grateful for how earnestly they welcomed me to the team, their willingness to teach, and their patience and open-mindedness when I was finally able to make recommendations and support their work, support their successes, in more meaningful ways.

3) Respecting others’ gaps in knowledge

Unlike the team members who had been in their roles for quite some time and thus had a robust institutional context and familiarity with processes, I started in my new leadership role along with a relatively new faculty member who was on a secondment. Two months into my role, I hired another faculty member. My experience with these two newer team members was markedly different from the long-standing team. We were all learning – together. I could empathetically relate to their early struggles. If they expressed any self-doubts or that they didn’t know something, I modelled responses similar to my director and the other women in leadership I have been so grateful to have learned from over the years (like my thesis supervisor). My responses included careful listening and coaching questions that helped them as learners identify next steps (e.g., “Tell me more about that worry. What actions could you or we take together to learn more about that?”).

Reflection

I wrote a lot of this case in the past tense, but leadership is really an ongoing and active process of learning. I am still an emerging leader. I have been in this role for less than a year. I know there are still many things I have yet to learn, and a lot that I have yet to experience about leadership. That learning excites me. A gap in knowledge is not necessarily a deficit, but a potential opportunity. When you work collaboratively and respectfully with others, those gaps are filled in not only as an individual, but as a team. In my short time in leadership, one lesson I have learned is that everyone has the capacity to lead. We have to be humble enough to know when we should follow (and be open to learning in order to address our own gaps in knowledge) and when we should gently, kindly, and collegially lead (respecting the gaps in knowledge of others).

Advice

In the spirit of addressing gaps in knowledge, I want to call attention to what I find problematic or overly simplified in the case study above that I suspect might be an outcome of my own newness in leadership (I invite readers to discuss this further). You will note that while I share my gaps in knowledge (2) with all (new and old team members alike), I note in this case study that it has been specifically well received by long-standing team members. For me, this transparency is what expedited my learning and, more importantly, allowed me to acknowledge the wealth of knowledge that already existed, an important step towards building trust and respect. I also share that I was open with the new team members, and it fostered an immediate bond and sense of teamwork that was energising and productive. However, I wonder how different contexts might alter how sharing gaps in knowledge might be received? I feel that the culture of respect and collaboration that pre-existed in my department enabled the conditions for this type of transparency.

Another point to ponder is how I have framed respecting the gaps in knowledge of others (3) in the context of my interactions with new team members. I know that it is problematic to couch new team members as lacking in knowledge and long-standing members as replete with knowledge; this is a reductive and false binary. Acknowledging the wealth of knowledge of others should be universally applied; respecting gaps in knowledge is no different. However, the approach used may require more nuance. It’s easy to respect the gaps in knowledge of new personnel. Those gaps are anticipated and expected. How, then, might this principle extend to more seasoned members on our teams when those gaps are not as readily apparent or so easily addressed? One way I might have tried to tackle this issue is through collaboration on processes and practices, to have all team members come together to ideate, share, apply, and reflect. This allows everyone to come to the table, share what they know, and maybe even create opportunities for further learning. As I state above, leadership is an ongoing and active process. Transparency, open-mindedness, empathy, and a willingness to learn and collaborate, these are tenets that will continue to guide how I approach respecting the gaps in knowledge of others.

Reference

Rajagopal, I. (2004). Tenuous ties: The limited term-full time faculty in Canadian universities. The Review of Higher Education 28(1), 49-75. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2004.0030