Those Carleton Leaders who were available to attend the inaugural Carleton Leader Speakers series event on June 9th were treated to a thoughtful and inspiring session with Melanie Adrian, Carleton Law and Legal Studies professor.
Professor Adrian started the session by asking everyone what three words for each of us summed up leadership. We came up with a vast array, which illustrates what a range of views and feelings people have when they think of leadership. She went on to talk about leadership when it is not intentional or necessarily desired, citing the poignant tribute author Sheryl Sandberg paid to her husband who had recently passed. Many around the world found her message, which went viral, an inspiration of grief and love and so while making a heartfelt statement, Sandberg unintentionally became a leader. The same was true of Murray Sinclair, Manitoba’s first aboriginal associate chief justice, who recently delivered the Truth and Reconciliation Committee report on Residential Schools in Canada. His leadership was self-evident, but also symbolic.
We then enjoyed a debate on whether leadership can be taught or whether it is inherent in an individual, and while there were differing views, one of the take-aways which was popular was “You can teach skills but you can’t teach personality.” We also discussed the difference between leadership and hierarchy.
Melanie gave a quite courageous example of experimenting with a leadership style – which she admitted went wrong! As co-founder of a not-for-profit group, she had pushed to have the organization use a democratic leadership style. She describes the outcome as unsuccessful – both in terms of leadership and productivity. People lacked common goals, commitment and the correct knowledge. Sometimes it is just essential to have the right people in the right jobs, and everyone working to the same purpose.
One interesting question that came up – one which faces faculty on a regular basis – is how do you select and prioritize? Melanie’s view was that when it comes to work with social justice this can be as simple as viewing how you think your efforts will hit home in terms of impact and numbers.
As one person said, it is sometimes hard to prioritize because you see something wrong and you want to fix it. Some of the useful skills we concluded we needed include; being able to cut the conversation short and exit, how to turn from being a doer to a delegator, and what was referred to as ‘The Inspired No!’ an idea you could tell several people were keen to get back to their offices to try out.
By: Andrew Riddles, CCS