By Maria McClintock
Photos by Mike Pinder
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 5 seconds
Carleton Leader celebrated five years of bringing faculty and staff together to explore leadership and giving life to a leadership community of more than 300 on campus.
The five-year milestone was marked with a special event on Nov. 23 in Fenn Lounge.
By the end of 2017, 325 faculty and staff will have participated in Carleton Leader. It’s a long way from the early days when a development team of Cindy Taylor from the Office of Quality Initiatives, Katherine Graham, a special advisor to the provost, and Duncan Watt, then vice-president of Finance and Administration, went to the University of Sheffield in the U.K. to look at the Sheffield Leader model.
What grew out of that visit and the relationship that developed between the two institutions was a “for Carleton, by Carleton” leadership development initiative.
“The Carleton Leaders have exceeded our expectations,” says Cindy Taylor, director of the Office of Quality Initiatives and driving force behind Carleton Leader. “They have brought it to a level that we could never have anticipated six years ago. It has come to life, it has made a difference, and it is part of our culture. It really allowed Carleton to put leadership on the map.”
From left to right: Cindy Taylor, Amanda Dobbie, Alan Burns and Nancy Arnold celebrate Carleton Leader’s five-year anniversary.
The next step, says Taylor, is to focus on how best to engage the Carleton Leader community.
For Political Science Prof. Jonathan Malloy, who is also department chair, Carleton Leader gave him the opportunity to explore his own role as a leader and an opportunity to make critical connections across the campus.
“The big value in Carleton Leader is connecting faculty and professional staff together. In my own cohort, I met a lot of people I never knew before and I keep in touch with them,” says Malloy. “It has created this cross-campus community of leaders.”
Malloy says that because of the unique approach taken in Carleton Leader, it is appealing and meaningful to faculty.
“It has meant a lot for my identity with Carleton University that the employer invested these resources and time in me and that was meaningful for me.”
Lead facilitator Nancy Arnold says when the first group of Carleton Leaders met, the development team had great hopes that it was going to be successful.
“It’s been a tremendous time of growth over the last five years and I think a lot it facilitated by people who have participated in Carleton Leader and who have taken it upon themselves to talk to their colleagues about the impact it’s had on them,” says Arnold. “I think that’s what has really helped us to grow to where we are today.”
Prior to going through Carleton Leader, Jackie Carberry says she would not have been able to identify her leadership style or have the chance to develop the extensive network across the university that she has now.
“I have worked in a number of offices across campus but never in a situation where we’d come together to try and solve a problem. Seeing people from all walks of Carleton life was really a special experience. There are more people who are my go-tos now and that is a great thing to have.”
The impact of Carleton Leader has moved the university to new ways of working, adds Prof. Andre Loiselle, a former member of the Carleton Leader development team.
“We have to celebrate that after five years we are still around, it is working and there are 300 people who have gone through it and it’s resonating with the campus and beyond.”
For Cindy Taylor, the five-year milestone is a source of pride.
“We have 325 amazing people who have been able to explore leadership and build connections and capacity and they have exceeded the expectations of what Carleton Leader could do.”
To view what Carleton Leaders have to say about their experiences, watch this video.