Opinion: Call yourself an academic leader? If so, get over yourself
Impoverished role-based definitions of leaders are endemic across universities, but we need to reclaim ‘leader’ as a gift word.
Do you call yourself an “academic leader?” Do you call yourself any kind of “leader” because you hold an administrative or supervisory role? Do you label others in such roles as leaders for the same reason – in your “leadership team?” If so, it is time to re-think your definition of this idea.
For the notion of what makes for a “leader” in many universities is a colossal, desperate and damaging mess. Ill-thought and ill-judged, it disempowers most of those who supposed leaders purport to lead.
