Throughout human history, we have lived in groups—our interaction and relationships with each other have been crucial to our survival. Generally, groups tend to form leaders and followers. | Back in the caveman days, the alpha male—the biggest, toughest guy in the pack—would fight his way to the top and once he got there, he would call all the shots. The rest of the crowd would follow along for their own safety and survival. It was a pretty simple process. | But the idea of leadership has evolved significantly along with the human race. And while there are still plenty of alphas—of either gender—fighting their way to the top of the org chart, other skills and experience are required these days. When it comes to leadership, we’ve come a long way. | At the University of Calgary, faculty members are challenging traditional notions of leadership and bringing their students a more expansive view of what it means to be a leader, whether they are engineers and MBAs heading to boardrooms, doctors and nurses heading to examining rooms or teachers bound for the classroom. On the following pages, three of these faculty members share their thoughts on leadership.
Looking beyond the usual suspects
“The notion of leadership is really ‘in’ right now, but I don’t think most people know what leadership is,” says Shirley Steinberg, a professor of youth studies in the Faculty of Education. “A lot of educators are spouting off the word ‘leadership’ but there has to be a real analysis and conversation about what we mean by leader.”
The university’s Werklund Foundation Centre for Youth Leadership Education—the first research centre of its kind in the world—is helping lead this discussion with publications, an international conference this spring and a new certificate in youth studies for master’s students. The centre is teaching the next generation of teachers that leadership is not about holding power; rather it’s a co-operative practice that allows people to first discover, and then demonstrate their strengths.
“Leadership is facilitating,” says Steinberg, the centre’s new research chair on youth leadership education. “A leader has to take an active part in setting it up so that others can do their best.” And developing youth leaders means looking beyond the usual suspects—the star athlete or school valedictorian—to kids who are indigenous, poor or homeless, below average in school, queer or questioning, or otherwise marginalized, and then creating opportunities for them to realize their own leadership abilities.
“It’s easy for a kid to be a leader if he or she has always been a leader,” she says. “But we are trying to look at ways to facilitate self-confidence and commitment in youth who are quieter or forgotten and wouldn’t be the ones to be identified as leaders.” In Steinberg’s view, leaders are sometimes born, but given the right opportunity, can become empowered to lead.
Doing the right thing
Just a couple of generations ago—as his family was living in seemingly endless political and economic poverty in East Africa—no one would have foreseen that Dr. Aleem Bharwani would become a specialist in internal medicine, study leadership and public policy at Harvard and become a clinical assistant professor in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine.
But all those decades ago, with the support of the Aga Khan Development Network providing health care, housing, education and economic opportunities, Bharwani’s parents were able to better their situation and eventually immigrate to Canada, where their son was born.
“My family and I were clear beneficiaries of those who prioritize generational public service,” says Bharwani, who as a result of his family’s experience views leadership to be a very personal practice.
“Every action, every inaction, every word, every thought ought to be an act of leadership,” says Bharwani. “Voting can be an act of leadership. So can mentorship, education, or any sharing of ideas, problems or opportunities. Anything we do to enhance our generational activities is, in my opinion, an act of leadership.”
Too often, he says, people have too narrow a view of who is a leader, thinking only of CEOs, deans or politicians. “But I think some of the greatest leaders are friends, peers, parents, teachers, students and those great mentors who everyone has had growing up who make you think differently about world issues,” says Bharwani.
He says to create leaders, the most important thing is to promote reflection. “I encourage people to zoom out and look at things from the balcony as well as the dance floor,” he says. “I teach my students to have honest, open conversations with everyone, to foster a safe space for people to identify opportunities, problems and solutions as well as partners, and finally, to dream, ask questions, experiment, iterate and share.”
Bharwani says leaders can learn from everyone they encounter and everyone, in turn, has the responsibility to be aware of—and engage in—identifying collective problems and finding solutions. “Leadership isn’t the gift and duty of a few,” he says, “rather it’s the goal and expectation of the majority.”
Creating ‘Aha’ moments
It was one of his employee’s realizations, years ago, that let Jim Dewald know he was becoming an effective leader. “I can really remember making that crossover,” says the associate professor and associate dean (graduate programs) at the Haskayne School of Business, “and being more excited about people who were working for me getting ‘aha’ moments and achieving things than my own achievements. That’s when you know, OK, I am moving into the leadership realm.”
Dewald moved from being CEO of a number of different companies to teaching management at Haskayne about five years ago. He coaches students to learn from transitions—whether it’s a promotion, a corporate change or a personal mistake.
“We try to prepare students for those situations,” says Dewald. “The best thing to do is be aware these things will come along and be very open, listen and see what you can learn out of it.”
Managing setbacks—or failing forward—managing yourself, and managing your relationships are three important tenets for leadership, says Dewald. The fourth and final one, he says, is leading others. “It’s always a shock for students to understand that it’s not about having all the answers, and dictating ‘you do this and you do that.’ It’s much more of a shepherding role.”
That “leading from behind” approach is far more effective than other, more stereotypical and outdated leadership styles. “I hope the day of the bombastic, take-no-prisoners leader is gone, says Dewald. “It probably never will be, but we would be a better world without it.”
Haskayne, along with faculties and departments across the University of Calgary, is doing what it can to create that better world by investing significant time and resources to give students the opportunities and information they need to discover and hone their own leadership skills.
Dewald, meanwhile, proposes a simple test to see whether someone has the right stuff to lead: “The truth of a leader is not so much their actions,” Dewald says. “But are they out for personal glory or the greater good?”
