With any university comes a universe of challenges: policy questions. Personnel issues. Operational dilemmas. Budgetary restraints.
Sierra Dawson and Jennifer Espinola say one key ingredient is critical to addressing those challenges: leadership. And they’re giving the University of Oregon community the skills to be the leaders the UO needs.
Dawson, of the provost’s office, and Espinola, of the law school, facilitate an innovative program that is equipping more and more UO employees each year with tools to overcome challenges — that is, to lead effectively, inclusively and collaboratively. The UO Leadership Academy, run through the Office of the Provost, is a participatory leadership development program for mid-level administrative and academic leaders.
The program, in its seventh year, was born from university conversations about increasing leadership capacity throughout the community. Also, leaders were discussing opportunities and challenges tied to developing robust pools of applicants for leadership positions. A group formed to focus on mentorship and leadership training and explore leadership programs that had been successful at other universities.
Three volunteered to move the work forward and the UO Leadership Academy was born: Dawson, associate vice provost for faculty and leadership development in the provost’s office; Espinola, dean of students and director of the Frohnmayer Leadership Program in the law school; and Chris Esparza, then associate director of the Holden Leadership Center.
Each year, a diverse group of 30 mid- and senior-level changemakers meet once a month for a day to study how better to lead through the lens of transformational leadership. Through trainings, exercises, discussion and reflection on topics such as “healthy and thriving teams,” they develop skills to address complex challenges and work collaboratively to cultivate strong professional environments across and beyond the university.
“One of the most important and unique aspects of this program is that it includes folks from different parts of the university who would never run into each other otherwise,” Espinola said. “We wanted to make sure we were getting a mixed cohort and an opportunity to learn from each other.”
Added Dawson: “If we’re talking about creating change at the university through empowering people, we have to get everybody in the room and make sure everyone understands what inclusive, transformational leadership can look like. It’s not just faculty, it’s not just people who are already in a leadership role. There’s a real thoughtfulness around the design of each year’s cohort.”
Two words drive the leadership movement at the UO, according to Espinola: equipping and empowering.
People need to be equipped with the skills to create positive change and, she added, empowered to feel a “confidence and a willingness” to act. Espinola and Dawson stressed that this capacity to lead isn’t tied to one’s position, rank, authority or status — rather, the cohort is trained to incorporate colleagues in a shared vision in which everyone feels empowered to work toward meaningful change.
Over the year-long program, participants progress from intensive reflection on self, to leading teams, to leading the institution, and the role each person can play in making a difference at any university level.
“We’re in our seventh cohort right now, so there are more and more colleagues around the university who have the capability to see what their agency is, in their particular location, to make the small changes that impact our day-to-day,” Dawson said. “We keep building a community that can literally change the culture one person at a time, in all settings across the university.”
The goal of the program, Espinola said, is to create lifelong learners who stay engaged in their own professional development and, when confronting stubborn challenges, can dig in with skills acquired through the academy to find solutions.
“We don’t want people throwing their hands up,” she added. “We want people to feel, ‘I know a process for figuring this out, I can do it, and I should do it’ — instead of waiting on someone else to save the day.”
—Matt Cooper, University Communications
Questions about the UO Leadership Academy can be directed to leadershipacademy@uoregon.edu.