Ardyce leads in leadership!
Ardyce Harris,
recipient of the AUSTAFE Award for Educational Leadership, celebrating with
Rod Brightman
Ardyce Harris, Associate Director of TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Institute, was recently honoured with the AUSTAFE Award for Educational Leadership to the delight of her colleagues and the many people who have had the privilege of working with her, or have been inspired by her. This national award is presented by the professional association of TAFE managers across Australia.
It was a pleasure to interview Ardyce and hear her views on educational leadership from the perspective of her long experience in both school and VET education.
Leadership stance
'It’s really interesting to define your own
leadership style because I think it can only be defined by the people you
lead.
‘As a leader you have to be extremely ethical and have integrity. You need to know yourself otherwise you cannot be a good leader or a good manager, because people won’t have confidence in what you are doing and they won’t work with you.
‘My view on leadership has changed over the years because of the influence of different leaders, observations and learning. The most important aspects of leading are having the capability to know the objectives and understand the goals of the organisation, and then having the ability to work with people to achieve those goals and that vision. To me leadership is how you do that – understand, listen, learn, reflect, absorb, define what we do and how we do it and make that clear and achievable for the people you are leading.
‘I don’t necessarily have one particular leadership theory, but draw from different models. I started when participative leadership was the favoured model and have experienced many approaches. I have often thought that the concept of leading from behind by influencing, persuading, guiding, coaching and encouraging people is the most effective. However I have also worked in situations where the organisation saw leadership as being more about authority and direction – leading from the front – knowing exactly what you are doing and telling people why you are doing it. I have also seen many combinations.
‘You have to lead people differently at different stages depending on what the direction or issues are. Some people work best within a framework of absolute direction and authority and some people require guidance, consultation and consensus. When I reflect on what I do – and I do often – I do plan how I will do things. I see the issues of that particular situation at that particular time and adapt and modify how I approach people within those different circumstances.
‘TAFE has gone through extraordinary change and I have been there when it has been consultative, finding ways to reach agreement, and I have been there when it has been by leadership which has been by direction and authority. The impact of those different approaches has resulted either with the leader being accepted as credible and strategic with people who would ‘walk over hot coals’ for them, or being rejected to the extent that some could not even recall their names.
‘As a leader you have to be extremely ethical and have integrity. You need to know yourself otherwise you cannot be a good leader or a good manager because people won’t have confidence in what you are doing and they won’t work with you.’
What has shaped or influenced your leadership style?
‘I have always been a person who sought ideas
and information. I am a very voracious reader and have always been a person
who has sought professional development. I go to a variety of activities.
I have been very, very conscious of having good networks to be able to discuss
issues. I have gone to different educational institutions to undertake relevant
courses and I have shopped for information from professional associations
and associations that offered particular expertise.
‘I have confidence in my ability to use a suite of skills, knowledge and experience. I am not at the stage where I was as a head teacher when I was questioning ‘Can I do this?’
‘I have been very interested, also, in alternative theories when I have felt that people were ‘ramming particular theories down my throat’. I filter and seek out people that I observe have got a way of handling things differently. I have always been very interested in historical aspects of leadership. I have seen in my reading just how varied leaders can be in what they have learned. The great leaders in many aspects have been the ones who have extraordinary failures as well as achievements. The benefit was that they have learned from their failures and thought very clearly about how to do it differently next time.
‘I have confidence in my ability to use a suite of skills, knowledge and experience. I am not at the stage where I was as a head teacher when I was questioning ‘Can I do this?
‘Reflection is a skill that I have learned. Peer feedback mechanisms have always been interesting. To hear what people have said and to reflect on the feedback – I have learned an enormous amount from that. It can be quite devastating but you need to be able to pick yourself up and learn from the mistake and search for the answer. You need to have the ability to search for a different way of doing it.
‘You learn something every day and I think that is true. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a vacuum cleaner when I suck it all up and I surprise myself when I regurgitate it!
‘You have got to be very aware that you are not perfect – if you think you are then you are in deep trouble and if you think you know it all , you are in deep trouble. You learn something every day and I think that is true. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a vacuum cleaner when I suck it all up and I surprise myself when I regurgitate it!
‘I think others observe me to be calm and considered. I think what I do at times is I wait my opportunity to express what I truly believe. I think I cut through what I believe people are circling around. I do not tolerate ‘bullshit’. I do not believe people necessarily challenge the way we do things frequently enough.’
Have relationships helped develop your leadership capability?
‘My first head teacher, who I still meet up with at times to discuss things, has been a significant influence in my professional career. Some of the most important people that I have worked with have been very different and have shown different skills and backgrounds and understanding but they are all very much about having integrity, purpose and wanting to make a difference. I have had a lot of role models that I have gleaned information from – watching how people do things and learning from that.
‘Some of the most important people that I have worked with have been very different and have shown different skills and backgrounds and understanding but they are all very much about integrity, purpose and wanting to make a difference.’
‘An interesting leader I worked with was Doug Corbett because of his style – "I am here to listen, tell me what the issues are", and I was impressed with that. He dealt with a huge range of issues as everything back then was processed centrally. He never attempted to take a stance without getting many perspectives – the total picture – because he had learnt that you never really knew all the background until you had had that opportunity. Particularly for significant issues, I have experienced that Doug’s style of gathering the information before making the decision has always delivered the better outcome.
‘Though more paper based, I also want to see people’s ideas, to understand their rationale, and see how much homework they have done!’
What have you learned from a ‘tried and failed’ strategy?
‘I think the most outstanding example of trying something and failing
is possibly reflected in restructures where I have had the experience of
reorganising areas of Institutes and TAFE NSW. I believed at the time that
the structure we were putting into place would be the most adaptable and
flexible and able to meet the challenge. I am not sure they failed, but clearly
they passed their use by date. When I reflect, I think we did not gather
enough information about the future – we were still playing on the
past.
‘The lesson I have learnt is that the people who have been asked to design for the future have been the ones involved in the past and that provides a particular challenge.’
‘The lesson I have learnt is that the people who have been asked to design for the future have been the ones involved in the past and that provides a particular challenge. When I reflect on the paperwork (which I may still have in my bottom drawer) some people said ‘No, don’t go there.’ It is that difference between incremental change and great leaps. There were reasons why I felt incremental change was right but in hindsight it may have been better to make the great leap. I was conscious of the people who were affected most by the change and I was trying to minimise that impact on them; whereas now I don’t believe you do a great service to people when you are running with a protection policy.
‘I think the organisation has had mismatches in its leaders – where you needed an entirely different way to do business, but you had people in the organisation who could not really see a different way of doing business. Possibly I am at a stage now where I am more comfortable saying that, but back then, when you were looking people in the eye and telling them about the change, it was very difficult to tell them, so the protection policy was paramount.
‘I have spent a lot of time reading different theories and done a lot of research on change management. Basically, you really need to use strategies that are appropriate to that particular time - there is no one size fits all. You have to be very clear that the environment is taken into consideration as well as the goal.
‘The challenge in any educational institution is that you are dealing with professionals who are very highly committed to their areas, so though you may think you are leading one group of people, you are not. You have people with different needs and ideas so you will never, in my view, lead educational change if you do not take that on board. Listen to the different ways that people work with their areas. Their expertise is incredibly important in developing new strategies and approaches.
‘I recently attended a presentation where it was made clear that generational change will make the difference. My experience says it is not so much about the generations. It is about learned approaches that come with the different territories of VET. It is very interesting how some people work with new ideas, no matter what age they are, but in others, that ability does not really exist. You have to structure processes around them.
‘At times impatience leads me to say and do things I regret – misreading people or jumping in too quickly. I have gone back to people to try and reread the situation, or I run it through my own mind again to determine how I might do it differently the next time.’
What is your advice for developing leadership skills?
‘I believe it is dangerous to believe that you know it all, have
done it all and there is no new way of doing it. It is so counter productive.
‘Leadership is not something that you innately have – you do develop it. You can seek opportunities to further enhance what you do and how you do it. See the organisation as an opportunity to work in different environments. Leadership is about working with people and for people.
‘You have to build confidence in what you do, reflect, learn and get out there and do it again. I have developed over the years a very clear view of my own abilities. If you don’t know yourself and what you are it is very hard to have a clear approach to your leadership style.
‘I actually do read a lot of theories and I do go and try them out. I reflect in my own personal life what I practice in my professional life.’
Also See
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP | Research & Exemplars
Working Together – the creation of a learning space INTERVIEW | eZine November 2006