Professor Christina Hughes delivered a keynote on Leadership Development during the SDF Festival 2024, highlighting challenges in university environments and the importance of emotional intelligence and wellbeing in leadership. Below is a summary of the key points:
Leadership development and wellbeing challenges
The keynote discussed the future of leadership development, particularly focusing on culture and wellbeing. There was emphasis on the challenges faced by women in leadership positions, especially in the current university environment. Christina shared her research on leadership development, which included interviews with senior leaders in Australian and UK universities. She highlighted five trends in leadership development, with a particular focus on wellbeing and leadership. She also mentioned the impact of restructuring on universities and the need for effective leadership development to address these challenges.
Emotional intelligence in remote leadership
Christina’s keynote highlighted the importance of emotionally intelligent leadership, equality, and diversity in leadership development. Current challenges are remote leadership and the need for organisations to consider the different dynamics and stresses that arise from remote working. Christina’s review of 40 women’s leadership programmes noted a trend towards blended and online methods, but a lack of virtual reality or augmented reality. There was an emphasis on the importance of remote and hybrid leadership, mentorship, sponsorship, intersectionality, and cross-cultural competencies in women’s leadership programmes.
Leaders’ emotional labour challenges
Christina shared her personal experience of taking on a leadership role without training or support, which led to emotional challenges and conflicts. She emphasised the challenges faced by university leaders in managing transformation, particularly in the context of budget cuts and restructuring. She highlighted the emotional labour involved in leadership, the need for leaders to maintain a professional facade, and the potential for incivility and bullying in the workplace. Christina also shared her personal experiences of dealing with aggressive behavior and the toll it takes on one’s well being. She emphasised the importance of addressing these issues to create a healthier work environment and the emotional life of leaders in leadership development.
Leadership skills and organisational culture
Christina emphasised the importance of organisational culture and the need for leaders to create safe, healthy, and respectful environments for learning. There is a need for different skills in leadership, particularly in managing a civil and respectful work culture. Christina highlighted the importance of emotional labour in leadership and the need to hold space for oneself and others. She also stressed the importance of training in sponsorship and situational humility, as well as emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and cultural competency. Christina concluded by mentioning a subscriber survey she conducted, which showed that managing difficult people, building trust, finding common ground, managing emotions, and cultural competency were key areas of interest for women in leadership development.
Final remarks
Christina’s keynote resonated deeply with the audience by sharing about some organisation’s struggles with incivility and transformation. There was emphasis on the importance of self-reflection and the need to address emotional labour and the separation between one’s personal and professional life. The discussion touched on the importance of women’s leadership programmes in empowering women with knowledge and motivation, but also acknowledged the need for systemic changes. There was an agreement about considering more combined sessions for men and women in development programmes. There was also an acknowledgement about the challenges of changing a system where bad behaviour is rewarded. Christina also shared her interest in an experiment involving action learning groups for women and men.
Dr Rossana Gent – SDF Chair
r.gent@sdf.ac.uk