Leading beyond roles

Relational leadership for collaborative futures

Abstract

What if leadership in higher education wasn’t about position or power—but about purpose, connection, and collective impact?

This workshop invites you to think differently about leadership. It offers space to reflect, write, and reimagine your leadership practice in a way that is relational, values-led, and grounded in community. Together, we will challenge dominant ideas—such as the lone hero, top-down command, or leadership as control—and instead explore approaches that centre listening, inclusion, and alignment across roles, disciplines, and initiatives.

Designed for educators, researchers, professional staff, and academic leaders at all levels, the workshop creates a collegial and constructive space for deep thinking and real conversation. Participants will engage with structured frameworks to identify their leadership contexts, surface the challenges and opportunities they face, and explore what it means to bring people along to do hard things—together.

Through guided writing, narrative development, and critically constructive peer coaching, this is a space for people who want to lead with clarity, kindness, and commitment to shared purpose.