Academic Leadership

Chapter 7 – Developer

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Developing the Developer

When using the Developer role, an academic
leader is able to see what others need to do to
become more effective as teachers or learners. In
this role, you will provide appropriate opportunities
and resources for individual students and individual
staff members as well as student groups and
teaching teams to develop the skills and knowledge
they need to succeed.

When using your Developer role you will be:

• displaying concern and providing support for others at University


• assisting others in developing their capabilities


• understanding others


• building teams


• using participative decision making


• managing conflict


• negotiating roles


• running effective meetings


• communicating effectively


• delegating effectively and proficiently.

When you overuse or inappropriately use your Developer role, you will be:

• soft hearted


• permissive


• overly democratic


• too participative.

As with other roles you may need to:

• Develop the role:
  
  
  • critically review your own behaviour and its impact in different contexts over a
    period of time;
  
  
  • develop strategies to assist you in becoming better at reading the external
    environment;
  
  
  • find ways to better utilise the knowledge you have gained from previous
    experiences as an academic leader in new contexts.
  
  
  
  


• Refocus the role:
  
  
  • pay more attention to it, recognising the importance of selecting the most
    appropriate operational role for each new situation.