Academic Leadership

Chapter 10 – Broker

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Developing the Broker

When using the Broker role as an academic leader

you will establish and maintain necessary networks

within and outside of the University.

When using your Broker role you will be:

• influencing others, for example, professional staff to secure appropriate resources or
  academic staff to improve quality of teaching


• understanding the critical type of support needed – critical people, “gate keepers”


• building stable personal relationships


• ‘brokering’ the support of others


• developing and maintaining professional networks, for example, building
  relationships with professional associations


• building and maintaining a professional image


• using persuasive skills


• using negotiation skills


• gaining the support of others


• promoting a positive image


• gaining support and getting the resources you need


• being politically astute.

When you overuse or inappropriately use your Broker role you will be:

• politically expedient


• power hungry.

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.