In early June 2010, PKAL held a regional STEM education leadership workshop in the Upper Midwest, hosted at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN. The thirteen attendees— early career faculty from public and private colleges and universities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota— embarked on a leadership development journey that started with the identification of their own professional goals. They were then challenged to link these goals to the bigger picture of their departments and institutions. This necessarily involved thinking deeply about shifting focus from their individual agendas to one that is more collective or institutional in nature. In other words, making the transition from “I” to “we” and becoming “servant leaders.”

One of the highlights of the workshop was a session lead by MaryAnn Baenninger, President of The College of St. Benedict, in which she elaborated on her views of leadership. From her perspective, a key aspect of leadership is about building and nurturing communities focused on common goals. One way that faculty members can be leaders even without a formal title is to “lead up.” What does this mean? It means, in part, that faculty members understand the work of administrators, their real constraints and pressures (including budgets!), and the language they use in their administrative culture. More concretely, faculty should think about how what they are doing connects to the campus strategic plan, how resources are allocated (and ask if you don’t know), and how to coordinate and leverage with other projects. Also, being a solution, as opposed to another problem, will make conversations with chairs, deans and senior leaders about support and resources more fruitful. One of the key issues we have been discussing as part of the Keck/PKAL Facilitating Interdisciplinary Learning project is how to connect the leadership of faculty more intentionally with the institutional mission and leadership. Leading up is certainly one effective grassroots strategy.

As we move forward together, PKAL is planning more leadership workshops in partnership with existing and emerging regional PKAL networks around the country. Also, these kinds of conversations were part of PKAL’s Summer Leadership Institute on July 17-22.

Stay tuned for more perspectives on leadership here and on PKAL’s blog Through the Kaleidoscope.