It’s a fact of life: birds flock, fish school, people “tribe”. Dr Ann Hemingway

What I wanted to get out of the inspiring leaders program? More knowledge about myself as a leader. More knowledge about theories and research on leadership. What others around the university were doing or thinking in relation to leadership.

What I got out of the Inspiring Leaders Program? Positives Challenges for me More knowledge about myself as a leader Time to reflect on my leadership style Discussions with colleagues across a range of departments regarding leadership and what works More knowledge about the literature on leadership styles Many theories of leadership seemed to be based on `ideas` rather than empirical research Many theories address both management and leadership and do not directly consider the leadership of academics , `herding cats`

A personal interest in leadership led me to read widely…. Logan D., King J. & Fischer-Wright H. 2008 Tribal Leadership. Harper Collins: New York. A book which reported a ten year study of over 24,000 people in 24 organisations (in my comfort zone!!)

Why Tribes…. Its in our nature as human beings we have evolved to form tribes, they help us survive and wherever we are we do it….why work against our nature as a leader… Great the lazy leaders way forward me thinks!!

Why this resonated for me… As a student of natural horsemanship we study the nature of the horse what comes naturally to them and we work with that, they communicate through body language so do we…they live in herds we become part of the herd, and it works… So why not as a leader of humans focus on what humans do naturally…

Success depends on “tribes”…. Tribes are a group of people between 20 and 150 once the number gets towards 150 we split to form two tribes. Small organisations are tribes and large ones are tribes of tribes.

Here is the test for whether someone is in one of your tribes: if you saw them walking down the street you would stop and say hello. The members of your tribe may be in your mobile phone and are definitely in your email address book.

So why do we need tribal leaders? Some tribes demand excellence from everyone, others are happy to get by, what makes the difference? Tribal Leaders.

What do they do? Tribal leaders focus their efforts on building the tribe or more precisely upgrading the tribal culture…a tribal leaders behaviour is shaped by an unwavering commitment to personal and tribal values…they engage the human heart.

So what does that mean as an academic tribal leader…. What am I actually doing? What am I putting effort into? Improving the culture, moving towards creative , committed and supportive ways of being within the team Building rapport across the tribe Encouraging creative thinking in a safe environment Developing and articulating values Sharing values Role modelling `be the change that you wish to see in the world`

What now? Currently have research and development money which requires academic staff to come together to creatively engage with various projects….forming a tribe? Or are these people in a tribe already but we need shared values focused on this work to reinforce and get the most out of our relationships?

ahemingway@bournemouth.ac.uk 01202 962796 Dr Ann Hemingway ahemingway@bournemouth.ac.uk 01202 962796