Seminar: Leadership Role Biography

The premise of the presentation in this seminar is that the way we are as leaders and how we react to others’ leadership can often be linked to how we have experienced leadership (our own leadership experience and others) at different times of our life, beginning from a young age. Uncovering our historical patterns of leadership is instructive about our current experience of leadership and followership, both of which are a part of leading collaboratively as a team.

Undertaking Leadership Role Biography with leadership teams quickly illuminates why and how team members take up (or perhaps don’t take up) leadership and followership; the patterns appear in strong relief. The outcome for senior teams is a greater understanding and appreciation of each other that sets the base for, or develops, the trust needed for team collaboration going forward. The work done together is interesting and engaging, allowing for powerful learning that can build connection between team members.

The seminar will explore the conceptual background to leadership role biography, the presenters experience of its value in application with leadership teams, and provide seminar participants with the knowledge to use this leadership development method.

Professor Wendy Harding is a founding member of NIODA – National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia and is the current Dean and PhD Co-lead at NIODA. Wendy has held roles in creating, leading and teaching in Australian postgraduate programs in systems psychodynamics for over 30 years. Her passions in this work are the interplay of object relations and intersubjective theory and application in organisations and broader systems, and in developing nuanced ways of opening space for deep reflection of experience in the classroom or organisation.

Alongside her role as an education leader, Wendy has undertaken many action research and consultancy projects in a broad span of organisational settings from hospitals, prisons and large government departments to a variety of smaller organisations. These projects have focussed on individual, team and whole of organisation development and structural and cultural change using a range of intervention methods.