Jo Chaffer introduces an episode from Advance HE’s leadership podcast with special guest Braden Hill, a Nyungar (Wardandi) man from the south-west of Western Australia and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Equity and Indigenous), Edith Cowan University, Western Australia.
This podcast series is for anyone practising leadership, in whatever role or job title you occupy, who wishes to reflect on and possibly extend how you do leadership and to what end.
Advance HE Global Associate Jo Chaffer speaks to six people to understand how their different backgrounds and pathways are shaping their leadership today and asks what people can learn about themselves and their leadership. Listen to the series.
Braden brings thoughtful and thought-provoking perspectives into this lively and vibrant conversation. He speaks candidly about being a young man struggling to be fully himself in the world and how this sparked a different than expected, but ultimately hugely fulfilling early career and pathway into higher education.
From a successful teaching career he moved to manage and then direct Edith Cowan University’s Indigenous Centre. The scope of role involved in leading this ‘university within a university’ built a strong, broad skills base, a solid foundation from which to move into the executive team.
Braden’s continued to do things differently throughout, maintaining a freshness of approach, taking nothing and no one for granted and keeping active management of relationships and collaboration at the heart of everything. Being able to share and have others share with him is essential for building the trusting relationships within which leadership can happen.
Themes emerging from the conversation
- How we come into leadership is through being the person others around us trust and respect and who they look to, to take on a leading role. It’s not about being the most charismatic, loudest or self-serving.
- Stepping in and out of different cultures helps us understand who we are, and perhaps appreciate what being leaderful and leadership means to us.
- Being custodian of the moment in time; the stories, knowledge, cultures of the time, to carry those forwards is a sacred responsibility. And one that we hold only for a moment in time.
- Being vulnerable enough to try something different, to break the mould of the highly normative leadership shape of western higher education.
Questions for reflection
- What if we forget about ‘leadership’ and think about ‘stewardship’ instead? Being a custodian rather than a leader? What does that do?
- How do you and your teams know what ‘good’ collective and individual leadership looks like – what you are striving for? Is it something you articulate and gain agreement on, or do you have other ways of creating common understanding and purpose?
- What assumptions do you notice are present in your team around the pace at work? Is there an assumption that fast = good or productive? Or do you proactively adjust pace to suit different types of work?
Professor Braden Hill
Professor Braden Hill is a Nyungar (Wardandi) man from the south-west of Western Australia and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Students, Equity and Indigenous). Professor Hill previously held the role of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Equity and Indigenous) and Head of Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University’s (ECU) Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research.
He has significant experience in Aboriginal education, as well as leading a range of equity initiatives including Sage Athena SWAN, Respect Now Always, Reconciliation Action Plan and Disabilities and Access Inclusion Plan within the tertiary sector. His current portfolio responsibilities include leading ECU’s commitment to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advancement, Equity and Diversity initiatives and working across the University to provide an environment that welcomes, and facilitates the success of, students and staff from a range of diverse backgrounds.
Professor Hill’s research interests include Indigenous education, identity politics, queer identities in education and transformative learning. He is also chief investigator on a project exploring the lived experiences of Indigenous LGBTQI people to better inform community health organisations in their working with queer-identifying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
