Academic leadership across difference

Kamal R Mahtani is a GP & Professor of Evidence-Based Healthcare and Director of the MSc Global Healthcare Leadership and Oxford Primary Care Research Leadership Programme. Here, he reflects on the challenges and opportunities of leading across differences in diverse academic communities.

In diverse academic communities, the goal of leadership is not universal agreement. It is trust.

Few organisations bring together such a diverse range of people and perspectives as universities. Students and staff from different countries, cultures, faiths, disciplines and political traditions come together, united by a shared commitment to learning, discovery and debate. As a result, much of the richness of academic life can come from this diversity. For example, in our MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership, we host leaders from every continent who come together to learn from one another, share their different experiences, and develop ideas, collaborations and new peer friendships.

Yet diversity also creates challenges for leaders. In recent years, it has become increasingly common for leaders to encounter, navigate and sometimes mediate conversations about identity, values, politics and social change. Unsurprisingly, given their impacts, local and geopolitical events often reach into our workplaces and classrooms. Staff and students arrive carrying different experiences, concerns and perspectives. At times, these perspectives may differ significantly from our own, and occasionally they may challenge deeply held assumptions or beliefs. This raises an important leadership question: how do we build trust and work across differences that may not, and perhaps need not, be resolved?

Perhaps one way of answering this is to first recognise that a leader may have to hold multiple positions in tension simultaneously, including their own views. Universities are full of situations in which important principles can pull in different directions. For example, we may value freedom of expression, while also wanting people to feel psychologically safe. We champion academic freedom while striving to create inclusive environments where everyone feels they belong. We seek to respect individual rights while also considering the wellbeing of the wider community.

So perhaps leadership is not necessarily about seeking or creating universal agreement. In diverse communities, agreement on every issue may be neither possible nor desirable. The goal of the leader is not to convince everyone to think the same way. Rather, it is to create conditions in which people can work, learn and meaningfully contribute irrespective of their differences. Strong teams are often united not by complete agreement, but by a shared purpose and a culture in which differing perspectives can be heard respectfully and considered fairly.

Achieving this requires a particular mindset. To hear well, leaders must listen well. Listening is often described as a ‘soft skill’, but in practice, it can be one of the most demanding and powerful aspects of leadership. Active listening requires leaders to be fully present, resist the instinct to persuade, correct or defend, and create space for others to express their views and experiences, even if they differ from our own.

Effective listening creates the opportunity for deeper understanding. We do not have to agree with every perspective we encounter, nor should we abandon our own values whenever we encounter disagreement. But there is an important distinction between agreement and understanding. Seeking to understand another perspective is not the same as endorsing it; rather, it reflects a recognition that as thoughtful and well-intentioned people, we can all sometimes see the world differently.

Once people feel heard and understood, trust can grow. People do not need to agree with a leader to trust them. They do, however, need confidence that they will be treated fairly, that their concerns will be respectfully considered and that they will not be dismissed simply because their perspective differs from others'. In diverse organisations, there will invariably be some disagreement. The more important question is whether people trust the process by which decisions are made, feel their views have been genuinely heard and believe they have been treated fairly, even when they may disagree with the outcome.

Academic environments often thrive because they bring together people with different experiences, backgrounds and ways of thinking. Our role as leaders is not to eliminate those differences, nor to manufacture agreement where none may be needed or exist. Instead, it is to create the conditions in which people can learn from one another, challenge one another respectfully and work together productively despite their differences. In doing so, we can help ensure that diversity remains one of the great strengths of academic life.

This blog is dedicated to Cohort 2 of the MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership. A diverse group of leaders who demonstrated that differing views can exist alongside mutual respect, understanding and trust - Kamal.

Acknowledgements: I thank Meena Mahtani, Lydia Flock and Michael Kidd for helpful feedback on an earlier draft.