Principles of Indigenous leadership and self-care in the academy

By Eliza.Compton, 11 December, 2024
Indigenous leadership requires resilience, humility and self-awareness. These 10 principles offer a guide to cultivating wellness and fostering a supportive community
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Senior administrative roles in academia were never my ambition. Like many, I saw them as bureaucratic and often thankless. But in stepping into leadership, I found immense value in addition to its specific challenges – particularly as an Indigenous dean. Indeed, I’ve come to see self-care, for oneself and one’s team, as among the most essential practices an academic leader can cultivate. 

Over time, I developed 10 guiding principles to help navigate this role, honour my Métis heritage and uphold cultural values. To be clear, these principles are aspirations, not strict rules. After returning from leave 18 months ago, I’ve seen how challenging they can be to achieve consistently. So, while I can personally attest to the fact that they won’t necessarily prevent burnout, they help foster self-awareness that, at the very least, tempers its worst effects.

1. Humility: a foundation for lasting relationships

Humility is essential for me. Leadership often requires decisions with incomplete information, making it tempting to project certainty. I try to adopt a “big eyes, big ears” approach: listening and learning first. This humility reminds me I don’t need all the answers, as I remember to give myself the same grace I readily give others.

Practical application: Regularly seek feedback from your team and be certain to ask clarifying questions instead of jumping to conclusions. This deepens connections and fosters a respectful learning environment, although consistency here can be challenging. When I am short-tempered (a constant companion to burnout), I find myself immediately looking for solutions rather than simply listening. 

2. Relationality and reciprocity: building sustainable connections

Reciprocity is integral to many Indigenous cultures, as it is to building strong relationships in academia. I try to understand what drives each team member (within and outside our faculty), knowing that a uniform approach rarely works. Although reciprocity is sometimes difficult to fully maintain in fast-paced work environments such as the academy, it remains an ideal I strive for.

Practical application: Observe who offers resources versus those who only seek assistance. True reciprocity is often elusive, yet it is important to try to support balanced exchanges whenever possible.

3. Detachment and perspective: balancing personal and professional roles

Leadership requires putting the unit’s needs before personal preferences. Detachment, a principle I learned from the leadership book Extreme Ownership, by retired Navy SEAL officer Jocko Willink, helps me manage challenging dynamics, especially around reconciliation, where Métis perspectives in particular are often sidelined. Although detachment is valuable, it takes continued effort not to internalise institutional biases.

Practical application: Focus on building professional relationships, even with colleagues you may not naturally align with. Achieving detachment in every interaction may remain a work in progress (it definitely is for me), but it is usually worth the effort. 

4. Encouraging autonomy and capacity-building

Encouraging autonomy has been transformative. I try to allow colleagues to focus on their strengths while I handle strategic objectives. Although full autonomy isn’t always feasible, it remains a goal for cultivating team independence.

Practical application: Set collective goals and give guidance when necessary, even though balancing autonomy with oversight can often be challenging under time constraints.

5. The importance of small gestures

Leadership is as much about daily interactions as it is about strategy. Recognising hard work and listening to ideas uplift morale. Although I strive to make these gestures consistently, some days the pace of work limits my ability to prioritise them.

Practical application: Aim to acknowledge contributions regularly, in spite of time limitations. Even when imperfectly applied, small acts of care remain valuable.

6. Prioritise saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ with intention

As an academic leader, I’ve learned that saying “yes” to everything, especially reconciliation projects, isn’t sustainable. I try to focus on projects aligned with our shared goals, although overcommitting is sometimes inevitable.

Practical application: Fashion clear criteria for new projects and share them with your team. Despite this framework, when demands affect capacity, I remember that prioritisation is a continuous learning process and that it is a practice.

7. Collective care: supporting team wellness

Self-care is essential, but so is collective wellness. Supporting my team’s wellness is important, although balancing this with workload demands can be challenging. Fostering a culture of care is an ideal that I intentionally work towards daily.

Practical application: Conduct regular check-ins on workloads and encourage open discussions on capacity. Model boundaries, but remember also that maintaining balance is an evolving process.

8. Set an organisational tone

Setting the tone of an organisation, department or team is about more than small gestures; it requires embedding values into formal policies. However, institutional constraints sometimes limit my ability to fully achieve this. I continue to pursue it as an aspiration, even when it feels more rhetorical than practical.

Practical application: Seek to implement guidelines that promote respect and work-life balance, while acknowledging there must be flexibility in this ideal during high-demand periods.

9. Cultivate a culture of constructive feedback

I encourage a culture of constructive feedback, while balancing competing priorities. When receiving or offering feedback, think about its intention. Accepting feedback without personalising it was difficult at first, but it’s essential for growth. 

Practical application: Set up feedback mechanisms, even though consistency can prove difficult in a high-stakes environment. Despite challenges, aim to view feedback as a tool for growth.

10. Lead by example: practising what we preach

Leadership means embodying the values we expect in others, but aligning actions with ideals is a perceptual process. I work to reflect values such as humility, reciprocity and resilience, even when demands make this difficult.

Practical application: Reflect on your behaviour to align it with these principles, and accept that staying aligned with these ideals every day is a continual challenge.

Understand the difference between intention and reality

Indigenous leadership in academia demands resilience, humility and a commitment to self-care. These 10 principles have served me well as a guide for my own wellness and for fostering a supportive community. In environments where Indigenous perspectives are under-represented, embodying these values becomes especially important, even if they sometimes feel more aspirational than achievable. As we strive for equity and representation, may we stay grounded and supportive, understanding that the best intentions are sometimes difficult to realise in practice.

Chris Andersen is dean of the Faculty of Native Studies and special adviser to the provost on leadership and EDI at the University of Alberta. He was a founding member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Executive Council and a past editor of the journal aboriginal policy studies, and is an alum of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. He was made a fellow of Canadian Institute for Advanced Research’s (CIFAR) Boundaries, Membership & Belonging programme in 2023.

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Indigenous leadership requires resilience, humility and self-awareness. These 10 principles offer a guide to cultivating wellness and fostering a supportive community

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