Hosting meaningful conversations about leadership and management
30 April 2012, by Associate Professor Elaine Stratford
In early 2004 I returned to normal duties following six months in Canada on sabbatical and found I had been nominated to serve as Deputy Head of School. At the time, I was a mid-level senior lecturer, engaged in coordinating the School’s honours and postgraduate programs, committed to working a fraction of my time as one of six ‘theme area’ coordinators for the University of Tasmania – focused upon community, place and change, and the mother of two boys then aged 12 and 8.
In mid-2005, when the Head and Professor went on study leave, I stepped up to Acting Head. Half way through his six months’ leave, he advised – after nearly a decade at the helm – that he wished to return to the ‘rank and file’ at the completion of his own sabbatical.
