Leadership in Collective Engagement

In this episode of the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose podcast series, we are in conversation once again with the University of Adelaide’s Dr. Taylor Willmott and Professor Jodie Conduit for the sixth and final instalment of the series.

Jodie is the lead investigator on the Australian Research Council (ARC) funded ‘Collective Engagement Towards Social Purpose’ project, and has been working closely with Taylor on the analysis of qualitative data from interviews with community engagement managers and leaders of social purpose organisations. She stresses the importance of storytelling as a tool for leaders to connect with people.

"It's only with that really deep understanding and almost feeling the emotional connection as well, that for someone having gone through it, that we can start to have a common understanding of where we want to go and really connect with those people." – Professor Jodie Conduit

Also joining us in this episode is Dr. Taylor Wilmott, a member of the University of Adelaide's research team for the Collective Engagement for Social Purpose research project. She emphasises the importance of the leader being a participant in workshops to ensure everyone feels like their voices will be heard.

The leader has to be there as a participant and someone who is managing their power dynamics in the room and is able to step back, and recognise that everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses including themselves, and how best can we leverage them and make sure that everyone feels like their voice will be heard in the room. – Dr. Taylor Willmott

The conversation focuses on 7 tips for effective leadership in collective engagement:

1. People-first.
2. Make it tangible.
3. Create access points.
4. Get the right people in the room.
5. Create a safe space.
6. Empower people.
7. Celebrate success.

To access the transcript for this episode: Collective Engagement Ep 6 Jodie & Taylor Transcript