At FW we believe that leadership is an important skill no matter if you are early, mid or senior in your career. Here Prof Heiko Spallek, Head of School and Dean of the Sydney Dental School (and 3-time mentor in our FW Mentoring Program!), shares his lessons on leadership and new book he has published on the topic:   

 

I have a strong personal connection with Franklin Women, accompanying my third mentee on her academic path now. It actually was the Franklin Women community that encouraged me to share my leadership insights more broadly.

Thus, I launched the Leadership Travel Guide Newsletter, a free weekly email newsletter where I share little nuggets of wisdom (or so I believe) of what makes you better at managing people and becoming a good leader. 

160 issues later, the Leadership Travel Guide has attracted close to a thousand subscribers.  

Many subscribers have contacted me and requested a more detailed guide with a specific focus on academic leadership and career development. In response, I compiled my most important lessons learned during the past 30+ years into an easy-to-read book, now published as A Path to Academic Leadership: 8 Lessons to Advance Your University Career.  

Plenty of leadership books explain the theory behind good leadership much better than mine—mainly because smarter authors wrote them. They provide extensive and well-curated “book knowledge”. I tried to write a guide providing what a guide should do: advice, tips, and navigational help—written by someone who has been there and done it.   

I think of leadership as a path. I embarked on my own path as the son of an upholsterer and a seamstress growing up in East Berlin where I studied dentistry at the Berlin Charité. My career spanned three continents in various positions, ranging from forced service in the East German military to clinical educator in Berlin, academic researcher in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to becoming director of a US-based company and now Dean of the Sydney Dental School.  

A Path to Academic Leadership provides first-hand guidance on what works and how it can be applied in academic leadership positions ranging from being the dean of an academic school, running a large task force or committee, heading a research lab, chairing a small committee of peers, or just leading yourself—arguably the most critical leadership task. The best part, however, is that the book is short—acknowledging that most academics have little time to spare.   

There’s something for everyone in Heiko’s latest book, even his dog Lilly is studying how to become a better pack leader! You can get your “paws” on a copy of “A Path to Academic Leadership” here.