A Story written by Craig Whitton from Authentik Consulting & Training

Sunday Story: Leadership in Action

Welcome back to Sunday Story. We’re going to be using Sunday Story to highlight leaders we know and have worked with and tell you a little bit about what makes their leadership work. One of the best ways to improve our own practice is to study the effective practices of others, and so we’ll be bringing you a few short stories to help you do that.

Before we get into this week’s story, let’s talk about what leadership is, because it seems to us after 20 years working in the public and private sector, this is an area of struggle for a lot of people. Leadership isn’t just about making decisions or having a position - it’s a function of human community, and it shows up in a lot of different ways regardless of title or role.

We saw this a lot in student housing when I worked at the University of Alberta. It was an incredibly unique context. There was a lot of problematic behaviours - hazing, inappropriate alcohol use, mental health crisis exacerbated by the environment, etc. - and my colleagues and I were often on the front lines of trying to support these students through these experiences. That inevitably meant we had to call for help a lot, and at the UofA, that meant calling the University of Alberta Protective Services - I still remember the phone number off by heart! We worked really closely with Protective Services on a whole host of issues, and it was the perfect example of how leadership is a function of community. One peace officer in particular would always show up like a leader - rain shine or otherwise - and that’s who I’d like to tell you about today.

There were and are a number of officers with Protective Services that are exceptional people, but today I’d like to highlight Tracey Giroux. Tracey and I have known each other since 2010, when I first moved to Alberta and as I was moving into my apartment, she came by on her patrol bike to say hello - she heard the new RCs were starting and it was important to make the connection.

That’s Tracey’s leadership lesson number one: Your relationships matter. By coming by and saying hello, Tracey wasn’t asking for anything - she just wanted to put a face and a voice to the name so that we’d have familiarity and trust when we were in difficult situations. Your leadership practice can build relationships and trust with the members of your community and if you do this during good times, then during rough times you’ll be far better prepared to tackle complex issues.

I worked in student housing at the UofA for quite a few years, and so I got to tackle complex issues with Tracey a lot. I got to see her show up pretty consistently, and when I say “show up”, I mean this: Tracey never arrives anywhere unexpectedly and is rarely caught off guard. She’s always prepared to engage with others, and the way she seems to do this is amazing:

She’s calm.

I know it seems really simple, but I’ve watched Tracey get ready to go into really difficult situations, and where others around are tensing up, Tracey tends to get more relaxed. Her shoulders drop into a relaxed state, her smile brightens, she usually makes some positive comment on the mission - “let’s help this person” - and then she begins. When she knocks on the door to engage in the complex situation, you can feel how her process of calm is embedded in her interaction - the “Hello protective services” is a little more softer and like hearing a song; when the student on the other side of the door opened it up, they didn’t see a scary uniform - they saw Tracey’s smile.

That’s the second leadership lesson I want to share with you that I learned from Tracey - you can always take a moment to prepare before engaging, and being intentional with how you feel completely changes how other people feel when they interact with you.

And when Tracey would engage with these students, she stopped talking and listened. It’s amazing how many leaders seem to like the sound of their own voice, but remember - leadership isn’t about knowing all the answers. It’s about function of human community, and humans need people to authentically listen to them when they are having a tough time. Tracey authentically listens.

It’s not just students in crisis needing support, either. Most folks might be surprised to hear of some of the things I’ve seen working in student housing. I was involved in an incident with UAPS where we found out about a human trafficking operation impacting students, and a guy with warrants across Canada finally got arrested because of our work. There was a tragic shooting in 2012, to which myself and UAPS were amongst the first responders. Suicide, sexual violence, domestic disputes - if you can imagine it happening in a city, it happens at a University, and I have faced down many of these situations with UAPS over the years. These issues always represented a mix of the acute and the systemic - the acute was the students in front of us who were experiencing the bad thing, and I knew when Tracey was on call, we’d be OK. The systemic issues were when we figured out how the various processes, procedures, culture, and organizational systems were exacerbating these concerns, and Tracey was always the first to volunteer to sit on a committee or task force to drive real change. And importantly - Tracey never gets those two confused. When a person in front of her is struggling, she doesn’t ever say “Too bad, but it’s the system!” Which is how many “leaders” tend to respond to folks having difficulty - as if the explanation assuages the anguish. And while Tracey will always represent the lived experiences of those individuals she’s helped at those task forces and committees, she always represents them in a good way so that others understand how the system didn’t work this time.

The reason I bring that up is that’s really important for leaders to remember that you always have two roles - remember, your leadership is a function of community, and that means you need to both address the individual members of the community AND the systems that they interact with. If you confuse an individual need with a systemic response only, then the individual isn’t going to feel heard and supported, and the systemic changes you are driving for will be seen as less credible. Take care of the human in front of you, and then go fix the system - that’s what Tracey does.

You see, Tracey was never “just” a peace officer. She made an effort to be her authentic self and truly connect with people in the community. Indeed, technically as a peace officer she had no “formal” role within Student Housing most of the time (there was a liaison program for a time) - but I can guarantee you that everyone working in housing and living in residence knew Tracey was a leader. Because leadership isn’t about a role, a title, or a uniform - it’s a function of community, and how you show up determines how you fill that function, not your job.

At Authentik, we are disruption experts, and our analysis is telling us that the next few years will be very disruptive indeed. In times of disruption, we need leaders to show up - and that’s why I’m so honoured to be telling you about Tracey today. Tracey’s leadership shows up, and any leader that embodies the lessons I’ve shared here today from observing Tracey’s leadership will find they are successful in leading their community. And for folks in Sherwood Park, you’re in luck - Tracey’s leadership is showing up again for your community, but this time not in a uniform - it’s at the ballot box as she runs for councillor of Ward 2. Please do check out her policies and priorities and if you agree, consider lending her your vote.