By Lauryn Bikos

When you think of leadership, what comes to mind? That time you waved your hand up in the air to be first in class to volunteer for a project? Or when someone else in that bustling grade two class beat you to it, so you supported them by completing tasks and meeting requirements? To Jennifer Martino, being a leader combines all these things.

Jennifer is a non-profit leader and educator specializing in community engagement, program development, grant writing, and adult education. Within the London community, she keeps herself busy as the Executive Director at Crouch Neighbourhood Resource Centre, a part-time professor at Fanshawe College, and a board member at Museum London. She is also a part of a grassroots organization called Simple Reflections for Artists.

While learning about Martino’s journey, some key themes stuck out. First, the abundant forms that leadership can take. Take a moment to think about what comes to mind when we hear the words leader or leadership. The person beside you likely has a different answer, as leadership means something different to us all. Now, reflect on the traits of those leaders you thought of, regardless of their form. What comes to mind? Where does empathy fit in? Or teamwork? Martino imparted some insights and wisdom on these topics.

“Some people are really skilled at frontline work, some are really skilled at managing budgets, some are really good at coming up with strategies for programs, and some are great in leadership positions where it’s more of a bird’s eye view of a situation.”

Ron Meyer and Ronald Meijers discuss the foundational concept in Martino’s above quote; leadership agility (2018). This concept refers to a leader’s needed flexibility as they navigate different domains (Meyer and Meijers, 2018). These domains vary depending on one’s audience, responsibilities, and tasks. As Martino described her many roles in the London community, it became clear that each required another form of leadership. For example, she needs to “understand the difference between being a leader at a governance level and being a leader at an operational level.”.

Along with Meyer and Meijer’s domains come concepts about two types of leaders. Erin O’Brien and Jennifer Shea discuss Van Wart’s scheme, comparing transactional and transformational leadership styles. Transactional leaders “help to maintain the status quo” through conformity in social systems (O’Brien and Shea, 2010). Transformational leaders rely on innovation, planning, strategy, and inspiration to encourage those around them to follow a collective interest (O’Brien and Shea, 2010). While chatting with Martino, she subconsciously confirms the transformational leader is the prototype that sets a community up for the most success, as it pushes us to “sit with our discomfort” and grow within our leadership.

“And that includes respect and acknowledging the contributions of others…we operate under the premise that everyone is worthy of respect”

I asked Jennifer how she would define her leadership style, to which she responded with the first half of the above quote: respectful, empathetic, and supportive. Later in the interview, she returned to the idea of respect by describing how her team at Crouch strives to respond to the community members they serve. Leadership traits can vary depending on the situation one finds themselves in, as different skills are needed at other times and ways. However, Martino consistently returned to some key traits, giving an idea of an ideal leader’s behaviour.

For example, Martino began the interview by saying, “I think the most important thing for a leader is to lead with empathy.”. To her, empathy means “making sure everyone is supported” and “that they have what they need”. Further, Martino mentions that without previous exposure to this leadership trait, “it’s tough to have that appropriate level of empathy when you run into somebody, especially in community work, who’s really struggling to get what they need across.”. In “Leading With Empathy”, Qian Haiyan and Allan Walker emphasize the importance of leading with empathy and show how it improves “organizations in subtle but important ways.” (2014). The article asserts exactly what Martino is talking about; without empathy, you cannot be an effective or ideal leader, as you cannot recognize or support the needs of those around you.

This leads to another trait that Martino suggests is a central theme within leadership: teamwork. Like empathy, this trait impacts the effectiveness of one’s leadership abilities; as Martino says, “without the whole team, you can’t get anything done.”.  As a transformational leader, Martino always brought her experiences back to her team(s), whether they be present (at Crouch) or past (the high-school Zonta youth chapter club).

What does women’s leadership look like? I asked Jennifer if she thought barriers for women in leadership had changed over the years. She gave excellent insight into what non-profit leaders (a predominately female-identifying group) continue to face.

“There are still barriers for women being compensated adequately for their work, and sometimes within the helping professions, we think that people should be happy for their work because they get to make a difference and your salary shouldn’t matter.”

So, what does women’s leadership look like? It is transformational, empathetic, built on teamwork, and covers various skills, traits, and types of leadership. While Martino touches on how she, as an executive, ensures her team is adequately compensated, she admits it is still a challenge in the field. While there are still challenges to overcome, people like Jennifer Martino create a supportive space for folks to continue to grow and find solutions to these challenges.

References

Erin O’Brien and Jennifer Shea. 2010. ‘Women’s Leadership Within Their Communities” in         Karen O’Conner (ed.) Gender and Women’s Leadership: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks: Routledge, pp. 41-49

Haiyan, Qian and Allan Walker. “Leading With Empathy.” Handbook of Ethical Educational    Leadership, Routledge, 2014, pp. 124–39, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203747582-14.

Meyer, Ron, and Ronald Meijers. Leadership Agility: Developing Your Repertoire of Leadership      Styles. Routledge, 2018, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315159980.