Experiencing leadership: Perceptions of leadership development for higher education contexts.

Higher education is complex and so is the leadership needed in this context. Educational leadership is not well understood despite an increasing interest in studying the phenomenon. This interpretive study aimed to identify aspects of leadership theory found in practice and implications for leadership education by exploring, analyzing, and interpreting experiences of people who earned an Educational Leadership Doctorate at Simon Fraser University. I conducted in-depth interviews and analyzed data to identify themes within and across interviews while also triangulating with my systematic reflections. This paper presents findings on leadership development, focusing on four themes that emerged from 18 interviews with higher education participants: Pathways to Formal Leadership, Learning “How to Be a Leader”, Learning “About Leadership”, and Learning “the Dialogue of Practice”. Leadership was perceived as an intricate lifelong journey. Overall, participants developed their leadership through their own experiences as leaders, followers, or observers of leadership, by engaging in leadership education (formal, informal, and non-formal), and by interacting with others. Finally, both successes and challenges supported learning, yet challenges were more salient and had more memorable lessons. This paper provides valuable insights on leadership development to leadership scholars and practitioners, as well as organizations offering leadership education.