Reflections from GWALA Cohort 2 Fellows

Blog from Elizabeth Vaquera, Director, Cisneros Hispanic Leadership Institute

GWALA Cohort 2

Working with trust

Among the many takeaways, ‘pearls’, and words of wisdom from Cohort 2 of GWALA, I see myself coming back to one idea: trust. I still remember the first day we met as a cohort, the facilitators encouraged us to ‘trust the process.’ And that was just the beginning! ‘Trust’ became a more central theme than just about trusting the GWALA process.

Provosts, Associate Vice Provosts, Deans, Associate Deans and other academic leaders spoke of the importance of trust to be effective leaders. Trust was never brought up as the be-all and end-all, but it was definitely a necessary component for successful leadership. The way trust was brought up in conversation was not just as many of us may think of it: a two-way process, but also as a tool to empower others.

GWALA has encouraged me to think of trust in a more intentional and broader way. In my day-to-day as Executive Director of the Cisneros Institute, I recognized the importance of building and earning trust with my immediate team and those others I work with from across the university. I always recognized that trust does not happen by magic and it is an iterative process that has to be continuously created, earned, nourished, and revisited. I close my GWALA year, with a new, more complex, and long-lasting appreciation for the power of trust as an empowering tool, which, in turn strengthens the team, and hence our outcomes.