On Leadership: Ruth Ashford

How Personal Leadership Cultivates Professional Leadership
Ruth Ashford

As a woman who returned to a new career after having my child, I was not aware of my own leadership skills.  However, moving from a career in the NHS, to marketing and sales and then finally into academe, I realised that leadership is about a range of skills – many are learned and practiced as one encounters all walks of life. 

I was recently appointed as the Dean at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School, which is one of the largest business schools in the UK!  This means that I lead 150 academics and the challenges are great in the current climate.

The main skills, which I have developed, relate to understanding the people that I interact with as well as understanding and shaping the direction and focus of the organisation.  My background means that I have led academics in a professional body as the chief examiner, academics in a learned society as the chair, as well as head of division of academics in marketing and retail.  I have worked up from the bottom lowest role in business (clerical assistant and sales assistant in the 1970s) and academe (very junior lecturer in 1990s), so I understand the issues and challenges that colleagues are facing at all levels.

Reviewing, auditing the current situation and assessing the next steps to move from A to B and achieve the ultimate vision, is the strategic part of the game.  The operational part of leadership, in my experience, is all about getting colleagues on board and working as a total team to the common goal.  That’s not easy though – especially with different agendas running.  However, as a leader, I try to ensure that I would not ask anyone to do anything I wouldn’t do myself, also I lead by example and undertake work in a difficult area that perhaps would not be normally completed by a dean – to show that if I am willing,  then I would expect all colleagues to embrace.

As a female and a parent, I think that there are traits that women embrace which help to build strong leadership skills.  We are used to managing various environments (home, job etc.), taking on different roles (parent, partner, etc.) persuading and nurturing the family to achieve the common goals.  It’s not much different in business but just at a much larger scale.

Another very important part of leadership is about being constantly positive and giving off an air of confidence, which inspires others around you.  This is not always easy, especially in such challenging economic situations.  As a leader, I always look for the opportunities and good things in business and life in general.  Indeed enthusiasm and positivism can be infectious.  A smile and positive feedback to colleagues will be very much appreciated.

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Professor Ruth Ashford was appointed Dean of the Business School in July 2010.

After an early career in purchasing, marketing and sales, Ruth Ashford moved into higher education in 1992 to teach marketing and information technology. She joined MMU as a lecturer in 1993 and has built up considerable experience in course development, helping to launch nine new programmes, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Student Chapter and CIM-linked programmes.

She is a business education graduate of MMU and completed a PhD in Consumer Behaviour at Lancaster University. Her consultancy work spans syllabus design on behalf of The CAM Foundation and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), as well as market research for the Cheshire Guidance Partnership, Precision Marketing and the Merseyside TV Production Company.

Professor Ashford is a Chartered Marketer and a Fellow (and Senator) of CIM. She is Chair of the Academy of Marketing, international conference Chair for ESCP Europe, and a reviewer for the Academy of Marketing and the Journal of Public Affairs.