Blog
Shared leadership to centre teamwork and community
By Peter Hominuk and Sarinah Asselas, Co-Executive Directors at L’Assemblée de la Francophonie de l’Ontario
As the nonprofit sector endures ongoing changes in their environment, we’re being called on to work in new ways. Reimagining Leadership is a project exploring what the future possibilities are for leadership in the nonprofit sector by engaging with those who are approaching it in bold, and diverse ways.
Ontario is a rich tapestry of faces and languages that come from around the world. One of the oldest tongues spoken here is French – L’Assemblée de la Francophonie de l’Ontario (L’AFO) represents this minority population. Founded in 1910, we advocate for Franco-Ontarian rights through programming, funding distribution, and lobbying for both the community and over 150 OSBLs (Organisme Sans But Lucratif, the French equivalent of non-profit organizations).
Being an organization with over a century of history means that some things work extremely well and others need to adapt to modern times, such as taking a co-leadership approach for the first time.
Centring the Franco-Ontarian community
Understanding the values of L’AFO’s community was key to experimenting and creating buy-in for alternative leadership styles. Because we earned their trust, we were given the opportunity to try things out, eventually landing on the co-leadership model. This leadership style was a pleasant surprise for us; we didn’t know if it would work at first.
As Co-EDs, we balance each other out, a contrast of institutional and systems knowledge with operations, communications, and crisis management. These complementary skillsets help us to support the Franco-Ontarian community more effectively, while also co-managing a team that spans across the province. This lightens the load that each one of us would have had to carry solo, while also giving us more time to be attentive to individual staff needs.
The ideology of co-leadership extends beyond just us as Co-EDs. We are continually building trust in our team’s abilities by investing in team-building exercises and training. This gives everyone the skills to be coordinated in their efforts, as was the case during the onset of COVID-19 when it only took one day to get the organization back to full operation. Team-building also helps us to come together for initiatives across the province, like when we piled into a bus and hit the road for the Franco-Ontarian flag’s 50th anniversary. This is important because we work in a hybrid way, between our office in Ottawa and remotely from all over Ontario. Even during events and retreats, teams feel unified as if they were working side by side on a daily basis.
As much as we believe in the power of collaboration within the organization, we also believe that connecting with outside partners is a powerful asset for the success of an organization. There is a tendency for Francophones to isolate ourselves within a Francophone bubble. To change this trend and create a supportive network, we are actively collaborating with partners, such as ONN, Canadian Parents for French, and various francophone and francophile organizations across Canada.
Co-leadership into the future
The weight of an Executive Director is a heavy burden for a single person to carry and can lead to burnout and risk aversion. And without risk, innovation can be rare.
Creating a support system through co-leadership that reinforces the community and organization establishes a safety net — it provides a runway to experiment and manage surprises along the way. And helps us focus on the next big priority for L’AFO: The Estates General of the Franco-Ontarian Community, which seeks to support the modern needs of the Francophone population.
L’Assemblée de la Francophonie de l’Ontario will continue to be a unified voice for Franco-Ontarians for another century. And as more French-speakers are attracted to the promise of Ontario, we will be there to support them personally, professionally, and socially.
Related resources:
- Leadership transition pocket guide
- Leadership stories by:
