Professor Wilbur Kraak, Coach Deon Davids and Dr Gérard Filies.Leadership skills are taught in classrooms, boardrooms, and even on the rugby field. Recently, the University of the Western Cape (UWC) had the privilege of having the World Cup-winning Assistant National Rugby Coach Deon Davids share his wisdom with staff and students.
The UWC Interprofessional Education Unit (IPEU) hosted a seminar titled Forward Together: Building Team Success.
At the heart of the IPEU's work is integrating the varied disciplines of the UWC Faculty of Community and Health Sciences (CHS) through a scaffolded interprofessional curriculum at all year levels.
Dr Gérard Filies, the chairperson of the IPEU at CHS, explained that their aim is to foster collaboration across healthcare disciplines so that students have a holistic approach to their roles within the healthcare system.
“At UWC, we started thinking about how do we train our graduates to deal with the complex challenges in society. We knew that we needed to expose the students from the different departments to each other so that they have a more global understanding of what each others’ disciplines are and when working in healthcare that they would adopt a team approach,” said Dr Filies.
Coach Deon Davids, Assistant National Rugby Coach at the IPEU Building Team Success SeminarCoach Davids gave first-hand insight into the complexity of leadership. One of the most important principles he discussed was the pursuit of a common goal.
“We must align ourselves in terms of how we reach that solidarity. Integrity is a central factor because when you have that, you bind the team together,” said Davids.
Another highlight for Davids was returning to UWC as an alumnus and seeing firsthand the improvements made to the academic and sports facilities.
Professor Wilbur Kraak, a renowned figure in sports science and currently a professor in the Department of Sport, Recreation, and Exercise Science (SRES) at UWC, was also one of the speakers.
He conveyed the lessons of collaboration and empowering individuals and then the team, important lessons that students, staff and sports coaches can learn from the World Cup winning Springboks.
“Sometimes in situations, you need to gather all the information and think strategically. Empowering through delegations is something we often struggle with in leadership. Because we want to give up power but also hold on to power. You must keep people empowered and accountable.”
Students from Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Sport Science, and other disciplines within Community and Health Sciences, as well as from other academic disciplines, were able to gain insights into shared leadership and collaborative skills needed not only in academia but also in the healthcare system and their future workplaces.
