How to Be an Inspirational Leader—Fiona Tolhurst’s Memorial

By Zainab Cheema 

What does it mean to be an inspirational leader? During the memorial of Dr. Fiona Tolhurst held at the Veterans’ Plaza on the campus grounds of FGCU on Friday, January 14, I found myself reflecting about what a leaving a legacy means in leadership and education. Stories after stories of Fiona’s students, friends, colleagues took the podium on January 14, 2022, and share their memories about her before the 250 strong audience (150 attending in person and another 100 present on Zoom). Stories about her as a friend, mentor, teacher, colleague, champion runner and teacher (and eater) colored the hour like gold leaf on a medieval manuscript.

The community storytelling about Fiona was a master lesson on how to be an inspirational leader and educator. One of the common themes sketched by the anecdotes about her ability to inspire. Speaker after speaker talked about how infectiously inspirational was her passion for medieval literature, her students, her colleagues and community. She made learning fun. “I’ll never forget her dazzling bright smile that welcomed me on the first day of class,” said one student. Another student agreed, observing that “One of my favorite memories is the time that we had to perform our readings of Old English in front of the class.” Her personality, enthusiasm and knowledge made her a change agent—someone with the ability to transform perspectives and lives to a better direction. In other words, she was a leader.

In this post, I want to summarize how to be an inspirational leader in your field by modeling Fiona’s example in Higher Ed. Here are the takeaways that I got from the stories exchanged at the memorial and my own experiences as a new faculty member who worked with her.

Share Your Excellence

Becoming a leader means becoming excellent in the field (and being recognized for that excellence). But it also requires something more. It means to share your passion with others and in doing so, transmit that same passion to them. It’s not enough to be excellent yourself, to be a leader you have to inspire other people to be excellent too. A student who graduated with his MA in English Literature observed: “the classes that we shared in her neighborhood’s community center created memories I will treasure forever. When we’d come back to visit from our visit to Jeeves, the smart coffeemaker a few rooms down from where we’d meet, she’d be waiting for us with her classic big smile, excited to talk about Chaucer or crazy Margery Kempe.” Another graduate student of hers remembered: “I am grateful that I got to experience grad school with someone as passionate as her. And I’ll always remember her opening my very first medieval literature class with the phrase, ‘It wasn’t just knights and dark ages, and knights kicking ass.’”

Other students agreed: “She turned me on to medieval literature and helped me to cultivate the same love and passion that she had for it. Words cannot describe how much I’ll miss her and the great contribution that she gave to my education.” Fiona’s love and passion for medieval literature infectiously transmitted itself to her students and friends. When I joined her department as a new faculty member, she immediately invited me to join the Medieval and Early Modern Research Collective, sharing her knowledge and love for medieval studies with me and our other colleague. Talking to Fiona about C.S. Lewis and Tolkien’s medievalisms and Katherine Hepburn’s performance as Eleanor of Aquitaine came to influence my own research interests. Sharing your excellence with others is the quality that transforms you from being distinguished in your field into being a leader.

See your stakeholders as their best potential selves and make them see it too.

Another theme in the stories about Fiona was that she saw you as your best potential self. Seeing yourself mirrored in her love and value for you made you want to be that self too. I can’t think of a finer definition of what it means to embody inspirational leadership. Fiona’s stakeholders were her colleagues, friends and students, but these lessons can equally apply to other kinds of professional and personal relationships. “She was unique, full of energy, and wanted desperately for you to know that you were valued,” said one of her students. Another declared: “I am heartbroken but I am so glad I got to meet her. I would not be the person that I am had I not met her.” Fiona’s students also talked about her mentorship of them and her ability to give them confidence by seeing them as their best selves. One young woman talked about how Fiona inspired her to become a teacher and to continue her path in Higher Ed: “I will never forget the encouraging words she shared, urging me to continue my education for my own sake and not settle for anything less than I deserve. It touched my heart. Her legacy lives on through her students as we try our best to make her proud.”

Inspirational leaders distribute confidence and they get others to see the value in doing the same. A student remembered her celebrating their triumphs with them, taking them out to dinner after they presented at their first conference and then refusing to let them pay the check, instead asking them to pay it forward. Yet another young graduate student talked about her struggles with self-worth and how proud she felt when Fiona framed her graduation announcement in her office. Seeing your stakeholders through their best potential and helping them see it too gives them the strength to overcome the challenges that they are facing in the current moment. Modeling their value before them helps them to take ownership of those qualities and become strong and empowered in the now.

Legacy is Community

Legacy is probably one of the most emotionally charged words of the English language. Human beings are hardwired to want to leave something behind, to shape the world through a marker of their presence. And of course, legacy means different things to different people. For some, legacy is one’s children. For others, it means a company or organization that would endure. And for others yet, it could be a book. After hearing the stories on last Friday’s memorial, I’ve come to see a leader’s legacy as community. It is the ability to share your presence with others, to connect with them yourself and help them connect with each other. This can only be done by sharing power. Fiona shared power by making her students stakeholders in the classroom: “She always wanted to hear what we thought about our readings and made every point we made part of the lesson, making us feel like we were her colleagues and students,” said one of her BA students. Building legacy through community means connecting and bringing together the well-positioned with the underdogs to circulate value. The different groups and organizations she created between her faculty members and university colleagues are a testament to that: Ladies Who Lunch, the Medieval and Early Modern Research Collective, Medieval Movie Night and others. An inspirational leader’s work in connecting is also alchemized by fun. Anne Latowsky, president of the Southeastern Medieval Association, remembered “the joy and energy she brought to any event that she attended” and “how much fun it was to dance with her at the big dance at the medieval conference at Kalamazoo.” An inspirational leader builds community through connection and fun. The institutional and academic accolades for Fiona’s life and work will be forthcoming. But ultimately, the community is the legacy.