This article uses three frames of analysis, each with gendered implications, to interpret the author's narrative of experience as a department chair (head of department) in a Canadian university from 1999 to 2002. The narrative is based not only on memory but on transcripts of interviews conducted with the author at various points during her term as chair. The three frames are: (1) learning leadership; (2) surviving organisations; and (3) performing leadership. The methodology is an unusual one, a mix of personal narrative with theory and literature, an approach that demonstrates the relative merits of different theoretical perspectives when applied to an account of experience as well as the difficulty of settling on one "true" analysis. Throughout the discussion, a "critical incident" is repeated several times in slightly varied ways, in order to illustrate how different analytical frames can lead to different interpretations. The conclusion considers the implications of the analysis for understanding the gendered experience of academic leadership. (Contains 4 notes.)