It’s unbelievable to me that I am soon ending a nearly 40-year career in higher education. In 1984, it was my good fortune to land a job in the admissions department at Stanford University and realize you could make a career out of spending every day surrounded by intellectual curiosity, youthful optimism and tangible evidence of people fulfilling their dreams. How lucky I’ve been.
This article comes from the April/May issue of the Community College Journal, published by the American Association of Community Colleges since 1930.
When I entered the presidency almost 10 years ago, it was with excitement, trepidation and an unwavering belief in the power of education. The learning curve was high, the assumptions were often wrong, but the possibilities were intoxicating. Here are a few things I wish I’d known as I set out on my presidential journey:
There are rarely concrete answers.
Leadership seminars, curated books and TedTalks often portray leadership and decision making as formulaic and concrete. And leaders themselves often suggest that their actions and thought processes are clear, apparent and for the most part successful. While vulnerability and authentic leadership are finally getting their due, I worry that we still treat positional leaders as somehow “all-knowing.”
The silver lining of the Covid pandemic was our ability to easily admit as leaders “I’ve never done this before” or “we are making this up as we go.” The reality is there are often multiple answers and context is ever evolving. Give yourself the grace of knowing no one else has more magical insight than you.
Other presidents are likely struggling with similar issues. Don’t be hesitant to reach out.
As my remarkable colleague Dr. Jeff Fox, former president College of Southern Idaho, shared, “The job is a lonely one… gone are the informal networks on campus where you can hang out and have the occasional cynical conversations. Instead, your social outlets become galas, fundraisers and legislative events, where your unfettered concerns cannot be shared.”
One of the best moments of my presidency was when a colleague called me during the summer of 2020 to ask about our approach to the pandemic, social justice protests and election anxiety. As trusted colleagues, we could admit our fears, our political predicaments and our outrage. And we could provide much needed compassion, empathy and ideas to each other to weather that ugly confluence of pressures.
This network would have been helpful several years prior and I wish I had built it earlier.
Skip-level check-ins are critical.
An assumption I made early on as a president was that my executive cabinet colleagues were strong communicators and focused on accountability. I trusted them to share vision and direction, provide strong professional development opportunities for their teams and ensure people were following through with critical work. In some instances, I did not verify. And I didn’t immediately create a culture of 360-degree honest feedback and coaching to strengthen our senior leaders.
We now incorporate that into our senior level leadership team and the outcomes have been very positive. Skip-level and/or 360 feedback is essential to moving your vision forward with clarity and trust.
People are paid to give away money.
I disregarded a presidency for many years because I didn’t want to fundraise. The idea of asking people for money was not at all appealing. So, when I became the president and we launched an audacious $40 million comprehensive campaign, I knew this was a skill I needed to learn and learn fast.
I learned pretty quickly that all you need to do is talk about what happens to students as a result of your programs and services. If you have solid outcomes and you watch lives transforming daily, just tell that story. And to make it even easier, I wish I’d realized earlier that there are funds out there designed to be given away.
The primary role of a foundation’s executive director is to align their resources with your goals. Once that match is made, you can make incredible progress. Tell the story; even better, have the students or faculty tell it. And help those foundations understand the synergy between your two missions. By the way, we closed our campaign just over $50 million!
Last but not least…
I wish I’d known earlier how:
- Great standing desks are to your health.
- Important it is to keep running shoes in your drawer.
- Much better it is to keep lunch utensils in your desk and wash them daily rather than throw away a zillion plastic forks during your tenure.
- To devote time and attention to your physical and mental well-being.
- Incredibly fast the time would go and to slow down when possible to savor it.
