With the support of my board, I secured an executive coach three years ago. After 15 years as president at Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC), I sought clarity on the college’s direction and my role in leading it.
My executive coach guided me through a year of inner work and renewal that led to another year of growth with the Aspen Institute’s Fellowship for Experienced Presidents, which sharpened my focus on post-graduate outcomes.
Two years of leadership recalibration revealed that I was in my third presidency at MVCC — the focus of my leadership in 2007, 2017 and today is distinctly different. Yet, articulating those leadership shifts proved difficult.
This article comes from the current issue of the Community College Journal, published by the American Association of Community Colleges.
Having elevated my AI skills working with Todd McLees and his 30-Day AI-Agility Challenge, I developed habits of using AI to unlock deeper reflection. Nothing replaces the human connection of a coach, but I found AI to be an effective tool for amplifying self-inquiry. This experience underscored AI’s potential in leadership growth, shifting it from a transactional tool to a collaborative thought partner.
AI-driven reflection
I started with a simple request: I asked ChatGPT to help me reflect on my leadership evolution over three distinct phases — my first seven years, the next seven and the most recent three. AI engaged me in a dynamic, probing dialogue that structured my thinking in ways I hadn’t accessed before. Rather than summarizing my own experiences in isolation, I engaged in a back-and-forth dialogue, letting AI ask me a never-ending series of probing questions.
It began with: How would you describe your main leadership priorities during your first seven years as president? That question immediately clarified my early focus: shaping institutional culture, building relationships and implementing high-impact changes.
AI then followed with: What specific challenges or opportunities did you focus on? This led me to recall how we made meaningful changes to key systems, restructured academic affairs, built professional development initiatives and managed enrollment surges during the Great Recession. The AI affirmed my responses and encouraged me to go deeper, surfacing insights that might have otherwise remained dormant.
Through this iterative process, I identified clear patterns — shifts in my leadership style, evolving institutional priorities and the interplay between internal operations and external partnerships. AI functioned as a customized coach, prompting reflections beyond what traditional journaling or discussions with colleagues might yield.
Three phases of leadership evolution
The first seven years: Establishing trust and cultural foundations. Early on, I focused on understanding MVCC’s culture and ensuring broad engagement in change efforts. Shared governance, transparency and visibility were paramount. Blogging weekly for five years, making myself accessible and consistently communicating built a foundation of trust. I made a conscious decision to trust faculty and staff as good people with good intentions, allowing individuals to lose that trust through their own actions rather than starting from a place of skepticism.
The middle seven years: Strategic engagement and external focus. Trust enabled the college to take bigger strategic leaps. Our trajectory shifted when we joined Achieving the Dream to focus on student success and embedding the Guided Pathways framework to reimagine the student experience. We implemented systemic reforms at scale while managing post-recession enrollment declines, which required difficult decisions, including layoffs.
AI helped me recognize a critical inflection point: this was when I had fully replaced my senior leadership team. With a team I had hired, I could better delegate daily operations and focus on long-term strategy: expanding networks, securing resources and strengthening partnerships.
The recent three years: Measured risk-taking and resource development. The pandemic didn’t dominate my reflections, but I realized the past three years were defined by strategic refinement. AI’s questions helped me see that I had shifted toward balancing bold risk-taking with sustainability. Some initiatives yielded significant gains, while other more aggressive ventures created unintended strain on my leadership team.
AI surfaced a realization: while my external focus brought in resources, some internal efforts could have benefited from more direct engagement. That awareness now shapes my approach — minimizing distractions to focus on the most impactful moves.
Lessons in leadership and AI’s role
Reflecting on 17 years of leadership through AI yielded several insights:
- AI unlocks hidden insights. AI’s structured dialogue helped me recognize patterns and connections I might not have identified on my own.
- Asking the right questions is everything. AI’s greatest strength lies in its ability to pose thought-provoking questions. A well-crafted question can reframe experiences and clarify growth patterns.
- Balancing internal and external focus is key. The most effective leadership moments came when external priorities aligned with internal capacity, ensuring sustainable execution and avoiding distractions for my senior team.
AI as a leadership companion
Had I not worked with a human executive coach, I doubt I would have developed the reflective muscle to leverage AI as effectively. Using AI for leadership reflection was more than an intellectual exercise — it demonstrated how technology can support leadership development.
As community colleges navigate increasingly complex landscapes without a manual, embracing AI for reflection, strategy and decision-making can be a valuable asset. For leaders, I recommend finding a human executive coach to strengthen habits of inner work. But I also encourage experimenting with AI: ask it the kinds of questions you wish your best mentors would ask. The answers may surprise you, and the insights could shape the next chapter of your leadership journey.
