Leadership Competencies – Trust
Recently, Inside Higher Education published an article presenting a research study on the seven competencies needed by university presidents. What struck me about this article is that there were no real surprises in the list. I didn’t see anything new or different from any other discussion of presidential leadership in recent years. I also thought the…
Read MorePlaces of Beauty and Peace
In the summer of 1985, I traveled to England, Scotland, and Wales with my dad, mom, and grandmother. We were never quite sure if my dad was brave or simply nuts to try driving across the British Isles with his wife, mother, and daughter, but it was a wonderful trip. My grandmother had traveled a…
Read MoreThere’s no doubt that my plans when starting college were a bit unformed. My favorite classes in high school were French (four years) and German (one year), so it made sense to me that I would study languages in college. I had no real understanding of what I might do with these languages I was…
Read MoreHaving Fun
Working in complex organizations brings many challenges. So many different interactions with so many different people. It can sometimes be difficult to navigate through the combinations of various personalities, organizational needs, and daily tasks to be done. Conversely, working with others to accomplish a major project or lead a team can be so much fun if…
Read MoreReflections on a Favorite Poem
Years ago I found a poem about gardening that spoke to me about the work of education. Overtime, I’ve come to see it as speaking as much to the work of leadership as to education and gardening. The poem is “The Seven of Pentacles” by Marge Piercy. I wrote about it as the poetry of…
Read MoreAll the Calendars
How many calendars do you have? Of course there’s the one on your computer, the one that keeps track of all the meetings and tasks you need to plan for in a day or a week or longer. If you’re like me, you also have a paper calendar where you keep notes and odds and ends…
Read MoreA Walk in My Neighborhood
In 2020 as the world shut down for the COVID pandemic, I started walking around the neighborhood for physical and mental health. By August, I was walking about three miles a day. That progress was interrupted when I rolled my foot off an uneven part of the sidewalk and broke my ankle. By the time…
Read MoreThe Amazing Idea of a Sabbatical
University administrators don’t usually take sabbaticals. I’ve heard of a few who negotiate some kind of break. Usually they are very senior people with long histories at their campuses. For faculty, the idea is to provide time to focus on research and writing. Since administrators aren’t expected to be doing research and writing, then there’s…
Read MoreThe Art of Leaving – Part 2
Last week I shared some thoughts on the topic of knowing when to leave a position. Today, I’m going to share thoughts about an equally difficult aspect of leaving, how to leave. Depending on the specific circumstances, leaving with grace can be surprisingly challenging. Even in the best circumstances, excitement about the new opportunity shared too…
Read MoreThe Art of Leaving
“How do you know when it’s time to leave a job?” isn’t the most frequent question I’ve been asked over the years, but it does show up frequently. Sometimes the person asking is trying to figure out what to do next in their career. Sometimes, their employment situation has changed and they are wondering whether it…
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