Curiosity is a Leadership Skill
“How did you get where you are?” It’s a question I have often heard over the course of my career – especially once I became a vice president. There are many ways to answer such a question and a helpful answer depends on what the questioner really wants to explore. Some questions are about credentials.…
Read MoreListening to Learn
“The servant leader seeks to identify the will of a group and helps to clarify that will. He or she listens receptively to what is being said and unsaid. Listening also encompasses hearing one’s own inner voice. Listening, coupled with periods of reflection, is essential to the growth and well-being of the servant leader.” Larry…
Read MoreThe Gifts of Fall
My first fall on campus Based on everything I know now, I can safely say I did everything wrong during my first semester of college. Well, I didn’t go home every weekend since home was 500 miles away. However, since both of my grandmothers lived within an hour’s drive, I did leave campus more than…
Read MoreLeading with Heart
Walter Urban hired me to work at McMurry College (now University). It was my first job right out of law school. Walter was the Dean of Students and I was Associate Dean of Students. It was a great title, and first job and Walter was a wonderful supervisor and teacher. Walter wasn’t a career Student Affairs…
Read MoreImagination as a Leadership Skill
Photo by Thomas Schweighofer on Unsplash My graduate program required us to take nine hours outside of our department. I chose to take a course in the MBA program called “Leadership, Literature, and the Individual.” Professor Floyd Brandt’s syllabus described the course this way: “The course begins with the postulate that novels and plays are…
Read MoreWhat is creativity?
There are so many ways to answer this question, I’ve struggled to even start writing this blog post. Spiritual, neurological, psychological, intellectual, artistic – there are definitions of creativity that are specific to each of these realms. And, as you would expect, some of them contradict each other. There are myths and belief systems built…
Read MoreMeeting my teachers: Julia Cameron
“‘How can you teach creativity?’ They want to know. Defiance fights with curiosity on their faces. ‘I can’t.’ I tell them. ‘I teach them to let themselves be creative.’” Julia Cameron Julia Cameron, author, screenwriter, playwright, teacher – her list of accomplishments is prodigious. I was at a yoga retreat in 2003 when someone mentioned…
Read MoreBooks to Read: The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace
“I like music remixes because they celebrate the fact that I’ve been around for a while and they make me feel current. They offer a memory and a discovery.” Lindsey Pollak In my search for resources to develop the content for a retreat entitled “Workplace for Every Generation,” I found a book worth sharing. Lindsey Pollack’s…
Read MoreSpotlight: Campus Success Story
This summer I had the opportunity to work with the Title IX Office at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This office had an interesting design that creates some challenges. There are five staff members in the office: the director, two investigators, and two case managers. They work with student, faculty, and staff concerns.…
Read MoreHow to Write a Vision Statement
Like websites about mission statements, there are millions of pages about vision statements and nearly as many ideas about ways to write them. Unlike mission statements, vision statements describe future possibilities. They are aspirational. They define something an organization aims to achieve. Vision statements are not strategic goals that will be completed in three to five years.…
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