Fifty years ago today – November 3, 1970 to be exact – a Tennessee election result shattered my dream and forever changed my career planning. That was the day Winfield Dunn defeated John Jay Hooker in the governor’s race. Final vote tally: Dunn, 575,777 and Hooker 509,521. So close but yet so far away. When…
Category: Inspiration
My Next Book: A Work in Progress
One blessing from being quarantined is the additional time I have had to focus on completing my second book—an insider story of how the George W. Bush administration took the Nation’s Report Card from the back rooms of education researchers to main street America. The book will chronicle my six years as executive director of…
Make a Difference
As a son of a life-long member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, I had personally benefited from the efforts of organized labor. As the head of the Tennessee Labor Council often stated when introducing me, “This is one chancellor who supped at a union table.” As Chancellor of UT at Nashville, I encountered…
Use Power to Influence Causes You Believe In
Holding the levers of power that are accessible to a leader is a precious resource that must be used wisely and cautiously. I have observed over the years that some leaders go too far in pushing their agendas and lose their effectiveness, while others appear too shy or tentative to make a difference on issues…
Pick Your Fights Carefully in a Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy is the minefield that every leader must learn to navigate if success is to be achieved. It is the classic love-hate relationship. On one hand, bureaucracy is likely to be the bane of any leader’s existence. At the same time, a leader is largely dependent on the effectiveness of the bureaucracy to carry out…
Seek Ways to Make Others’ Lives Better
During the time I served as chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Martin, “A Nation at Risk” – an acclaimed national study report that launched k-12 reform efforts that continue to this day – had become the darling of the media and the reference point of choice for public school critics. Regrettably, the reform…
Timing is Everything
In my first year as commissioner of education I spent a full day in every one of the state’s 139 school districts, starting with a breakfast and ending with an evening town hall meeting. In that time frame, I met at two-hour intervals with representative groups of students, teachers, administrators, school board members, parents, and…
Prior Success is No Guarantee of Future Success
In life at the top, it is “what have you done for me lately” that counts the most. Yesterday’s successes simply don’t transfer to tomorrow, particularly when a new playing field must be confronted. At almost every move as I stepped up the career ladder, I was greeted with skepticism. When I was named chancellor…
I MISS NED!
(I had the honor of giving the keynote address last night at 6th Annual Ned Ray Day in Dresden, Tennessee. Here is the entire text of my speech.) I miss his effective leadership… His caring heart… His ease along style… His impeccable integrity… His plain talk… His ability to reach across the aisle… The list…
Keep the “Real You” Intact
One of the most fascinating aspects of the ride to the top has been the opportunity to observe how the ride affects different people in different ways. For reasons that escape me, some leaders on the rise seem to believe that there is a regimen of expected behavior that must accompany success. Many of them…