During my first chancellorship, I was confronted with a significant problem. I was the leader of a campus knee deep in a federal desegregation court case at a time when our faculty and staff ranks showed a conspicuous deficiency of minorities. Despite my best efforts in my first year as chancellor to push deans to…
Month: January 2020
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…