Day 1 - ACE Leadership Academy for Department Chairs

As I mentioned yesterday, I am attending a leadership workshop for department chairs. Today was the first of two days, and I was very impressed with the content and approach. There is much too much information to discuss here, but I will provide some of the highlights of the experience. The workshop is facilitated by several former department chairs who have taken on higher positions as Deans, Vice Presidents, and Provosts at various universities across the United States. Their insights have been very interesting and exceedingly valuable.

Day 1 of the ACE Leadership Academy for Department Chairs.

• Pressure Over Time is often the only method you can use to achieve your goals. Just like the Grand Canyon was formed over many years, the results of your work may emerge over several years. Just constantly apply gentle pressure toward your desired outcomes. It requires patience, persistence, and a focus on the outcomes and results needed for your organization. 
• You have to plan your week so that you have time that cannot be interrupted (accept by your boss or her boss). This should be time that you use to focus on the things that are important but get crowded out by the urgent things that always arise. 
• There will never  be enough resources. Get over it and get to work. Don't waste your time complaining or lamenting the lack of resources. Use your energy to get to work.
• You are paid to think, not to fill the copier toner. 
• Delegate administrative things (e.g. scheduling and budget monitoring) to others whenever possible.
• Be a brave department chair. Have the tough conversations. Expect excellence from your faculty and staff. Lead toward excellence.

4 Words

We were encouraged to create four words that describe us as leaders. I chose the following, after some reflection: Results-Oriented, Respectful, Hard-Working, and Patient.

Strategies for Moving Up to a Dean or Provost Position

The question was asked about what strategies should be employed to continue to move up the administrative ranks. Below are the strategies given by our facilitators (who have done it):

• Make the decision that you are going to do it. This can be scary, but you must decide and own it.
• Research what it takes to be a Dean.
• Talk to Deans - ask them what it is like, what they do on a daily basis.
• Read the literature on what they do, what they grapple with. Read up on academic leadership.
• Look at job postings to understand the parameters in greater detail.
• Do a Gap Analysis. Analyze several dean positions and identify what it takes to be a dean. Then analyze how you hold up against those requirements. Identify the knowledge, skills, and experience you need to develop and gain so that you are prepared for the position.
• Prepare yourself for the position:
• Gain diverse experience. Strategically engage on the committees that will make you an excellent candidate for a dean position.
• Serve on a President or Provost search committee.
• Participate in a fellows program such as the ACE Fellows program which allows you to interact with many university presidents and gives you a broad, enriched perspective. Some universities also have these kinds of programs internally.
• Apprentice with a Provost or a President.
• Simply spend time with Deans, Provosts, and Presidents. Become familiar with the issues they struggle with, their way of leading and communicating, their approaches to their work. 
• Become very familiar with budgeting and financial structures. This is critical to effective leadership.
• Build your fundraising experience and expertise. Deans do a lot of fundraising.
• Ask Deans and Provosts their advice for moving forward.

 Again, it has been a wonderful experience. Great ideas and insights, and I feel blessed to be among such an amazing group of academic administrators!

Leadership Development Program Resources

I recently completed the Leadership Development Program at Franklin University. Each month, we participants attended one of 10 excellent presentation by scholars and leaders here in Columbus, Ohio. It has been an excellent experience, and the presenters have been outstanding. Below I link to my notes from these presentations.

Resources
The resources below could be used as the beginning of any leadership development program. Each presentation includes general principles that can be applied to any leadership situation.

1. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Dr. Karen Miner-Romanoff
2. Business Writing and Communication - Tom McClain
3. Leadership Theories and Decision-Making - Dr. Timothy Reymann
4. Communication and Relationships - Dr. Mike Posey
5. The Power of Mindfulness - Daron Larson
6. Ethical Leadership - Dr. Alex Heckman
7. Leadership Begins with the Heart - Dr. Jim Mahoney
8. Practical Leadership Advice - E. J. Thomas
9. Self-Awareness and Creating Your Personal Brand - Dr. Lynn Hull and Robert Coles
10. Planning - Rick Sunderman

Other Leadership Thoughts

Below are some other leadership thoughts that I have noted over the past few years.

• The 7 Competencies of Self-Leadership
• The 7 Skills of Knowledge Work
• My Leadership Values
• Effective Strategies for Decision-Making
• Strategic Planning
• Leadership and Effective Decision-Making
• 6 Principles for Using Data to Make Decisions

Reflections on Leadership Though Development 
As I reflect on the experience over the past year, these presentations and ideas were very influential the development of my own leadership thoughts. Along with these presentations, I also read perhaps two dozen books on leadership-related topics, and I have extended my own philosophy and awareness of my own leadership style. I am very grateful to have participated in this program and look forward to continually developing my knowledge and understanding of leadership concepts.

Leadership Development: Planning

This post is part of a series on leadership development.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently participating in a Leadership Development Program (LDP) as part of my work at Franklin University. This week, I attended a presentation by Rick Sunderman, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Franklin University. He talked about how to plan effectively as a leader. He first spoke about the big picture approach to planning: Strategic Planning.

Strategic Planning 
All models for strategic planning seem to have similar components, and strategic planning is typically a top-down endeavor. You starts with the big picture of what you want to accomplish as an organization and break it down into smaller pieces until you have operational tactics. The point is to make it granular and focused so that you can take specific actions that you can do and measure. These specific actions should all feed back up to the big picture mission and initiatives outlined in the strategic plan.

Franklin University has a strategic plan that we have developed and revisited several times in the last 6 years. It was approached very systematically and included dozens of participants. I thought it was interesting to hear Rick report that we are 41 percent done with our strategic plan - the leadership of the university are continually meeting and revisiting out plan, to the point that they know exactly where we stand and what else needs to be implemented.
Here is the general sequence when creating your strategic plan:

1. Clarify your Mission.
2. Create Institutional Goals based on your mission. 
3. Develop Major Strategies for reaching those goals.
4. Undertake multiple Strategic Initiatives within each major strategy.
5. Develop Supporting Strategies to support those initiatives.
6. Employ Operational Tactics to fulfill those supporting strategies. 

If done correctly, this is a multi-year, involved approach to planning. Furthermore, you should be willing to adjust and revise your plan regularly to adapt to the volatile changes experienced in the environment. It is critical that you divide and conquer. Enable people to focus on their own aspect, and coordinate efforts.

Rick noted that research indicates that up to 90% of strategic plans fail due to lack of execution. This is critical - the implementation and execution of a plan is the most vital piece. It appears that Franklin University has done well at following our strategic plan, which is encouraging.

Project Planning and Scheduling

Effective project planning enables you to implement specific components of the strategic plan. project planning typically includes the following major steps:

• Define to Scope - what are you trying to accomplish? Who is involved and has a stake in the outcome? What is the budget? What are the goals of the project? What artifacts of products will you create? This is what we call an analysis in the instructional design world - establishments of gaps and goals.
• Design - This is the phase in which you plan everything that is needed for the effective completion of the project. How it will the completed project look? How will it achieve the goals and close the gaps you have already identified?.
• Roles and Responsibilities - Be sure to establish what all participants are responsible for. Who will do which part? How will each part be accomplished? Who receives reports and tracks progress? 
• Schedule - create a specific and clear schedule of how each step of the project will be created. Be aware of the steps that are contingent upon the completion of a previous step and plan the steps in the proper sequence.
• Communication Plan - Develop a system for communication progress regularly to the project manager. This reporting should happen regularly to keep the project on schedule. Rick's rule of thumb is that he becomes concerned when a projects is off by 80 hours (2 weeks). 

Project scheduling

A critical component of successfully complete a project is project scheduling. Major aspects of scheduling include:

• Identify project phases - what are the big milestones or steps for the project?
• Identify key activities - what must be done to complete each of the phases?
• Identify tasks - what specific tasks will facilitate accomplishment of each activity?
• Assign tasks - who will do each of the tasks?
• Identify dependencies and sequence - what tasks need to be done first? what is dependent on the completion of previous tasks?

A good manager works to know the details of the project that his employees are working on. The work you do up front in the analysis should be pretty detailed and comprehensive so that there is a solid grasp of what will be required. A good manager also follows up on employees' projects regularly, provides support, and removes obstacles wherever possible. 

30 Seconds of Reflection

We have been doing 30 seconds of reflection at the end of each leadership session. Here is what I wrote for this one: It's all in completing the project. You must deliver on the project - your team must produce the results required. I'll now be working with the instructional design faculty members as their department chair, and I will need to be as effective as possible in my support to them. I am blessed to be working with EXCELLENT faculty members in i4, and I look forward to working closely with them over the coming months.

Leadership Development: Self-awareness and Creating Your Personal Brand

This post is part of a series on leadership development.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently participating in a Leadership Development Program (LDP) as part of my work at Franklin University. This week, I attended a presentation by Dr. Lynn Hull the Dean of Students at Franklin University, and Robert Coles, Director of Creative Services and Brand Management Franklin University. These two excellent presenters share their insights about reflectively and conscientiously creating a "personal brand" to communicate clearly about who you are to others in a variety of media. The notes below are from their presentation. As in previous posts, their ideas and my own are intermingled.

Dr. Lynn Hull in the foreground presenting at the Leadership Development Program at Franklin University. 

Part 1 - the Four-Color Self-Assessment

Self-awareness is critical to success. When we are aware of ourselves, our strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and desires, we can more effectively bring about those things that matter most to us. One way to develop self-awareness is to utilize self-assessment tools. In this presentation, we were directed to identify our preferences in work and communication using the four-color method. We were given descriptions of these four categories and were directed to rank them to most-preferred to least-preferred. Below are descriptions of these color categories, which I present in the sequence that I personally prefer.

1. Green = 5 - 7% of population. Lots of greens in education. They are rational - conceptual thinkers, thinking globally and analytically. Want us to be logical when thinking about things. Why consider something that doesn't make sense intellectually. Strategy is interesting to the green - setting it up and thinking through the process excites the green. Can be detached when things get emotionally charged and sort through the facts. Creative, innovative, inventive. Like to think but not necessarily to act. Diversity of interests. Value competence, not necessarily niceness. Might neglect important tasks because other things are interesting. Might not realize that the debate is not as fun to others as it is to them. They want knowledge, power, willpower, and mastery.
2. Blue = 8 - 10% of population. Idealists. Empathetic and caring about others. Look for the best in people and try to bring it out. They are excellent diplomats and are interested in social issues - working to "right" social "wrongs." Insightful and creative, always trying to read a room and sense what is happening. Enjoy self-development and self-improvement. They always bring a human perspective. They have difficulty saying no. They have a need to feel needed and are extremely sensitive to criticism.
3. Gold = 40-45% of population. Precision. Practicality. Results-oriented. Logistics. Systems and processes. Harness resources without talking about them. Loyalty, stability, and routine. Tell me what you want, and I will get us there. They like rules, responsibilities, and duty. They need to feel a sense of membership and belonging.
4. Orange = 35-40% of the population. Artisans - physical beings. Playful and light-hearted. Don't love routine - they like change and flexibility. "Why get stuck doing things the same old way?" Very action-oriented - they want to do something instead of sitting around and talking. They are tactical in nature and concrete and adaptable to changes. Orange does very well in competitive environments. Bold, generous, bring excitement. Orange can be fairly laid back and might goof around a little too much. An orange might change directions fairly regularly and be a little scattered in their directions.

My name badge from the meeting. The dots show how I ranked my preferences for each category.

As I think about it, my beautiful wife Katie is a Blue/Orange. She is incredibly effective with people (blue) and loves to push the rules to shake things up (orange). She definitely makes my life fun, something that might be missing (since orange is ranked low). My daughter CK is definitely Orange. She likes to jump from thing to thing and doesn't love doing things the established way.

Part 2 - Personal Branding 

"A brand is a promise. By identifying and authenticating a product or service it delivers a pledge of satisfaction and quality." - Walter Landor

With your color scheme, you have a starting point for understanding your personal brand. The next step is to mobilize your brand - to identify how you are perceived, how you would like to be perceived, and begin to work to shape that perception through branding. 

How to Mobilize Your Brand

1. Listen and Understand - Listen to people about your brand. What do they value in you? How do they describe you? Talk to someone who can tell you a little more about your personal brand. "Who am I, and how do I tell it?"
2. Interpret and Simplify - Be clear about who you are. "How can I distill my story to its basic elements?" Assign words and phrases to your personal brand. Create 3 words that exemplify my brand. 
3. Develop and Design - When you know the essence of your brand, ask "what forms and colors best express it?" How can I visually represent myself? We live in a visual world.
4. Evaluate and Collaborate - the imagery should match the vision. "Does the design communicate the brand as it should?"
5. Deliver and Implement - Consistency is the key. Put all the pieces in place so every aspect of your brand speaks with one voice.

Side-note of Reflective Thoughts - I would like to follow this process and use the results to pull my blog, website, LinkedIn page, Twitter account, and other profiles together and demonstrate a clearer message of who I am. It needs to visually capture who I am and what I offer. The same might go for all of my communications, the products I produce, etc. To use Robert's words, "This is what people are attracted to about me." 

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

One way to develop your brand is to conduct a SWOT Analysis. Below are some thoughts I brainstormed about myself as I sat in this session.

My Strengths

• I think clearly
• I pull information together in meaningful ways
• I care about people
• I have a high level of formal education
• I am constantly learning and growing through reading, conferences, leadership development, and credentialing
• I effectively involve people in my thinking and decision-making
• I have mastered several techniques and strategies associated with excellence in academia

My Weaknesses

• I am less aware of the political aspects of work
• I do not have a business background
• I may miss out on opportunities to making money - I am more interested in creating ideas that can influence and help others create positive change.

My Opportunities

• Gain greater focus in my career
• Brand myself to be seen as more effective
• Set powerful goals to achieve

Threats

• Constant change
• Complacency, becoming satisfied 

Key Question: What is my Vision and My Mission?

What do I want to have happen as a result of my work? How would I know that I have successfully accomplished my mission? First of all, I am constantly tweaking and updating my personal mission, and I have made some great improvements. Here is my current mission: To empower, inspire, and equip others to improve themselves, their lives, and the world. 
So, the next question is, how do I know that I have achieved this mission? To me, I think I should likely break this mission down into a set of goals and measures that I can use to determine the effectiveness of my work. Just brainstorming, my thought is that the following measures might be meaningful. Again, these are simply a brainstormed list, and I would likely need to be clearer about this.

• # of presentations given
• # of presentation attendees
• # of publications
• # of publications viewed, cited, or purchased
• # of people who recommend my work

Potential Goal: It might be interesting to work toward 1 million views of my work posted online. This could include my blog posts, YouTube Videos, academic articles, presentation slides, etc. I think this would be an interesting/motivating thing to work toward and could be one way to measure impact (though there are many others, certainly).

What is Brand Identity?

Brand Identity is the visual and verbal expression of a brand that can include the following: Logos, Websites, Print Documents, Packaging, Signage, Mobile/Social Media, Videos, and Photos. How can I audit my current brand and create plans to improve it?

Getting Feedback
The first step identified above is to find out what others perceive to be your brand. This involves getting feedback. However, you shouldn't get feedback only from people who will only focus on your strengths. Also get feedback from people who will help you improve and change the things with which you are struggling. Feedback should be constructive, formative, and objective. It should give you a sense of where you are and how you can move forward.

Homework
Find someone in this room who is of a different color (referring to the color chart, here!!!!). Share the following with them:

1. What do you see as this person's gifts?
2. What might be this person's personal brand?
3. What might you do together to collaborate and move forward together?

Ideas for Application

• Follow the sequence above to really work toward a personal brand.
• Develop a sort of tagline that captures who I am and what I do. This becomes a component of my brand.
• Identify colors, shapes, and images that correspond to my personal brand.
• Update my LinkedIn site to include words and phrases about my brand.
• Adjust my pre-publication drafts to include branding or logos that refer to me and my brand.
• Update my vitae and website to include these words and images.
• Revisit all of my web spaces to reflect my refreshed personal brand.

60 seconds of Reflection

We have been doing 30 seconds of reflection at the end of each leadership session. Here is what I wrote for this one: I am not sure about the homework assignment to meet with someone else - maybe... In terms of the idea of "personal branding," I believe this is likely a key way to improve how I represent myself. Actually, this really aligns with some of the things I have been thinking about. I have been working to gain a greater deal of clarity on my personal goals and my mission. This then spills into how I represent myself through my "brand." I'll keep thinking on this...

Leadership Development: Practical Leadership

This post is part of a series on leadership development.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am currently participating in a Leadership Development Program (LDP) as part of my work at Franklin University. This week, I attended a presentation by E.J. Thomas, the CEO of Mid Ohio Habitat for Humanity. He has had a great deal of experience, including many years of military service, as a state representative, and working for a former Ohio Governor. His presentation was an excellent mixture of practical experiences and practical advice for budding leaders. Below are my notes from the presentation - these are likely a mixture of how words and my thoughts. 

E.J. Thomas speaks of practical leadership.

Leadership Types

Thomas asserted that there are two main types of leaders: 

1. Power Leader - These leaders are more directive in nature. They use phrases like, "I need you to do this. No questions - just get out there and do it!" They are potentially focused on themselves and have less care for the people they lead.
2. Servant Leader - These leaders are more particiaptive and supportive in nature. "We've agreed on the challenge - tell me when you can have this done. How can I help you be successful?" 

"The servant leader inspires loyalty. The power leader inspires movement to another organization." 

The "Beer Wagon" Analogy

Leadership is like driving the Budweiser Beer Wagon. You have got to recognize that you can't pull the wagon on your own. You have the reins in your hand, and you need to hold them loose enough to let them do your job, but tight enough to let them know you are there and in control.

Activities of Success

In your role as a leader, there are two elements that define your success.

1. Management - you have to count the beans. You must stay focused on whatever the objective is. The outcomes must be met.
2. Mentorship - you must mentor the people that are with you. You must help others improve and grow and develop. It will take empathy, commitment, evaluation of strengths (maximize them) and weaknesses (manage or minimize them). 

Self-Awareness: Managing Strengths and Weaknesses

As a manager, you need to be more self-aware than anyone on your team. Each of us has strengths and weaknesses. You must recognize the strengths and the shadow weaknesses. They sit in the background - they aren't out there to see in an obvious way. If you are a servant leader, your team will help you manage around these weaknesses.  

Characteristics of the Insecure Middle Manager

The insecure middle manager who usually falls into the "Power Leader" style, often has some or all of the following characteristics:

1. Takes credit for the work his or her people are doing.
2. Engages in gossip  
3. Wants folks that are "yes men" instead of thinkers 
4. Never gives you all the pieces to help you succeed. No matter what you do, you are never going to make them happy.

The Vital Skill of Empathy

Failure is a critical component of building empathy. When you have the scabs and scars on your own knees, you are much more understanding because you remember what it felt like to fall. If you lack the ability to look through their eyes, see their pain, you will be a lousy leader. Empathy helps you think through what is important to the individual that you are leading. People from different backgrounds and frames of reference make it necessary to work with them in very different ways. Empathy helps you put yourself into the role of the individual so that you can have a positive impact on the person.

Other Tips and Ideas

Throughout the presentation, Thomas shared several excellent tips and ideas related to leadership Here are the ones that I captured"

• Recognize that everyone in your charge has value and adds value to your organization.
• Observe how your interactions with others is responded to by others.
• People stay in or leave their jobs based on what is happening within 10 feet of their desk. A good leader makes people feel comfortable in their jobs at their desks day after day.
• "If you have to smack someone with a pipe wrench, you should wrap it up with a towel." 
• If you treat people right, they will walk over hot coals for you.
• A shred of doubt can become the sniper's bullet that takes you out.
• If you have been mistreated, there is a natural tendency to treat others poorly.
• I don't care what you say, but I do care how you say it. Be respectful. No personal attacks. Focus on the issue. Work toward positive results. Use a positive tone - be calm. Be kind. Be compassionate.
• "95% of ideas aren't worth a hill of beans. We have to get all 100% on the table so that we can find the 5%." Ohio Governor, Jim Rhodes
• If you control what you can control, you will make an impact.

Take One for the Team

If you want people to follow you into hell and back, never thrown them under the bus. A manager filters out the crap from above. They take one for the team. If you take the heat from above, then your people will have great respect fro you. And your people will achieve increasingly dramatic results.

The Shoe Box Analogy

Whenever there is a challenge between you and another person, treat the challenge like it is something in a shoe box on a table. If you offend someone or do something stupid, you will put another shoe box on top of the shoe box. You will then spend an inordinate amount of time on the distraction shoe box so that you can finally get to the original shoe box.

How do You Deal With a Team Member that is Apathetic and Not Working

• If it is your employee: You should approach the individual and kindly state, "I don't think you're in the game all the way. I'm losing confidence in your ability to do the job." (This will get their attention. You don't have to tell them the job is on the line). You can continue, "I'm going to have to write you up, here. But if you can fix it, then I am willing to pull it out and tear it up." Note that this will work much better if you truly are a servant leader. Be aware that the negative person that is dragging people down is in some way exercising control over what is going on. You must keep positive, contributing team members.

30 Seconds of Reflection: 

We have been doing 30 seconds of reflection at the end of each leadership session. Here is what I wrote for this one: These are great ideas - very practical and useful! I really relate to the servant leader approach - this is in alignment with my natural approach to working with others. I also appreciate the thoughts on "filtering the crap from above" to create a micro-environment that is positive and fulfilling for the people I lead and work with.