Followers are Leaders
 by Hampton Hopkins

Followers are Leaders Too

“Raise your hand if you consider yourself a leader. Now raise your hand if you consider yourself a follower. Come on… you must choose between one or the other.”

This is a scenario that plays out in organizations everywhere. While it may not occur in exactly the way described, by being asked to raise your hand, it is certainly present in the way we view others… and often in how others view us. We find ourselves placing our colleagues in the two distinct silos of “leader” and “follower.” But we know that the world and our organizations are not so easily defined.

Being a good follower is often the same as being a good leader. That’s right. Sometimes by assuming the best leadership role required for a given situation means that we take a step back and allow someone else to lead. We become a follower. But this in no way lets us off the leadership hook as we assume new roles and responsibilities. Let’s discuss a few of these:

  • Initiator: suggests new ideas, raises questions, sets goals
  • Information and Opinion Seeker: open to new ideas, asks and encourages others to share new ideas
  • Encourager: encourages and stimulates others to participate, shares and supports their efforts
  • Facilitator: helps the group improve communications by testing, clarifying, and understanding meanings, makes sure others are being understood
  • Evaluator: questions the practicality or logic of ideas, but not too quickly or in a way that embarrasses or demeans others
  • Orienter: summarizes, clarifies, and helps the group find a sense of direction
  • Consensus Seeker: tests whether the group agrees and works on solutions to achieve consensus

By now you are probably thinking that I pulled a “bait and switch” on you as all these roles and responsibilities are those of a leader. They are!… and that’s the point. It is important to understand these roles from both the perspective of a leader as well as the follower. When we follow, and when others assume this role, it is important to understand how we fit within the team. In other words, how followers can convey leadership, too.

Procrastination is ok
 by Hampton Hopkins

Eleven Ways to Procrastinate and Get Things Done

According to some reports, more than 20% of us chronically look for distractions to avoid doing the work in front of us. I don’t know about you, but that seems chronically low. I have worked with many people who take procrastination to an art form – putting off doing something, anything, until a future time. However, putting off certain tasks can make you a better time manager! By focusing energy and effort on the tasks of most importance, you can procrastinate and still get things done.

As Vincent T. Foss suggested, “One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.” So, in the spirit of Mr. Foss, below are 11 ways to procrastinate effectively and get things done:

Remove the urgency from trivia: Commit to a deadline. Deadlines create a sense of urgency. Setting a deadline and sticking to it allows you to focus attention on matters of higher importance first allowing more trivial things to wait.

Do one thing at a time: Take complicated tasks requiring attention one at a time and see them through to completion. Many of us float from one task to another, never bringing anything to completion. Ultimately, the unresolved tasks take their toll creating in us an urgent frenzy.

Occupy the mind: When bogged down, take a break, and rejuvenate. Even though it’s important to stick to a task once it’s started, if you reach a point of diminishing returns, take a break (don’t abandon it) and focus on something else.

There’s always tomorrow: A prioritized daily action list is great for managing time and for procrastinating efficiently. Those tasks not completed today can be carried over to the next day’s list and reprioritized.

Use empty spaces of time: Every one of us has spare time. Properly used, this time can be of considerable value to a creative procrastinator. Always have a constructive task that needs completing with you for these spare moments – a chapter that needs to be read or a call that needs to be returned. Sometimes, however, the spare time is good for just relaxing.

Front and center: As you are wrapping up work for the day, place your next highest priority task in the middle of your desk for tomorrow. This assumes you have a dedicated workspace – which is also critical to time management!

Select the best time of day: What is your best time of day? If you are a morning person, put off your critical tasks until that time of day. You will be more refreshed and eager to accomplish all that needs to be done.

Adapt to the day: It is a good idea to block out time to accomplish your high priority tasks. But blocking out full days and planning precisely what you will do during those times is often pointless. Be prepared to handle unexpected interruptions.

Be persistent: Stick with each task through to completion. Following the old adage that “behavior persists when it is rewarded,” make yourself stick to the task with the promise that upon completion, you will spend time on something fun.

Dislike it? Do it!: Simply put, get the hard tasks and those you like least out of the way first.

Post-it: Instead of a list, consider post-it notes. Try using these handy notes to capture important tasks and priorities. It feels great to throw them away when the task is done.

The next time you feel the urge to procrastinate… do it. And let me know how it works out for you.

 by Hampton Hopkins

Agents of Change in a Sometimes Stagnant World

For too long, the learning space on our campuses has been occupied by the faculty. We in student affairs have been relegated to the cocurricular instead of the curricular. To be sure, we have certainly contributed to student learning and often measure this through student learning outcomes. We have evolved our student engagement models to include living-learning communities, service learning opportunities, and other curricular activities, and have been willing partners with the faculty. Yet have we truly created an educational revolution that changes the way students learn?

I can remember being excited as an undergraduate when our student activities programming was both entertaining and cultural – especially when the event was selected as one offering mandatory “cultural credits.” It is also not long ago when the cutting-edge curricular programming was the faculty last lecture series. Increasingly, more of our activities are joining the living and learning aspects of being a student. We are excited when this happens as it allows us to feel a part of the curricular, if only for a moment.

Despite the world of higher education being somewhat stagnant, I think the time is right for a change. Evolution is on our doorstep. We have begun to see hints of this in our work in recent years. Social media has opened new ways of communicating within and outside our campuses. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are appearing on many campuses in an alien-like invasion creating both excitement and havoc. Student expectations are changing in ways that we have not seen since the 1960s – rapidly causing us to reconsider what it means to be a student and what it means to provide for the affairs of these students. We are facing a revolution that is sure to change higher education and we must be prepared. Urban fantasy author Richelle Mead said it best, “The greatest and most powerful revolutions often start very quietly, hidden in the shadows. Remember that.” It is time for student affairs to come out of the shadows.

Innovation, Disruption, and Adaptation

There has been much discussion on innovation and disruption in higher education, especially in terms of technology. When online learning first appeared, the debate was regarding the quality of the content and the limitations of the original technology. However, there were many experts who theorized that online learning would be the demise of college campuses. Fast forward to 2011 when MOOCs erupted onto the scene and called into question the traditional classroom delivery of content. While not exactly fulfilling the prophecy of the online prognosticators, the technology is advanced enough to make MOOCs a viable contender to challenge education as we know it.

In student affairs, our MOOC has yet to evolve. Certainly technology is not a new phenomenon. Yet, we have not been particularly vocal about our ability to create student services that can be scaled, in typical MOOC style, to thousands of students. We have seen some innovation and potential disruption in areas such as student support, student conduct, assessment, and other administrative functions, but far too little based on the existing technology. How does student affairs evolve to an online model? More importantly, does it need to?

These questions bring us to adaptation. Disruption in student affairs will magnify as we continue to adapt technologies for expanded use in our various domains. Student affairs professionals have embraced Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and a host of social media as places of community. We have evolved our thinking to engage students on their turf in these communities as we have simultaneously developed our own digital identities. Yet, much more needs to be developed. Consider how we create opportunities for social bookmarking instead of simply using Twitter and other media as alternate sources for e-mail. How can we increase the documentation of student learning through content curation? Essentially, our challenge is to expand opportunities for students to tell their story.

Changing Student Needs

As student affairs professionals, we have long been focused on our traditional and non-traditional students offering programs, creating services, and generally doing much to meet their needs and assist them in both navigating and successfully completing college. But the landscape of higher education, as it has done so much over the years, has again transformed. Today, we see students coming to our campuses seeking new training or knowledge to advance career opportunities, having already entered the workforce. These students plan to continue working, often significantly, while attending class. This post-traditional student differs from other students who work. Their reason for being on campus is driven more by cost, location and accessibility than by choice or prestige. What is their story?

While it may be easy for us to dismiss these students as not having an interest in or need for our services, this is far from reality. Post-traditional students will value opportunities for engaging outside the classroom particularly if it is relevant to their learning goals. Although we have traditionally found ourselves bound by FERPA, consider ways of expanding communities of support on campus to include parents, family members, and others of significance to the post-traditional student. This can be accomplished through social media or other means of personal communication.

Expanding communities of support is not limited to a specific population of students. All students can benefit from our intentional efforts to expand these communities, particularly when this extends beyond the confines of the campus. Consider creating living-learning models that provide opportunities for students to work while learning. I’m not suggesting the traditional internship, but more of an “earn-while-you-learn” model that immerses students simultaneously in class, activities, and work where the content of all complements the other.

Such a model would require deepening partnerships with employers who hire our students and expanding curricular content to be compatible. The future of higher education may very well depend on just such a model as expressed by Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA, “Student affairs professionals must be able to document and articulate how the cocurricular experience contributes to developing the skills and competencies employers and society need and value.” Our job as student affairs professionals is to overcome the barriers and convince others that content is no longer the domain of faculty but the responsibility of this expanded network of learners and stakeholders.

Our time is here. Frankly, it has been for some time. None of what you have just read should be a surprise. Student affairs professionals have been creating alternative learning spaces and communicating with students on the backchannel for many years. In some ways, we have been the pioneers. However, in many ways, we have left the true change to others, often coming on board only after others have paved the way. Now it is our time to take the lead and push the change agenda forward. We must set the direction for student learning that combines the curricular and the cocurricular in ways that engage students beyond the confines of our classrooms and campuses. We must create new pathways for student success both for those students we have always served and for those coming to us seeking new opportunities. We must make our relevance on campus too important to ignore. Our students are depending on you.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, involves the evolution of student affairs. You may partner with any number of people on campus, but time is short as change is coming fast. As always, should any member of your team be caught, the vice president will have to disavow all knowledge of your actions to protect her from the faculty. This message will self-destruct in five seconds… four… three…two…one!

Servant Leadership
 by Hampton Hopkins

Purpose-Driven Leadership

A few years ago, I met regularly with a friend to discuss leadership. What started as an opportunity to catch up evolved into a deep dive exploring leadership. We were exploring the role of servant leadership in a corporate environment, and it now has me thinking about purpose… why do we do what we do?

Leadership is influence. As leaders, if we are not willing to assume an influential role, then we have no business being in the leadership position to begin with. Influence simply suggests that we have some effect on others. This change can either be positive or not; it can be accomplished intentionally or by chance. If our leadership is going to have a bearing on those around us, don’t we have the responsibility to ensure that the affect we create is constructive?

This is the heart of servant leadership. Too often we think of this as always stepping up and doing… but it’s more about being than doing. It starts first with knowing ourselves and evolves to a point where our purpose, the reason we do what we do, is always for the betterment of those around us. Let’s explore this in my three principles of servant leadership.

Understanding Others

Before we can begin to understand others, we first must slow down and listen. Listen to what others are saying, listen to what other are asking, and most importantly, listen to the needs of those we serve. Effective leadership is developing a keen sense of awareness of the needs of others and then acting on those needs to advance both the individual and the organization. In deference to Albert Einstein, “Any fool can know others; the point is to understand others.” With this understanding evolves a level of empathy that allows leaders to share in the experiences and emotions of others.

Nurturing Others

Once understanding begins to take shape and our conceptualization of others becomes more defined, our role as leaders shifts to one of encouragement and support. Tom Peters said it best, “Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.” It is not enough simply to tell others they are valued and doing a good job, leaders must demonstrate this through engagement. Our presence indicates commitment and value, both of the task at hand and of the individual performing the task. Our involvement cultivates a deeper relationship that provides a foundation for leadership development… both in others as well as in ourselves.

Growing Others

As a leader, I have always found it satisfying when someone I have mentored or supported receives an opportunity to advance in their career. The leadership role is one of stewardship – the careful responsibility of resources – whereby the greatest resource is that of the human kind. Like the parable of the talents in the New Testament, we are to grow the talents of those entrusted to our leadership. Warren Bennis states it this way, “Growing other leaders from the ranks isn’t just the duty of the leader, it’s an obligation.” Our obligation to others is to give them our best and to, in turn, expect the best from them. We do this not by burying the talents we collectively have, but by intentionally developing these talents together in a partnership of possibility and potential.

While some may argue that servant leadership can be considered a redundant term, the label serves as a reminder to us of the importance of these concepts in the leadership relationships we enjoy. These principles are progressive and build on one another as we evolve our servant leadership roles. It is the ultimate purpose of leadership to serve others. But, Friedrich Nietzsche warns, “To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.” What is your purpose? Why do you do what you do?

Naked leadership is being authentic
 by Hampton Hopkins

Naked Leadership

Like many of us back in high school, there were many quips or phrases that we often used in our communication with friends. Some were innocent and others not so much. However, there was one particular saying of which I’m not sure of the origin or the real intent, but it was nonetheless a phrase often uttered… party naked.

I don’t know what made me recall this expression all these years later, but it did get me thinking about leading naked. Not in the real sense of streaking around our organizations with no clothes on, but in the metaphorical sense of being transparent or unadorned in our leadership style. A quick Google search of the topic revealed that David Bentley and Sonia Hassey have books titled Naked Leadership and David Taylor has a series of books on the topic the naked leader. While this idea is certainly not new, my thoughts on naked leadership are somewhat different.

Strong and effective leadership requires an openness and transparency that let’s others in, keeps them close, and allows them to be successful. It is about partnership, collaboration, and teamwork. Like the emperor who wore no clothes, leaders sometimes become self-absorbed or arrogant forgetting that success can only be measured in how we treat others. We need not be complex or flamboyant in our leadership instead seeking a style that is au naturel and austere.

So, how do we become naked leaders… let’s explore:

Strip down to the basics

I am a solid believer that everything we need to know to be successful leaders we learned in kindergarten. Robert Fulghum defined things like sharing, playing fair, and living a balanced life as skills that transcend time and place and are as true today as they were when we were little. Instead of trying to make leadership more complex, we need to get back to the basics. Forget about trying to become a better leader and instead seek to be more natural and authentic. Improved leadership will be the result.

Shed our constraints

What restrictions or limitations do you place on yourself as a leader? Too often we allow others, and yes, even ourselves, to control our actions based on perception and emotion. However, effective leadership grows beyond such constraints and effective leaders become the thought leaders of their organizations, driving the vision and the message. In the words of Andrea J. Lee, “Want to strengthen your thought leadership? Crown yourself and assume the throne. Use opinion, story, and credentials to build authority.” 

Remove the obstacles

Much like the challenge courses many of us have completed along our leadership development journey, there are many obstacles, both real and perceived, that block our path. Too often we hold on to the mindset of a manager instead of the vision of a leader. Maybe we let fear of failure drive our decision making and action. Or maybe it’s as simple as our ego getting in the way. Whatever the obstacles, seek ways to remove them to make the path to your vision clear and open for you and others to follow.

Expose ourselves to others

Again, I’m not suggesting that you literally run naked through your organization, but I do propose that you bare yourself to others so that they see the true leader in you. I think it’s time leaders practiced a little unprotected leadership and let their passions shine through; shift your thinking, share your joys, acknowledge your skills, and try something new. If you exposed yourself in this way, imagine how your leadership could bloom.

Basically, naked leadership represents a new interpretation of the leader that you already are. It is uncovering the true leader that lives within, bringing it shamelessly out in the open for everyone to see. It is simple, unembellished leadership. It is the mark of good leadership. Try it and let me know how it goes.

MOOC
 by Hampton Hopkins

Is Google the next MOOC?

By now, everyone has heard about MOOCs – Massive Open Online Courses. MOOCs offer unlimited participation and open access to anyone seeking information or knowledge. There are millions of people taking these courses… and who can blame them? The opportunity to learn in the terabyte world of the web is available at the fingertips of anyone with a laptop and an internet connection. But universal access to great thinking is certainly not new. Excite came on the scene in 1993… Yahoo began connecting us in 1994… and the Google revolution has been fulfilling our need for information since 1998. In fact, Google’s mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Sort of sounds like a MOOC.

Is Google the next MOOC? The concept of the massive open online course offering access to anyone was a novel idea only in that it created a vehicle for the learning to occur. But access to much of the same knowledge exists in searchable form on Google for anyone willing to find it. In fact, Google has partnered with Coursera to offer a Google MOOC. It seems to me that Google meets three of the four criteria to be considered a MOOC. Google is massive. It has created algorithms and tools that organize a seemingly infinite amount of information and knowledge on the web. Google is open. It is free and available to many users worldwide, easy to use, and provides open access to content on virtually any subject. Google is online, obviously. However, Google is not a course in the traditional sense of how we think of learning. But can it be?

In our continuing evolution from teacher-directed to self-directed learning, what exactly is a course? While they provide some disruption to this concept, MOOCs are generally still traditional in scope and feel to other courses. There are lectures, discussions, and competencies to be met. But, with a little creativity Google can be a course as well. For those who want to learn and are willing to explore, the information and knowledge is accessible. One can learn almost anything through Google. When higher education institutions, and more importantly the companies that hire graduates, more readily accept life experience and self-directed learning as adequate substitutes for traditional courses, Google can become a course in the broadest sense. All that will remain is competency and this will ultimately be determined by performance.

Oscar Wilde once said, “Education is a worthwhile thing, but it is well to remember that nothing worth knowing can be taught.” His suggestion that individuals must be responsible for their own learning is an important consideration in this discussion of self-directed learning. What better way to learn than to log on and begin surfing?

Quilt
 by Hampton Hopkins

The Difference Between Quilts and Puzzles

A recent visit to a quilt exhibit at a regional festival reminded me of an old saying “when life throws you scraps, make a quilt.” This implies such a positive, can-do attitude. While I have never made a quilt, I do understand the commitment, creativity, and passion within each beautiful mosaic of fabric and thread. We have the opportunity to weave a similar mosaic everyday as leaders.

I heard it stated once that leaders “leave their footprints in their areas of passion.” This represents an overwhelming commitment to change and organizational growth and development. Such change certainly requires openness to creativity and forward-thinking… thus strengthening the underlying passion. And the cycle continues.

Entrepreneurial Leadership

These same great qualities are found in entrepreneurial leadership. While the current literature in entrepreneurial leadership devotes much attention to the roles entrepreneurs play in their respective organizations, it is a relatively new field of leadership study. In the article A New Paradigm: Entrepreneurial Leadership, the authors ask whether entrepreneurial leadership is a new style of leadership or an escape from management. Let’s explore this question.

The consideration of managers versus leaders explores a classic dichotomy in organizations. Leaders do the right thing while managers do things right. Admiral Grace Hopper said “manage things… lead people” and John Adair advises “if your organization is not on a journey, don’t bother about leadership – just settle for management.” I think the difference is further highlighted in five attributes of leadership: risk advocacy, passion, locus of control, responsibility, and vision.

Risk Advocacy

Leaders are willing to take risks after careful consideration. Leaders are not paralyzed by fear and inaction but seek to explore opportunities for change. This is especially true for the entrepreneurial leader who sees herself as more resilient and able to overcome setbacks. Les Brown expressed the idea of risk clearly when he said “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”

Passion

Leaders show enthusiasm and zeal for the organization and its mission. This passion comes from within and is not something that can be learned. Uju Onyechere suggests “we are created in such a way that whenever anything fires our soul, impossibilities vanish.” Leaders who excel within their organizations do so in part because they have a passion that manifests itself in excellence and commitment to the vision of the organization. Passion can be summed up in this quote by Mark Twain, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Locus of Control

Leaders have high internal locus of control suggesting that success comes from within. Murray Johannsen lists the fourth of his nine characteristics of successful entrepreneurs as locus of control. He states that instead of assuming that events are under the control of others, leaders consider how their actions influence these events. This allows leaders to also assume responsibility when things don’t go as planned.

Responsibility

Leaders learn from their mistakes and avoid the repetition that others may be guilty of. George Ambler suggests leaders are given authority and accountability, but they are not given responsibility. Leaders have to take responsibility. Ownership and responsibility are hallmarks of great leaders and great entrepreneurs. As Adam Osborne stated, “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake – you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”

Vision

Leaders know where to go, how to get there, and what it takes to bring people along. Leaders understand they are in competition for the hearts and minds of others. In order to win others over amidst the myriad things vying for their attention, leaders must create and share a vision that is appealing and achievable. John Maxwell said it best, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

So, what’s the difference between quilts and puzzles?

The puzzle is managerial whereby it represents boxed-in thinking; working towards solutions that are pre-defined by a set of rules or parameters. Quilts, on the other hand, are creative expressions of entrepreneurial leadership; open-ended thinking not limited by a picture of what the solution should look like.

In your teams, do you make quilts or assemble puzzles? Do you limit the creative thinking of those around you or seek creative solutions to organizational problems? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Originally published on the Linked2Leadership Blog

Avoid the bias of a single story
 by Hampton Hopkins

The Danger of a Single Story

It seems to me that many of our biases stem from a single story – or maybe the opposite is true. When we limit ourselves and our understanding to one narrative, we limit the depths to which we can be fully known and can fully know someone else. All of us live a life of multiple stories, layers of complex experiences and opportunities that define who we are, what we think and how we live our lives. To limit the telling of these stories is to remove a part of ourselves – to underestimate the person to whom we are defining.

When we allow ourselves to be defined by a single story, we hold ourselves back. Single stories are a way to limit the opportunity of others and to hold them back from being all they can be – whether intentional or not. By limiting others to a single narrative, a single, simple understanding of who they are and of the richness of their life experiences, is to effectively reduce them to something less, something inferior, to turn them into something they are not and to allow our power to tower over them.

Novelist Chimamanda Adichie describes the Danger of a Single Story in a talk that is both inspiring and challenging. The challenge for all of us to take a moment and look beyond the surface and to consider why we limit our understanding of others – why we see only a single story. By asking ourselves “why,” we can begin to recognize the implicit (and maybe explicit) biases that drive these narratives. Bias is ubiquitous and not inherently bad, it only becomes so when we allow it to drive our thinking in a manner that is detrimental to others and ourselves. Consider being a little more empathetic, a little more observant and a lot more reflective on how you perceive the person in front of you… if you are limiting them to a single story, ask yourself why.

 by Hampton Hopkins

Leading Change in Higher Education: The Great Compromise

Okay, I fully admit that I have shamelessly taken the concept for this blog from Ian Morrison and his 2011 book titled Leading Change in Health Care. I have done so because I see a clear connection between the state of healthcare and the state of higher education in America – both are an “ugly compromise among cost, quality, and access.” Where healthcare is challenged in balancing these for the vulnerable and sick, higher education is challenged in balancing these for all who are seeking to make a change in their lives.

The Compromise of Cost

There are many forces driving the cost of delivering higher education and competition for students is top on the list. Institutions are building bigger and better facilities, adding more amenities and creating pleasing environments, all to attract and retain students. When my son and I were touring campuses a few years ago, our running joke was how long it took the admissions representative to talk about the world-class climbing wall. But it’s not all about recruiting students. Institutions are under pressure to recruit top-notch faculty with cutting-edge research projects and the accompanying grant dollars that come with them; or those faculty members who bring some level of prestige to the classroom based on the body of their academic work. Finally, there has been a significant increase in non-teaching jobs on campus to support students, faculty and the mission of the institution, sometimes driven by unfunded federal mandates, but often simply to meet a real or perceived need.

I was speaking to a local Rotary club recently and was asked a question about the cost of higher education. Like many parents I talk to, he was concerned about the rising cost of attending college and was looking for some justification from the “expert” in the room. My answer may have shocked him. I told him that college simply costs too much. By some estimates, the cost of attending college has increased by more than 200% since the mid-1980s, even when accounting for inflation. To ice the cake, this increase is outpacing the available financial aid causing more students to borrow and graduate with increasing debt. Higher education leaders certainly need to take a hard look at institutional expenses to reduce cost to students.

The Compromise of Quality

How often have you heard someone say they need to attend the best college or university to ensure they have the best opportunity to get a job? But what defines the best institutions? Are the Ivy League institutions the best? Undoubtedly, there is a lifelong value in attending one of these institutions. Does US News and World Report define the best institutions? Drive along any highway in America and the billboards certainly seem to support this conclusion. But quality is something that is dependent on the context. There is no single accepted definition of quality. Phillip B. Crosby defines quality as “conformance to requirements” while W. Edwards Deming suggests quality is “meeting customer needs and wants.” Let’s explore these two definitions in the context of higher education.

There are many requirements placed on institutions of higher education by the public, by the accrediting bodies, by the government and by others. Simply conforming to these requirements does not imply a quality education – it suggests an average education. Excelling in meeting these requirements suggests quality and this is a typical way we look at institutional quality. Consider graduation rates and job placement rates. The average graduation rate among four-year public colleges in America is 59% (six-year rate). For young adults (20-24) with a bachelor’s degree, the employment rate is 86%, but it is assumed that some of these people are under-employed. For institutions to claim to offer a quality education, excelling in these “requirements” is the standard for quality. This is accomplished in many ways through the curriculum and the services provided on campus.

To define quality through the lens of customer needs and wants is a very different approach. Consider what it would look like to measure student success through their goals. For some, it would look like graduating from a four-year college and getting a job. Or, it could be taking a few welding classes and then finding a good-paying job to support your family. For others, it may be bypassing college altogether and seeking an alternative career pathway. For the first student in the above scenarios, we would all classify that a quality education… but not so much for the other two students. Yet, all could be quality educational experiences with successful outcomes. Higher education needs to embrace multiple pathways more effectively.

The Compromise of Access

Enrollment in college reached a peak in 2010 but has been on a steady decline of almost 5% since then. There are many supposed reasons for this, and the improving economy is among them (assuming COVID-19 will only be an outlier). Traditional aged students can forego college and go straight to work and post-traditional students are staying in their jobs instead of seeking new careers. But this is only part of the picture. The 2016 election brought into light the deep concerns about the opportunity gap in America and how many people feel left behind or left out. We saw even deeper divides in the 2020 election. Many of our institutions of higher education have been party to these concerns for the reasons discussed above. Inequities in economic opportunity and among disenfranchised populations have not adequately been addressed in higher education and beyond causing many to label colleges and universities as elitist and ivory tower.

But of course, this is misleading. While higher education has its flaws, it is egalitarian by design with opportunities for all. Focusing on diversity and inclusion are critical aspects of an accessible institution seeking to produce students who will benefit from such an environment. Increased state and federal funding are critical, but it is not the panacea we are looking for. More education on choice is necessary – students need to understand that they do not have to choose the elite private institution or the large state university… they can instead start at the local community college to begin their higher education journey. It is not all about cost when thinking about access. But, we need to make institutions more inviting and safe places for everyone.

The Bonus Compromise of Value

The great debate in higher education is centered on the value of the degree: is it attained for the purpose of learning or to prepare one for work? In practice, this may not be dichotomous, but it is often portrayed that way. I like to think that everything we learn in college has value for our future and that we are not educating students for their first job, but for a lifelong career. This means that there must be a balance and a shared responsibility among students, institutions and employers for lifelong learning. The value of higher education is clear: those with a bachelor’s degree earn nearly $1 million more than those with a high school diploma in their lifetime.

Those of us in higher education and our stakeholders must understand the nuance of cost, quality, and access and seek to ensure that we are diligent in our pursuit of value and equity. It is not enough to simply wait for our lawmakers to demand change, we must listen to the rising voice of the student-consumer and demand change ourselves. We must be the ones to lead this change before we are legislated to do so. We must understand our increasing responsibility to ensure access to higher education, provide a quality learning experience, and do so at an affordable cost. I’ll close with the words of William Butler Yeats, “Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

The Mark of Leadership
 by Hampton Hopkins

The Mark of Leadership

According to Wikipedia, branding can be the permanent marking of wood with heat, the marking of animals to imply ownership, or the application of specific marketing techniques to separate one product from another. In short, you can brand objects, animals, and other things, but can you brand your leadership?

Much has been written on the idea of leadership branding with a focus on the leader’s role within an organization. Leadership branding, like branding in general, includes concepts such as identity, distinctiveness and reputation. However, most of what I have read explores these characteristics in terms of the uniqueness of the team and not so much about the individuality of the leader.

Leadership is idiosyncratic and effective leadership exists outside the artificial confines of the typical organizational leadership paradigm. In other words, one size does not fit all despite the organizational pull to conform to the skills of the most dominate leaders or those in top positions. I think of leadership branding in terms of one’s personal leadership vision… how do I utilize my inimitable mix of personality, performance, and process to be the best leader I can be?

Personality

Our personality is how we present ourselves to the world. As leaders, our success is often measured on various personality traits, some of which have no bearing on our leadership ability. How well we perceive our leadership abilities is a personality trait that directly correlates with how well others perceive us as leaders. Our challenge is to be confident, not arrogant in our abilities while always seeking to improve ourselves as leaders. According to Peter Drucker, “Leadership is lifting our vision to higher sights, the raising of our performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.”

Performance

What would it take to make you a better leader? This is the primary question behind the concept of performance. Our performance as leaders can be summed up in the development of the organization, of others, and of our own knowledge. Great leadership is a magnet for excellent performance – both individual and organizational performance. However, leadership performance has to be measured on concepts individual to the leader and not on some commonly defined set of traits or measures. Consider the words of Mark Sanborn, “Our brand is a promise for the future based on our past performance.”  Leadership is personal therefore our performance is personal.

Process

Leadership is an accomplishment… not a position we hold in an organization. Successful leadership often requires some level of self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-sacrifice. We must be thoughtful in recognizing ourselves as individuals separate from the organizational environment so as to fully realize our leadership capacity. This requires self-control while maintaining the ability to adapt quickly in an ever-changing environment. Leadership is often a call to service whereby we surrender personal interest or gain for the betterment of those around us. Yvon Chouinard states it this way, “How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.” This is the process we refer to as leadership.

Within our organizations, common sets of leadership skills are scalable. We can teach others to manage their time, communicate, and engage with their teams. It’s the excellence in the execution of these skills that doesn’t scale so well. The tactics used by one leader to achieve leadership results may not work for other leaders. When we try to force conformity, we sacrifice authenticity… and authenticity is the most precious commodity of leadership.

Like the marking of wood with heat, your leadership should leave an indelible mark on those around you. What is your leadership brand?