Academic Leadership
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Academic Administrators Engage in Nationally-Acclaimed Leadership Development Program
The Academy for Advancing Leadership (AAL) convenes its Chairs and Academic Administrators Management Program in Atlanta, GA.
2018 August AAL Newsletter
Tips for Supercharging Your Leadership Credibility
by John R. Stoker
To be a great leader, you must cultivate essential leadership behaviors that inspire your staff. John R. Stoker offers 12 tips for supercharging your leadership and bolstering your credibility, which include: being visible and available, speaking victory into your people, and identifying individuals’ strengths.
Do You ‘Really’ Want to Be a Dean?
by Prof. Rob Jenkins
For a dean, managing meetings, navigating office politics, and fundraising can be challenging. Prof. Rob Jenkins shares his experiences as interim dean, and advises department chairs to examine the pros and cons of the role before transitioning: “In plotting your career, just as important as realizing that you might want to pursue a deanship is knowing that you don’t.”
Who Are You Serving?
by Skip Prichard
Digital technology has sparked transformational change in our society, and in our relationships. Inevitably, leadership has been transformed as well. In an interview with James Strock, author of Serve to Lead: 21st Century Leaders Manual, Skip Prichard highlights the skills needed to prevail as an influential leader in the 21st century.
What Makes a Leader?
by Nell Greenfieldboyce
NPR correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce dissects a cognitive study by researchers at the University of Zurich, which identifies the neurobiological processes that influence leadership and delegation. This study highlights the similarities shared between different leadership styles and how they relate to decision-making and empathy.
10 Traits of Great Leaders in This New World of Work
by Glenn Elliot and Debra Corey
Leadership expectations have changed drastically in the last 20 years. Modern-day staff hope for leaders who are connected, inspiring, honest, and trustworthy. Using a survey of 350 workforce millennials, Glenn Elliot and Debra Corey narrow down the top 10 traits employees look for in a leader.
2018 July AAL Newsletter
Should Leadership Feel More Like Love?
by Fred Kofman
Knowledge@Wharton sits down with Fred Kofman, leadership development adviser at Google, to discuss the concepts presented in his work The Meaning Revolution: The Power of Transcendent Leadership. Kofman highlights the differences between material and moral goods and urges leaders to focus more on creating a sense of community, developing a meaningful purpose, and establishing ethical principles.
Why Liberal Arts and the Humanities Are As Important As Engineering
by Vivek Wadhwa
“An engineering degree is very valuable, but the sense of empathy that comes from music, arts, literature, and psychology provides a big advantage in design,” claims Harvard Law School Fellow Vivek Wadhwa. Technological advances in medicine and artificial intelligence propel our society forward; however, design and creativity are what make new innovations successful. Wadhwa explores the symbiosis between the humanities and engineering.
Ethics Is Serious Business
by John Hooker
How can leaders recognize ethical competence, and motivate staff to acquire and apply it? Carnegie Mellon University Professor John Hooker offers three stages of identification: heteronomy, ideology, and autonomy. These stages, which parallel social and cognitive development, can help leaders build and maintain social infrastructure on ethical foundations.
Bring the Power of Progress Into Your One-to-One Meetings
by Jennifer V. Miller
Leaders can increase team productivity by capitalizing on the progress principle—”the human desire to feel that one is making progress on work that matters.” Jennifer V. Miller discusses the ways in which celebrating small wins can provide momentum towards larger team goals: “As a leader, it’s up to you to help connect the dots between team members’ wins and the value their work provides to your company and customers. In the process, not only will your team members experience satisfaction, their output will improve as well.”
What to Do When You Can’t Face Your Team
by Mark Ellis
Are you challenged with the task of motivating your staff? Mark Ellis offers advice for overcoming team-leadership burnout. Ellis argues that leadership growth begins when you: take time off to reflect on the purpose of your work, meditate, embrace your flaws, and build individual relationships with your staff.
S2E09 Communicating Vision to Stakeholders
Communicating Vision to Stakeholders
Dr. Jo Allen, President of Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, provides insights on how she manages stakeholder expectations by communicating a clear vision for her community.
2018 June AAL Newsletter
Why Leaders Should Focus on Long-term Growth
by Brian Dumaine & Michael Useem
While it may be challenging to plan for long-term growth when the pressures of managing the short-term have become so great, Dumaine and Useem offer advice to help you juggle both. In their book Go Long: Why Long-Term Thinking is Your Best Short-Term Strategy, the authors contend that building connections with long-term investors is key to tackling your vision: “75% of all equity is actually held by long-term investors … Part of the trick is to find out who those long-term shareholders are in your corporation and go to them, gain their support, express to them a very vivid and persuasive long-term vision for your company.”
Communicate Clearly and Openly
by Naphtali Hoff
Being a better leader, especially on an understaffed team, requires exceptional communication. Naphtali Hoff urges leaders to schedule weekly team meetings, promote two-way feedback, schedule no-interruption work periods, and plan on downtime to maximize and strengthen team bonds.
How a Nontraditional Presidency Can Succeed
by Todd Adams
Todd Adams discusses the ways in which college and university leaders with little to no background or experience in academia can become successful in their roles. Through his time on the presidential search committee at Florida State University, Adams has learned three major components to success: communication is critical, faculty members need to be willing to work with the new president, and some education about your organization is necessary.
Edmentum CEO Jamie Candee on the Importance of Taking Risks
by Patrick Gorman
Jamie Candee sits down with Chief Executive to discuss the ways in which her diverse job background positively impacted her success as a CEO. Candee asserts that understanding your team’s challenges, and failures, as well as how they culturally operate, grants a unique perspective: “To be successful as a leader, it’s really understanding what motivates people, how to create a culture and an environment where they thrive.”
To Be the Best, Invest in Relationships and Results
by S. Chris Edmonds
S. Chris Edmonds encourages the use of three game-changing tactics to influence others in the workplace—tactics successfully implemented by Tamara McCleary, internationally recognized expert on branding, influence, and social business. Edmonds argues that by connecting with employees, collecting data regarding their happiness, and evaluating the progress of their engagement, you can become a better leader.
2018 May AAL Newsletter
Empowering Bottom-Up Communications in a Top-Down Environment
A 2016 report conducted by Cornerstone OnDemand and Ellucian found that “69 percent of higher education institutions surveyed admitted to struggling to retain top staff.” Master argues that “where there is friction, there is opportunity,” and offers advice on creating collaborative work environments in which creativity is valued.
How to Be Both a Professor and a Dean
David D. Perlmutter, dean of the College of Media and Communications at Texas Tech University, shares his advice on balancing academic involvement and administrative duties as a dean. Perlmutter believes that bridging this gap can be beneficial to campus relations: “The cultural and caste divides on campuses concerning leadership, change, and governance are stark… As much engagement with ‘the other’ as you can muster is always beneficial, for ourselves and for higher education itself.”
Are You A Trusted Leader?
Teams led by trusted leaders are often more resilient, accountable, and faster at decision-making. However, trust is easier experienced than measured. Kador offers an assessment that will help you determine if you are experienced as a trusted leader in your organization.
Building the Bonds of a High-Performing Team
Figliuolo outlines three deliberate steps you can take to build a high-performing team: bringing in the right talent, strengthening bonds, and building trust. He argues that, by assessing personality types and fostering collaboration, your team can quickly build chemistry and improve work output.
The 8 Principles of Rebel Leadership
In her new book Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life, Francesca Gino discusses the importance of encouraging respectful dissent and innovative thinking in the workplace. Carmen Nobel explores this argument with Gino and examines the eight principles of leadership that can unleash creative solutions.
AAL’s president and The 9 Virtues of Exceptional Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Dr. Karl Haden, examines organizational culture and the leadership behaviors that contribute to virtuous corporate cultures.
S2E07 The Practical Difference of Virtuous Leadership
How is the “purpose-driven organization” an expression of virtuous leadership? Listen as AAL’s President and The 9 Virtues of Exceptional Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Dr. Karl Haden, discusses the practical difference that virtuous leadership makes—both in our collective history and for today’s leaders.
