Communication

This is the first installment of a series of three posts of principles of leadership that I have gleaned from forty years in administration in Christian higher education. Although they come from that setting, many, if not most are applicable to any management situation.This post concerns one’s own personal traits and characteristics.  Post Two concerns how one deals with people. Post three will deal handling processes within the organization.

Personal Traits and Characteristics

1.  Trust God Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3: 5-6 (New Living Translation) 
2.  Be dependable If you say you are going to do something, do it. Be a person of your word.
3.  Tell the truth Scripture exhorts us to “Tell the truth in love.” In addition to being the right thing to do, there are pragmatic reasons to do so. I recall one dean who said, “Always tell the truth. It’s easier to remember what you have said.”
4.  Love learning People need to feel a passion to know…to know oneself, to know the world around us. Knowing brings understanding and a sense of fulfillment.
5. Work hard; play hard; rest well Be diligent in your work ethic; be conscientious in your recreation; take time for yourself.
6.  Persuade, rather than coerce If a case can’t be won by logical, rational arguments, is it worth winning?
7.  Know your own limitations Every one has limitations. It saves you and others a great deal of time and energy if you know what your own limitations are and you operate within them.
8.  Listen well The most overlooked communications skill is listening. People expect you to “hear” what they are saying. If they believe that you have really listened to them, they will respect your decisions more, even if they don’t agree with them.
9.  Read Develop the habit of reading. Determine the best journals related to disciple and job. Read those religiously. Keep at least three books on hand that can be read in those spare moments…one related to spiritual development; one related to job; one just for fun.
10.  Keep a record of your decisions Always keep a paper trail, especially of all decisions, promises and warnings
11. Respond to people Respond to people in a reasonable time frame in an appropriate manner, letter, email, phone or personal visit.
12. Know your enemies. First, you need to know who your enemies are. Second, you need to know why they are opposing you. Third, you need to know their battle plans and modus operandi.
13.  Understand the power and limitations of technology If you know want technology can do and what it can’t do, and you know where it can help you achieve your ends, use technology appropriately.
14.  Be a scholar Scholarship is the art and science of creating, organizing and disseminating knowledge. As an academic, the academic administrator must be committed to scholarship.
15. Be engaged The essence of engagement is to know and be known. Within the academic realm, individuals need to be engaged with their disciplines, with their colleagues, with students, with their community and with their churches
16.  Pray Pray without ceasing. Pray with thanksgiving. Pray fervently

Principles of Leadership Part 2: Dealing with People

1. Be hospitable. Have respect for all people; be hospital to everyone; demand an aura of hospitality everywhere within the institution. Make everyone, both members of the organization and guests,  feel welcome.
2.   Value people The most important resource in any organization is people. They need to know that you  appreciate them, not for what they do or can do, but who they are.  
3.   Reward people Individuals appreciate psychological and emotional rewards. However, it is equally important to reward people materially, at least as much as the organization is able. People need to believe that you are trying to reward them materially.
4. Invest in people If people are the most important resource of an organization, it is not enough to value them as persons and pay them appropriately, you must show them that they are important by challenging them to better performance and providing the necessary support in terms of training, facilities, equipment and help.
5. Empower people I believe the best decision-making strategy for an organization is to push decisions down to the lowest appropriate level within the organization. Give people a job and responsibilities, and let them do the job.
6.   Respond to people appropriately and in a timely manner Respond to people in a reasonable time frame in an appropriate manner, letter, email, phone or personal visit. Know when to say “No.” Also remember that “Because I said so.” is not a sufficient answer to the question “Why?” Be prepared to freely share your reasoning behind the response to any request Learn to use the answer “I will think about it.” responsibly. If you don’t say “No” many will hear that answer as a “Yes.” 
7.    Hire the best person for a job opening The “A-level leader” will hire “A-level” people. The “B-level” leader will hire B-level or C-level people. A good subordinate will improve your organization and eventually make you look good. Don’t worry about that individual challenging you for your job. If they are a better choice and could do a better job than you, then that’s so much better for your organization. A poor subordinate will sabotage your organization and make you look bad.  
8.   Develop your successor It has always been my intent and general practice to begin on the very first day of a job to help someone prepare him or herself to take over my job. I have mentored more than a dozen people who have gone on to serve in the position I held at my institution after I had left or at another institution after they left. 
9.   Don’t shove a square peg into a round hole It is physically possible to put a square peg into a round hole, but only if the square peg is smaller than the hole. Try to match the skills and attributes of the individual with the demands of the position. Don’t over-match or under-match. 
10.    Know and appreciate your students. Education is meeting students where they are and helping them to get to where they want to be and ought to be. If where they want to be is not where they ought to be, the first job of the institution is to help them see where they ought to be. This means that you must study your students and help your faculty members understand and appreciate their students.

This is the third installment of a series of posts of principles of leadership that I have gleaned from forty years in administration in Christian higher education. Although they gone from that setting, many, if not most are applicable to any management situation. This post deals with handling processes within the organization.Post One dealt with personal traits and characteristics. Post Two was about dealing with people.

1.   Approach problems systemically; solve them systematically Making changes in one area of a system will have effects on other areas of the system. Look at the big picture. Do not go just for a quick fix. Work through all the ramifications of your actions. Be prepared for the next steps.
2.  Think and plan strategically Strategic thinking and planning begin with the organization’s mission and vision. It proceeds through internal and external scans and an analysis of the differences between current positioning and desired future positioning. The organization must then determine the fundamental issues it has to address to achieve its mission and vision, and then develop goals, action plans and tactics to address those issues. Periodic review of the goals, action plans and tactics are essential to an ongoing institutional assessment of where it is and where it wants to be.
3. Develop a culture of evidence A culture of evidence is a way of life and thought that pervades an organization with a set of values and principles, a collective knowledge, and habitual patterns of actions that uses information and data as evidence to answer questions of importance to the organization. In the ideal organization, a culture of evidence will demonstrate the degree or extent to which the organization possesses those attributes and characteristics of high-quality programs and processes.
4.   Share knowledge and information Today’s organizations can no longer effectively be managed by the few who think and the many that do what they are told. Organizations need a higher level of knowledge and skill among all who participate in them.
5. Live within your budget An organization must operate within its means. To do this requires a balancing of the needs and available resources, along with an accurate accounting of income and expenses. I believe that budgeting should begin with needs and expenses followed by an analysis of income. I also believe that once the budget is set, the bottom line is fixed, but individual items are guidelines and within the framework of that bottom line budget directors should have as the autonomy to make changes in individual items if necessary.
6.   Take the long-term view The long-term success and viability of a project is more important than short-term successes. The long-term success and viability of an organization is more important than the short-term successes of projects. The long-term success of the organization and individual projects may need the building of foundations and superstructure that can take time to construct.
7.  Expect excellence; ensure excellence We should encourage our customers to expect excellence from us. It is our job to ensure excellence in what we deliver. The process of providing excellence includes selecting the right people and assigning them the right tasks, setting high standards and motivating them continually and holding them accountable for the outcome.
8.   Maintain the proper balance between innovation and practicality There are times when it is important to “think out-of-the-box.” There are times when it is important to remember and follow tradition. It is most important to know when to choose what.
9. Form follows function This phrase is typically used in an architectural sense. It definitely must be followed in designing space. However, I believe that it has a much broader application. We can look at processes and systems just as we look at buildings. We should first look at what we intend for them to do, and then design them accordingly.
10.  Delegate intelligently; follow-up consistently An individual can’t do everything. A supervisor must set a pattern of delegating both responsibility and authority to appropriate staff. The supervisor should also set up expectations of oversight and stick with those expectations. The follow-up should be scheduled and as consistent as possible from one project to the next, and one staff member to the next.
11.  Celebrate success People need to feel good. People need to celebrate appropriately. As successes come, set a pattern of celebrating those successes and the people who made them possible.
12.  Learn from failures Nobody is perfect. You will make mistakes; others will make mistakes. Take those mistakes and use them to become better. Analyze what went wrong. Determine what could be done to avoid these problems in the future.
13.   Leave the organization better than you found it Each decision should be made with the intent of improving the organization. The work of each day should be done with the goal of continuous improvement. Work each day as if it is your last chance to make a difference.

If you are interested in learning more about leadership

and how it effects organizations, I highly recommend the

work of Dr. Jim Laub. Check out his organization OLA

and his website  www.ola.org