Leadership

There are informal leaders in every organization.  These are the people in the organization who, without formal title or authority, get things done, and done well, show others how to do them, and have a large network interconnecting many people in a variety of teams and organizations across the entire organization.  Often we do not […]

Leaders in Higher Education walk a tightrope every day.  Financial pressures have sustained while expectations and demands for return on investment have continued to increase. The pace of change has accelerated and will not stop.  Market conditions have spurred new innovation and competition at the edges, some of which might be considered unwelcome. Meanwhile, as […]

What’s the difference? Someone asked the other day, “What do you think?” and I wondered, is this a time to coach or a time to mentor?  In our interactions everyday we may have the choice to adopt one approach over the other.  Yet we need to be able to make the distinction between coaching in […]

I suspect that you, like me, must answer “yes.”  From a neuroscience perspective, our brains are constantly, subconsciously scanning the world around us seeking to identify and examine “events” of note – for example, the school bus that went down my street this morning at 8:15, the traffic light turning from green to yellow, the likely […]

On April 1 we reached out to the MOR Leaders alumni on behalf of Ed Clark, fellow program alum and current CIO of University of St Thomas, with a survey on “IT Centralization and the Innovation Value Chain in Higher Education”.  This was part of his PhD dissertation work, in which I am happy to […]

So, what do I do now? We all make mistakes.  Sometimes they are small and personal like forgetting to put the trash at the curb to be picked up.  Or, larger and embarrassing, like writing the amount differently in numbers and words on a check.  Or, sending a critical email to the wrong addressee.  Or, […]

Keep that “elevator speech” fresh!    Today’s Tuesday Reading, Missed Opportunity, is an essay by Brent Tuggle, Lead Windows System Administrator, in Technology Services at the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. The essay first appeared as a program reflection early this year. I wanted to take a moment to share a recent experience I had and an […]

SCARF  ::  A User’s Guide The focus of the past two issues of the Tuesday Reading has been on neuroscience and change.  Today’s essay continues this theme, providing some practical suggestions as to how you can employ SCARF to better understand yourself and to manage and lead others. The work of David Rock and others has […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, “Plusing Up” and the Princess Doll, is an essay by Jerry Wood, Director of Information Technology, for Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of Michigan.  The essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year.   One of my biggest professional passions is providing great customer service.  I think it’s an art […]

Yesterday was the 240th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This document announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule, and instead in a […]

… at this year’s commencement exercises This year’s spring graduation season has come to an end.  About 4,700 degree granting public and private, two and four year institutions awarded some 2.8 million degrees at their commencement exercises.  And, every one of these gatherings had speakers that spoke of not giving into the darkness and despair of […]

Video Library from the 2016 MOR Leaders Conference: 1. Conference Opening Video 2. The Essence of Leadership – General Colin Powell 3. Digital Transformation — We Havent Seen Anything Yet – Andrew McAfee 4. Bruce Maas, University of Wisconsin-Madison 5. Len Peters, Yale University 6. Sue Workman, Case Western Reserve University 7. John Gohsman, Washington University in St. Louis […]

Sue Workman, Vice President Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer, Case Western Reserve University, keynote video for the 2016 MOR Leaders Conference.  Video of Sue Workman, Case Western Reserve University, MOR Leaders Conference

John Gohsman, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Washington University in St. Louis keynote video for the 2016 MOR Leaders Conference. Video of John Gohsman, WashU, MOR Leaders Conference To learn more about the program the team at Wash U is working on, please visit: http://itservicesprogram.wustl.edu/

Last week, many of us participated in the 2016 MOR Leaders Conference, Reimagining IT as University Needs and Technology Evolve.  There we were encouraged to think about our university’s IT and what it could become.  And, we were asked to identify one idea that we each could take action on?  I want to take this […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, Who I think about as “My Leader,” is an essay by Paula Torres, Senior Educational Design Technologist, Global Learning and Innovation, NYU Information Technology.  Her essay first appeared as a program reflection last year. The one person I think of when I think of leadership was not my manager, supervisor, or even […]

The important thing is not to stop questioning…  Never lose a holy curiosity.         – Albert Einstein During World War II when I was a young boy, we lived with my mother’s parents while my father worked about 100 miles away in an oil refinery and commuted back to our small town […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading – Use the 4Is, or expect our history to repeat itself – is an essay by Richard Knepper, Manager, Campus Bridging and Research Infrastructure, Research Technologies, University Information Technology, Indiana University.  His original essay first appeared as a program reflection last year.   At the beginning of this year I was coming off […]

The attached is part of a series of case studies supporting our clients as they recognize leading change is a campaign and engaging others in that process is critical as they move ideas forward in their environment.   Enjoy!  And thanks to Jim Willson from MSU for partnering with us on this write up. MSU-Case-Study-Building-Leadership-Community.pdf

You can find many lists of leadership competencies.  Some result from a careful examination of the work in a particular job family or from role descriptions.  Some come from discussions about what it takes to be a really good leader in a mid-level position at, say, an education institution.  Other lists are developed based on […]