Executive Commentary
Leadership is a Foul-Weather Job
Dr. Bob Hassmiller, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
Peter Drucker was one of my management gurus even before he turned his expertise to the nonprofit organization. Consequently, I tend to dust off my Drucker books when I’m looking for inspiration for dealing with tough problems. And if the present budget challenges aren’t tough, I don’t want to know the definition of what’s tougher.
Drucker has identified leadership as an essential quality for managers
during crisis. He says that “leadership is a foul-weather
job.” That certainly describes the climate that today’s
colleges and universities are beginning to face.
Why is it so tough? Well, first higher education is plagued by our
success. For many years students have flocked to our doors. At the same
time, while state and federal aid have dropped as a percentage of the
total budget, it has increased faster than inflation. This gave us the
ability to be flexible in how we added programs, faculty and staff. Can
anything be declared more successful than our higher education
institutions over the last twenty or even forty years?
As a result, we have made choices, but often not drastic choices. We
have been accountable and frugal, but rarely have we cut to the bone. We
have faced crisis, but not the “perfect revenue storm” we
may face now (lower federal, state and student revenue).
In the face of increasing numbers of students and the revenue to support
them, our mission choices have almost always been about doing more,
rarely about doing less. We have been able to be innovative, but rarely
have we been accountable for our innovation failures. Most campuses have
two or three examples of student learning systems, whole academic
programs and the administrative staff to support them, or management
information systems that never worked quite as planned, but no one
really cared either. In auxiliaries we have been able to offer ever more
discriminating and expensive programs because the students, state, or
institution was always willing to pay for them.
Well, we are in for a season of tremendously hard choices being made in
what many are predicting is a continuing resource decline. In addition
to declining resources, we have increased enrollments, new competition,
shifting revenue streams and a weakening economy. Even students have
diminished their ability to pay as tuitions have outstripped inflation
and student debt has soared.
What is required of your leadership? Let me emphasize that you need to
comment on this. But let me give you something with which to agree or
disagree.
First, you need to concentrate on what you can do to further your
mission and decide what you shouldn’t do. Trying to please
everyone is a road toward mediocrity. You need to decide upon and go
with your strengths.
Second, you need to review what you regard as your own character and
integrity. You have, or will be asked to make some very hard choices.
The leader will compromise, but he/she can’t do so in a way that
destroys his/her own values or those of the institution. My feeling is
that ethics are easy to have when money is plentiful, but when you need
to make hard choices, displeasing some constituencies, decision-making
gets daunting. It is doubly difficult if you don’t have a good
“go-to-hell” option.
Third, Drucker made one of the most insightful points about leadership
in foul weather when he said “You need to take your role
seriously, not yourself.” Your role as an auxiliary service
professional is to take care of the institution and the learning that
occurs there. This “servant of the learning mission” role is
critical. So are your business and entrepreneurial skills. Devotion to
this task, and especially the evaluation of performance towards the
critical tasks of successfully running your institution while always
important, are particularly critical during a crisis. Having said all
that, keep some semblance of your sense of humor because you’ll
need it! As our NACAS President Charlie Figari always says, “You
need a backbone, wishbone and funny bone.”
Fourth, you need to listen. Filter the glitz and the glitter. Just
listen! ‘Nuff said! After listening, you need to over-communicate
what you hear.
Fifth, as tough as it is, you need to leave room for innovation, even
when there seems to be no resources for it. Drucker points out that
there is more need to innovate during recessions. Look for partnerships
to do non-mission critical tasks. Each organization will need to look
critically at itself and decide what is mission-critical, what is not,
what should be done better, and what can be left alone.
Sixth, the most difficult decisions will involve people. Yet difficult
people choices have to be made, sometimes frightening staff, especially
those who have never faced these actions. Here again, you need to work
to over-communicate exactly what is happening, both to your staff and to
the institution. These can be worrisome times and everyone wants to
maintain some control of their future.
NACAS is working to cooperate with many groups, NACUBO, NASPA, NACS,
NACUFS, NAEP, ACUI, ACUHO-I and others to insure that auxiliary services
professionals are giving and getting the best resources to perform their
tasks. We always try to provide the right services for you to do your
job. Let us know what you are doing to weather the crisis with which we
are faced.
Please agree or disagree to bob@nacas.org.
