The Leadership Professor is back

It’s been a long year since The Leadership Professor has been active online. The reason: a time of major transition, change, learning, relearning, and settling into a new job, institution, city, home, life, and career stage.

The good news: not just surviving, but thriving and with a range of experiences that have deepened understandings of how and why we lead – and how we can (and must) better manage the inevitable stresses and strains in daily life.

From this last year, I am convinced more than ever that:

1. One person can change the world – and we’ll only solve those nagging, audacious problems when we each accept and act on that reality. 

2. The heart of leadership rests in the heart of the leader: we lead best when we find jobs that use our true talents and issues to which we can bring passion and energy.

3. We are stronger than we think – and accepting that gives us the courage to lead and the grace to manage the inevitable challenges along the way. 

As I prepare to work next week with a group of higher education leaders, I ran across a quotation from Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky (Leadership on the Line, 2002) that captures the essence of leadership: offering hope, insights, possibilities, encouragement, and learning. 

“The hope in leadership lies in the capacity to deliver disturbing news and raise difficult questions in a way that people can absorb, prodding them to take up the message rather than ignore it or kill the messenger.”

Onward!