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President Kermit L. Hall |
| I am the President of the University at Albany. Leading a University is a daily challenge, something I have learned over the past few years. For instance, a president is expected to be able to think fast.
Take the couple who were asleep in their bedroom when an intruder came in with a gun. "Now that you've seen me, I've got to get rid of you," the intruder said. Pointing the gun at the woman, he added, "I like to know the names of my victims, What's your name?" "Gertrude," she replied. The intruder said: "I can't go through with this. My mother was named Gertrude." He then pointed his gun at the man, a university president. "What is your name," he asked. "Joe," the president said, "but all my friends call me Gertrude." Being a president is about leadership, although it is a unique role. Someone once said that a president is the captain of a ship on which everyone mutinies BUT no one wants to get off. Those circumstances are enough to make you wonder about what you are doing. They bring to mind the story of a person who comes down for breakfast in the morning. He said to his mother, "I am not going to school today for two reasons. First, the students make fun, and second the teachers don't like me." The mother said back "yes, you are going to school today and I will give you two reasons: first you are 55 years old; and second, YOU ARE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY" LEADERSHIP All of you are here tonight because you have distinguished yourself. And that almost certainly means you will have opportunities in the future to distinguish yourselves again and to find ways to adapt to the constant change that is part of the human existence. Remember that the applause you receive is not really for what you have done but in expectation of what you will do. You will almost certainly be called upon to exercise leadership. So, if I may, let me remind you of what it takes, whether in the classroom or outside it, to be a leader. It is a tough job. As former football coach Tom Landry has observed: "Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do in order that they can achieve what they want to achieve." And I would tie that observation to comment made by a similarly great America "philosopher" - former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes - Coach Hayes like to say: "You win with people." So, here is the trick. In changing times it is critical to get the best people to achieve what they want to achieve by having them do what they don't want to do! With that idea in mind, let me share with you a simple prescription when it comes to leadership. Let's call it the three P's and the three C's The P's are: Passion, Perseverance, and Poise And the three C's are: Coaching, Confidence, and Courage Passion The simple fact is that nothing great has ever been accomplished without passion. If you do not believe with you heart in what you are doing, you can be certain that those you seek to lead will not follow you, save by force or intimidation. Perseverance Abraham Lincoln had it figured out as well. Lincoln led the nation through the bloodiest conflict in American history. But as he did so he repeatedly reminded his cabinet: "I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards." Poise Robert Frost summed the matter up nicely when, commenting about education, he noted that "[Leadership] is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper." Now for the C's Theodore Roosevelt once observed that "Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action or be even a poor substitute for it." Critics worry about making a point, Roosevelt observed, leaders who are also coaches worry about scoring points. Remember Harry Truman's famous line: "the buck stops here." Part of what he meant is that a leader has to endure the barbs of the critics, the unhappy, the resistant, and the timid. But a leader has also to be a teacher, a transformative agent, a person that gets others to be something more than they though they could be. And that means recognizing that failure is itself a great instructor. John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach, has observed that "If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes." As Ben Franklin liked to say: "Genius without education is like silver in the mine." Confidence First, when it comes to confidence, there is no substitute for being prepared. No one will follow you if you don't have a plan about where to go. Second, as the famous American politician Williams Jennings Bryan liked to say, "The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear." Third, confidence is also knowing how as a leader to demonstrate that you know how to lose. Nancy Kerrigan, a world-class figure skater, liked to remind herself that part of being a champ was acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and how not to run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes. If a leader refuses to embrace failure, he or she will never inspire others to enough to reach success. Fourth, confidence is the essential balance wheel to stubbornness. All leaders have to be committed to what they do, to the plans they make, and to the risks they take. But being able to change your mind is essential to keep the trust of the people you seek to lead. The most talented leaders in history have been stubborn, dogged, and persevering, like Hannibal, who once said in a difficult circumstance "We will either find a way, or make one." But the greatest leaders in history have recognized that you just might have to go a different direction than you initially planned. Doing so can be hard when you have tried to convince everyone to go there in the first place. But take heart from the words of Winston Churchill: "To improve is to change" Churchill wrote. But "to be perfect is to change often." The best demonstration of confidence in yourself and your leadership is your willingness to listen to others and have them test your ideas, especially when your ideas may cost not only you but them. And, of course, confidence is tied to our third "C" - Courage. Daniel Maher, the American artist, has explained that confidence is courage at ease. Courage Courage and toughness are often conflated and both depend on each other, but they are not synonymous. As the great African American leader George Washington Carver observed about leadership "How well you lead in life depends on: your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these." So back to Tom Landry and Woody Hayes, our great "philosophers". Leaders succeed in getting others to be more than they thought they could be by making them do what they did not want to do in the first place. If you do so, you will bring out the best in others and, of course, you will win with people. Structures are great, processes are important, procedures are critical, but the life of leadership is the life of human service, of making a difference for others. If I can turn one more time to John Wooden, I would note his words: "You cannot be a leader without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you." Leadership is about who you are - and at its core leadership is about heart, about character, and about integrity. When Americans are asked what they consider to be the most important quality in a leader, more than eighty percent respond with one word - INTEGRITY. Indira Gandhi once observed that there are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. She reminds us to try to be in the first group -- there is much less competition. In conclusion, the best leaders know that, in the end, "it is amazing what can be accomplished when no one worries about who gets the credit." |
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