The Prez at EKU

Great leadership impacts the moral focus of those who follow, it also inspires a new vision, stimulates intellectual capacity, and supports every individual in the Organization. This leadership is vital in 2015 because as we move into an age of social media, where every little thing we do is visible for everyone to see, we need to ensure, more than ever, that we have the type of leader that makes the correct decision, the first time, and thinks before they act. As with my first blog, once again I am going to draw on a keynote speech that was delivered at the OCCCIO conference at Fanshawe College in London Ontario. Scott Stratten, president of Unmarketing, spoke about the power and perils of social media and I was especially interested in his commentary about Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) president Michael T. Benson and how devoted he was to his student’s success. Scott spoke about how students could be classified as either ecstatic and extremely happy to be in school or static, meaning they were really just in school because they had to be. So the question was how do we get students from being static to ecstatic. While it all starts at the top and surprisingly enough it can be the little things sprinkled with a little social media magic that get the job done. 

The story about EKU president Michael Benson starts off with a tweet from one of the school’s students challenging the president to come and shovel his driveway so he could make it to class. It turns out they had a fairly big snow storm but the school had decided that there would still be classes the following day and this didn’t sit well with some of the students who wanted a snow day. So EKU student Devan Dannelly tweeted the president “Yo @EKUPrez come shovel my driveway/road and I’ll come to class tomorrow…deal????” (Dannelly, 2015a). Seven minutes later Devan gets a reply “@DADannelly11 it’s a deal. What’s your address?” (Benson, 2015a). Less than two hours later the driveway is shoveled and a before and after picture is tweeted with “A deal is a deal…Expect to see you in class tomorrow!” (Benson, 2015b). 

And what effect does something like this little gesture have? “I will literally never complain about going to class again” (Dannelly, 2015b) and “I’m going to ask Obama to come wash my car next week” (Dannelly, 2015c). The first thing that drew my attention to this story was just how fast Michael responded to Devan’s original tweet. Just 7 minutes! Here is a president who clearly has his finger on the pulse of his school and after hearing many stories of famous people making career ending mistakes on social media this is certainly a different side and a shining example of what this tool is capable of. However, there is clearly a caveat here and while it pains me to quote a comic book it’s just unavoidable. “With great power there must also come great responsibility” (Lee, 2015). 

So what type of leadership traits are a requirement for using social media? Well, they have to be intelligent and know what to say and when to say it. More importantly they need to know what not to say. Michael Benson could have responded negatively to the tweet but just what would that get him? They also have to be sociable, motivational and possess a ton of confidence in their ability. How many people do you know that would take the effort to shovel an entire driveway just to get one kid to go to school? If you think it’s a one-off sham then think again. Michael’s Twitter feed is filled with daily updates and many similar examples of selflessness that point to him being a magnificent leader. One such example is a student who couldn’t make her graduation ceremony due to competing for her school in the track and field championships. Her friends tweeted the president, who had just overseen 5 ceremonies the past couple days. After confirming a few details, Michael Benson showed up at her makeshift ceremony and conferred the degree to her. (ForeverColonels, 2015) 

I challenge anyone to read some of the tweets from @EKUPrez and come away without feeling truly inspired. This is the type of leadership that is vital in 2015 and beyond, especially in the field of education. Michael Benson’s has a transformational leadership style, he leads by example, walks the walk and affects not only individuals and social systems but empowers his followers to become leaders themselves (Burns, 1978).  The vast number of positive feedback on his twitter account strongly suggests that his students love him, feel inspired by him and are changed for the better by being around him. He has clearly shown that he cares for the well being of his students and his actions are innovative and creative.  I only wish that I had great leaders such as this when I was at school, but I will remember, imitation is the highest form of flattery!

References

Benson, M. [EKUPrez]. (2015a, February 17). @DADannelly11 it's a deal. What's your address? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/EKUPrez/status/567785526309453824

Benson, M. [EKUPrez]. (2015a, February 17). A deal is a deal. Before & after at the driveway of @DADannelly11 Expect to see you in class tomorrow!  [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/EKUPrez/status/567804983064936450

Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.

Dannelly, D. [Captain_D11]. (2015a, February 17). Yo @EKUPrez come shovel my driveway/road and I'll come to class tomorrow... deal??? [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Captain_D11/status/567783643226316800

Dannelly, D. [Captain_D11]. (2015b, February 17). I will literally never complain about going to class again. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Captain_D11/status/567814536586334209

Dannelly, D. [Captain_D11]. (2015c, February 18). I'm going to ask Obama to come wash my car next week. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Captain_D11/status/568156557827035136

ForeverColonels [EKUStories]. (2015, May 18). A special, private commencement to remember thanks to @EKUPrez https://storify.com/EKU/a-special-commencement … #HigherEd #EKUGrad. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/EKUStories/status/600281534801797122

Lee, S. (2015). Wikiquote. Retrieved 02:02, May 23, 2015 from http://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=Stan_Lee&oldid=1942117

 

Chris Hadfield

Obstacles are a natural part of accomplishing significant outcomes. A leader deals with obstacles by viewing them as an opportunity to demonstrate their readiness to handle a difficult situation. It’s how we face adversity that defines us as a leader. As a professor at Durham College, the challenges that I might face on a daily basis are: How do I get my students more engaged in a specific topic? What is my backup plan if the network goes down during an electronic test? How can I get someone to come to class more? These are all small issues that I face every day. However, my issues could be vastly different than those of someone else. This was nowhere more evident to me then last night when I had the pleasure of listing to Chris Hadfield deliver a key note speech at the OCCCIO conference in London Ontario. 

Chris Hadfield is a recently retired Canadian astronaut and former commander of the International Space Station (Hadfield, 2015a). Chris is not only a well renowned leader but a hero to millions of Canadians. One of the stories that Chris spoke about last night highlights his leadership style and speaks to the character traits that make him so special. In May of 2013, while Chris was the commander of the space station, one of the astronauts detected something he described to Chris as looking like small white flakes coming from the exterior of the station. Upon examining the situation they discovered that it was an ammonia leak and while it posed no immediate danger to the crew inside, it was vital to the cooling of the electrical system and, if left unchecked, would be an end game event. Chris immediately sprang into action and took control of the situation. All of the training he had done for years was now paying off. He gave orders to his crew, contacted NASA, and very soon a plan of action was put into effect. A spacewalk, which would typically take a week to plan, was ordered for the next day. The spacewalkers would determine the extent of the leak and, if all went well, repair it. Well, as history will attest, the leak was repaired and a potentially devastating situation was averted thanks to the quick thinking of the space crew (Hadfield, 2015b).

So what type of skills or traits were demonstrated by Chris during this task? First and foremost was how well prepared the astronauts were for exactly this type of situation. As Chris would later tweet the following during a similar event in 2015, “I lost count of the number of times that we practiced this exact procedure in the simulators in Houston. Serious risk requires serious prep.” (Hadfield, 2015c) Part of being a great leader requires being prepared for the worst. There are a number of traits that I can point to as to why Chris was so prepared for this situation. He showed intelligence, alertness, self-confidence, initiative, responsibility, drive, motivation, and problem solving. But traits are something that Chris believes are specific to the context of the situation at hand. Without saying so directly, Chris is a strong advocate of the contingency theory. In an interview with the Fall 2013 issue of Bridges Magazine, when asked what made a good leader he said “It depends on the purpose of the leader at the time. If the building’s on fire, you want one kind of leader. … If you’re trying to raise your children, or teach people values, that’s a different type of leader. Personality traits I think are very specific to the task you’re trying to lead the people to do.” (Remesy, 2013). Chris is great example of Ralph Stogdill's trait theory of leadership whereby great leaders share many common traits and although the traits may vary by a little from leader to leader, there are inborn characteristics which are common to all leaders such as intelligence, self-confidence and determination (Stogdill, 1974).

Chris also made the point to mention that he was on the space station with 5 extremely competent people and that his relationship with those people was a key part of being a great leader (Hadfield, 2015b). “As soon as you are given the task of leading another human being to do something, or a group of people, do your best to build a basis of experience with them, as early and as deep and as broad as you can.” (Remesy, 2013) What this tells me is that Chris has a strong relationship style of leadership. He is very concerned with the wellbeing of his crewmates, is a strong communicator, as evidenced by his ability to handle the situation, and he shows a lot of trust in his fellow workers. Clearly, part of this trust is due to his building relationships with his team. 

So when you contrast the obstacles that some leaders face and you compare them to your own you may find that your own challenges aren’t so bad and also not so different. So how can I learn from Chris bring this forth to my current job? I can be prepared for that network outage by creating a soft copy of every test. I can get to know my students better to find out what interests them to make my lectures more in line their interests.  And maybe this will help some of my students to actually show up for class…maybe!

References

Hadfield, C. (2015a). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:32, May 22, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chris_Hadfield&oldid=662613868

Hadfield, C. (2015b). Leadership, Teamwork & Collaboration. Speech presented at Fanshawe College. London, Ontario, May 21, 2015.

Hadfield, C. [Cmdr_Hadfield]. (2015c, January 14). I lost count of the number of times that we practiced this exact procedure in the simulators in Houston. Serious risk requires serious prep [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/555351861554053120

Remesy, N. (2013). Q & A with Chris Hadfield. Retrieved from Thompson Rivers University, May 21, 2015: http://inside.tru.ca/wp‑content/uploads/2013/12/TRU_BRIDGES_118168_web-big.pdf

Stogdill, R. (1974). Handbook of Leadership: A survey of theory and research. New York: Free Press