I am extremely sorry for the late post. I attended the Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute in San Franciso, California last week, and had very limited access to a computer or the internet. The theme of this years institute was Equity and Excellence. Achieving the Dream (or AtD as we call it) currently consists of 82 colleges, throughout 15 states with 7 funders, that looks at access, student success, and student outcomes as it affects first generation, low-income students.
One of the themes that I kept hearing at this year's institute was "Leadership during tough economic times". As Dr. Paspiller indicated in his presentation to us 2 weeks ago; how do you slash resources, especially human resources, how do you manage staff travel and personal development, and most of all when making these hard decisions and having courageous conversations about the economy, what affects will it have on the students and the community in which you serve.
As I read chapter 7 on the Path-Goal Theory and its application, I took a hard look at page 137 in which the authors state "The principles of the path-goal theory can be used by leaders at all levels in the organization and for al types of tasks. To apply path-goal theory, a leader must carefully assess his or her subordinates and their tasks and then choose an appropriate leadership style to match those characterists". I then thought, wow, as a leader of a college, as a president, managing during tough economic times, how would this be implemented from the top down?
Well, I in the presence of some outstanding community college leaders and I asked them what leadership traits are they using to manage a college during tough economic times and here is what a few had to say:
- Empowerment
- Brainstorming and Planning
- Honest Communications
- Reorganization of Resouces
- Collaborating and Team Building
As I reflect on the meeting, the chapter and the tough economic times, I look at the five topics that presidents shared with me and how closely the Path-Goal theory ties into motivating staff and constituents to empower them, include them, stengthen relationships and collaboration while maintaining honest communications to stay focused on the same goal.
1 comment:
I originally was going to discuss the Spectrum Initiative, but decided to talk about Managing during tough economic times, but am not sure, if you can EDIT a blog post, once it had been posted. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
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