Chapter 14: Reflections to Consider for Personhood: A Personal Narrative on Leadership

Over the course of my career in higher education, I have had the opportunity to work alongside some pretty incredible and talented people, who often served as my role models and mentors. These men and women who had academic credentials—bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees—that qualified them to participate in different types of administrative roles, seemed to me, to also possess innate qualities that suggested they could easily be leaders outside of academia as well. In my observation, people seemed drawn to their charismatic styles, intuitive sensibilities, and commanding personalities, and readily accepted their leadership, overlooking their flaws. I am certain at times they were inwardly hesitant of what needed to be done, but outwardly they always appeared fearless in their decision-making role to resolve whatever issues arose, or they did not hesitant to admit that a decision they made was wrong and that a new plan of action had to be implemented to achieve a more favorable outcome. From watching, interacting, and observing how these people maneuvered inside the walls of academia, I learned a lot, but the greatest lessons I learned about leadership was from my father who only had a fourth-grade education. Without question, his support, guidance, control, and supervision of me and my siblings (a total of 8) has had the most profound impact on me as a professional, and is the single most contributing factor to who I am today, and how I chose to maneuver in higher education, and in this world, than any other influence I have encountered in my life to date. So when I think about what it means to be a more relevant leader, a person who embraces both their talents and flaws in symbolic representation of an institution or organization, without question, I think about what I learned from my academic role models and mentors, but more than anything, I think about the lessons I gleaned from watching my father, who was my absolute biggest example of leadership and personal guide.