If you would have asked Gary
Streit a year ago where in town to get your shoes shined,
he wouldn’t have been able to
tell you. A self-proclaimed outsider, the Virginia native knew
very little about Canton, let
alone Ohio, before assuming
the role of president at Malone
College last July.
Because of his unfamiliarity
with the institution, Streit didn’t
impose his own agenda when
he stepped in to manage the
college’s 2007-2008 budget of
approximately $44 million.
Instead, he did what anyone
with an appetite for the
unknown would do — he sat
down for lunch. Well, make that
10 lunches.
Streit hosted a series of
meals during which Malone’s
297 full-time employees shared
their concerns, hopes and
dreams for the institution. Not
only did the hourlong sessions
provide the president with an
intimate introduction to the college and its constituents, they
also set the tone for his decidedly informal style of clear
communication.
Smart Business spoke with
Streit about how to listen with
discipline and how to continuously unlearn that which you
already know.
Give people your full attention. I
have set up 10 lunches scattered over three months. I go, I
greet, we sit down, and, within
seven minutes, they get their
soup and sandwich. I set it up
and remind them of why we’re
there, and then I sit and listen
to the people talk. I take notes.
Good listening is disciplining yourself to be quiet and
to give full attention to what
someone is saying. It’s also
giving full attention to what
is not being said.
I’m hearing a lot of things,
and I’m getting some good
information, but I’m also getting a lot of good affirmation:
‘Thank you for giving us a
chance to talk about the things
that are important to us,’ be it
a member of the housekeeping
staff, be it a security guard, be
it a professor of economics,
whatever.
At every one of these luncheons, I have a very mixed bag
of folk — faculty and staff representing everything from
housekeeping to administrative staff. They’re very heterogeneous groups.
This is giving all of these
folks at the college a great
opportunity to hear other
points of view that they often
do not get to hear
Share directions before you start
the journey. It’s unfair to any
member of your executive
team if that person doesn’t
really know what he or she is
being held accountable for.
Clear expectations on the
front end are extremely important so that everybody knows
what’s being evaluated.
One of the biggest problems
that presidents face is a lack of
clear expectations on the front
end as to what that board
might expect. Six months into the journey, the president
realizes that the board may
or may not be headed in the
direction that he or she
thought the institution would
have been headed.
Establish the rules before
you start the journey. When
you pull out of your driveway, it’s important to know
where you’re going on vacation so you know where to
turn. You don’t know
whether to turn right or left
at the stoplight unless you
know where you’re headed.
Learn, unlearn and relearn. That
concept is really [author Alvin]
Toffler’s concept. Basically
what he said is the illiterate of
the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read and
write, but rather, the illiterate of the 21st century will be
those who cannot learn,
unlearn what they no longer
need to know and relearn that
which is essential for what this
world requires.
Our world is changing so
rapidly because of technology,
this availability of knowledge,
this explosion of knowledge
and this rapidity of change.
Leadership teams have to get
it. That applies not just to
knowledge, facts and disciplines, but it applies to protocols and procedures and policies and the ways in which
institutions do things.
In higher education, you see
a lot of antiquity still operationalized. Nobody can really
tell you why we do it this way
other than, at some point in the history of the institution,
somebody thought it was a
good idea.
Every piece of the operation
needs to be audited continually.
Ask the question, ‘Does it
make sense? Does form follow
function? Are we administering this organization to meet
the needs of the clientele of
whom we serve today?’
If institutions aren’t aware
that those are the sorts of
things that the ‘consumer’ is
looking for, you’re not going to
make it in the days ahead.
Share the credit. It’s really
important as a CEO, as a
president, as the leader, to
be able to share that success
with those persons who
actually effect that and make
that happen.
You’d better give kudos and
accolades where those are due
and share that, or you’re not
going to inspire, and you’re not
going to have much integrity
with those folk.
Stephen Covey talks about
two mentalities: the scarcity
mentality and the abundance
mentality. Those who subscribe to the scarcity mentality
believe that you’d better hold
it pretty close to the vest
because there’s not enough to
go around.
I don’t believe that. If I brag
on you, it doesn’t mean that
it’s going to take away from
me. Good will and generosity
and affirmation beget good
will and generosity and affirmation.
HOW TO REACH: Malone College, (800) 521-1146 or www.malone.edu