Hire for diverse thinking. It’s very important to hire people who can be effective members of the team that work collaboratively, that can work with a common purpose toward a common vision. But at the same time, it’s important to bring in people who have different life experiences, different worldviews. It’s important to hire people who are comfortable speaking up when they disagree, who can give me good counsel, even if it’s counsel to take a direction different than the one I might be considering. But then, at the end of the day, they are willing to unite as a team and go forward with a single purpose. So it’s important to have a leadership team that represents a variety of perspectives and ways of thinking about the work we do but that also has the capacity to work together and be an effective team.
Selecting the right people to work with me is probably the most important thing that I do, and it’s a process that is somewhat intuitive. You spend enough time with candidates to begin to understand something about who they are and how they work, talking carefully and candidly with people who have known and worked with them in various capacities in various ways through the years is important. But, ultimately, you never know until you find yourself working together day in and day out, and these jobs are intense jobs that require long hours and a significant amount of time together.
Build trust to further collaboration. Another thing that’s been said to me in a number of different ways is people don’t follow what they don’t trust. And critical to effective leadership is the development of trust, and the whole issue of the power of empathy as a way to build respect and gain trust is very important.
Most people have pretty good sensitivities to whether or not a person listens and whether or not they are valued for who they are and for their convictions or their own values. You don’t have to agree with someone to respect the fact that that person has understandings that are important to him or her. So create opportunities for mutual exchange. Ensuring that people feel that they’ve been heard and that they can see in actions that are taken that they have been heard is an important aspect of trust building.
How to reach: Ohio Wesleyan University, (740) 368-2000 or www.owu.edu
