As I continue to dwell in the land of cancer and its treatment, I am learning lessons that can be applied to leadership (and to life). This is the second post in a series offering some of the lessons I’m (re)learning.
- Lesson: It’s okay to ask for help. I have always struggled with asking for help regarding personal matters. And while I think I’m pretty good about asking for input or ideas on professional matters, I’m not sure I’m very good at asking for help. Help means acknowledging gaps in your time or your understanding or your knowledge or your bandwidth or your commitments. ACC’s values include compassion, yes, and courage (with joy being the fourth). Asking for help, for me, can sometimes take courage. My compassionate and caring colleagues are always willing to say yes. So really, what cancer is teaching me is that I need to get over this reluctance and just acknowledge that I sometimes need help.
- Lesson: It’s okay to accept help. This is obviously a corollary to the lesson above. When help is offered, accept it. The offer of help comes from a genuine place of compassion and care, and if possible it should be accepted graciously and willingly. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to struggle with an idea or an initiative, but more often than not it’s more productive to accept the help, ideas, and support of others. It makes you stronger, it makes the idea or initiative stronger, and it makes your leadership stronger because it’s built on a collaborative foundation.
- Lesson: Distribute leadership work so that you are building leadership capacity throughout your organization. I have long believed that we all can and should be leaders. Leadership is the opportunity to engage in a meaningful way in the work of the college, whether it’s leading a curriculum update or leading a faculty development workshop or leading a department or division or leading the development of a new policy or mentoring a new faculty member or participating in a shared governance committee or leading a big new initiative. Just as it takes a variety of leaders, voices, and expertise to treat my cancer, it takes a variety of leaders, voices, and expertise to help ACC meet its North Star goal. The more we distribute the leadership load, the stronger we will be as an organization.
- Lesson: Plan for the future. My cancer is treatable, and while the treatment is arduous, it has a high success rate. Nonetheless, I won’t work at ACC forever, and I want to ensure that the instructional leaders are equipped to lead in the future. This is a corollary to the lesson above: if you distribute the leadership responsibilities throughout the organization, then you are ensuring a solid foundation for what’s to come – for new leaders and new opportunities and new impactful work.
I find joy in my work. I find cancer to be a bother and an impediment to my work. But I know that I will be fine, and I know that the great and good work of supporting our instructional mission is in good hands, both now and in the future.