{"id":1404,"date":"2025-07-07T09:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=1404"},"modified":"2025-07-07T09:24:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T14:24:08","slug":"leadership-lessons-from-the-land-of-cancer-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/leadership-lessons-from-the-land-of-cancer-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Lessons from the Land of Cancer, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I have been sojourning in the land of cancer since November 2024.  I\u2019ve moved through surgery\/recovery and radiation\/recovery.  I\u2019m now four weeks into a year of chemotherapy.  And I am learning a lot of lessons that I could apply to my leadership.  Here are a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Lesson:\u00a0 I am not in control.<\/em>\u00a0 Speaking as someone who has served in various leadership roles since the 1990s (and who too often can default to thinking that leadership requires some level of control), I\u2019m regularly reminded that I am not in control.\u00a0 That\u2019s always a useful reminder, because the best leaders are those who invite others into the decision-making, and who provide opportunities for others to lead.\u00a0 Control is overrated, in my opinion; it\u2019s limiting and counter-productive.\u00a0 The best work of a leader is the work that brings in multiple voices, voices which make decisions stronger.\u00a0 In other words, the best work of a leader is to relinquish control and support collaborative work.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Lesson:\u00a0 Don\u2019t assume that you know best <\/em>(a variation of the first Lesson above). \u00a0 To quote a friend, \u201cI\u2019m not that kind of doctor\u201d.\u00a0 I have had to learn to listen to and defer to the expertise of others on this cancer journey.\u00a0 Most especially, the expertise of my radiation oncologist and my surgeon and my oncologist.\u00a0 But don\u2019t forget the nurses and the radiation techs and the volunteers and the other staff.\u00a0 Just as I recognize expertise in all whom I encounter with Texas Oncology, I also am reminded to recognize – and listen to – the expertise of my colleagues across ACC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Lesson:\u00a0 Don\u2019t be a hero.<\/em>\u00a0 Our chancellor gave me this advice, and I ignored it.\u00a0 I went to the office on a day when I was feeling the effects of chemotherapy, and I regretted it.\u00a0 I went home after three hours, realizing that no one needed me to be heroic or to try to work when I was feeling so poorly.\u00a0 It\u2019s better to acknowledge your humanness and take care of yourself.\u00a0 Work will wait.\u00a0 And people will understand.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Lesson:\u00a0 You\u2019re not irreplaceable.<\/em>\u00a0 Not only am I not irreplaceable, I am confident that I\u2019ve built a strong leadership team, and everything will be okay.\u00a0 I have a great (and I do mean great) leadership team.\u00a0 They balance each other out with their varying strengths and perspectives, they have fun together, and they collaborate in important ways that make me joyful.\u00a0 I am not irreplaceable, and I know that the great and good work of instructional leadership will march on even if I\u2019m occasionally or temporarily not part of it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I expect that my cancer journey will continue to offer lessons that I need or reminders of what I\u2019ve already learned.  No doubt there will be a Part II to this blog post in the coming weeks.  Cancer\u2019s relentless that way, but it\u2019s helping me learn to be a better leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have been sojourning in the land of cancer since November 2024.  I\u2019ve moved through surgery\/recovery and radiation\/recovery.  I\u2019m now four weeks into a year of chemotherapy.  And I am learning a lot of lessons that I could apply to my leadership.  Here are a few. I expect that my cancer journey will continue to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}