{"id":1416,"date":"2025-07-21T06:23:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T11:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/?p=1416"},"modified":"2025-07-14T10:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T15:41:12","slug":"leadership-lessons-from-the-land-of-cancer-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/leadership-lessons-from-the-land-of-cancer-part-iii\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership Lessons from the Land of Cancer, Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I continue to dwell in the land of cancer, I continue to learn life lessons that are also leadership lessons.  Here are the latest things I\u2019ve learned, either for the first time or for the umpteenth time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Lesson:\u00a0 Expect the unexpected<\/em>.\u00a0 My cancer journey was initially going to be pretty straightforward based on the biopsy:\u00a0 surgery, radiation, done.\u00a0 But of course the pathology after surgery showed a more complicated picture (requiring a second surgery), and additional pathology complicated things even more – thus my year of chemotherapy.\u00a0 Cancer reminds me that I should expect the unexpected, and that\u2019s true of my leadership role as well.\u00a0 Things change, the world turns, new laws get passed, new funding systems are developed, new ideas are adopted. That\u2019s life, and that\u2019s the context for effective leadership – you must be prepared for the unexpected.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Lesson:\u00a0 You must be adaptable<\/em>.\u00a0 This is obviously related to the lesson above.\u00a0 A year of chemo means missing work and dealing with varying side effects.\u00a0 Last week my hair started falling out in clumps – endless, unceasing clumps.\u00a0 So yesterday I got all my hair cut off and now I have what\u2019s called a \u201cpixie\u201d cut.\u00a0 If you know me at all, you know my gray\/blonde curls.\u00a0 You know you can pick me out of a crowd (as my friends often do) by my hair.\u00a0 I have never had short hair, much less a pixie cut.\u00a0 But, now I have super short hair.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a great cut (thanks to my stylist MC), but it\u2019s just not me.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it made sense to me to make this choice.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to deal with weeks and weeks of pulling clumps of hair out (because I have a lot of hair), so I decided to adapt and skip to the end where I have very little hair.\u00a0 Leadership also requires being adaptable.\u00a0 As a leader you may have to adapt to new leaders, or new initiatives, or new colleagues, or new ways of thinking, or new contexts.\u00a0 That\u2019s part of the fun of leadership – things are always changing, and adapting is always required,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Lesson:\u00a0 Always be kind<\/em>.\u00a0 While I have been pretty transparent about my cancer journey, I have colleagues who are also dealing with cancer and doing so privately.\u00a0 That is their choice and I respect that choice.\u00a0 My oncologist, radiation oncologist, surgeon, radiation techs, and chemo nurses are all remarkably kind.\u00a0 I appreciate their kindness and I hope I return it.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know what someone else is going through, so I hope that I always choose kindness.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t cost anything to be kind, and, frankly, kindness is in my DNA – I learned it from my lovely, gracious, friendly, kind mother.\u00a0 The world is currently distressingly unkind and often downright mean.\u00a0 So let\u2019s all choose kindness as much as we can.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    There may be more lessons for me, especially since my chemo won\u2019t end until June of 2026.  Life is always reminding us that we can learn anew.  Life also reminds us that we can remember what we\u2019ve already learned, we can adapt, and we can pivot as needed.  Here\u2019s to always learning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    As I continue to dwell in the land of cancer, I continue to learn life lessons that are also leadership lessons.  Here are the latest things I\u2019ve learned, either for the first time or for the umpteenth time. There may be more lessons for me, especially since my chemo won\u2019t end until June of 2026.  […]<\/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-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","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=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/avpacad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}