You make an excellent point about modeling successful and professional behaviors, Traci. Thank you for sharing your story!
Dr. Jean Norris
Heather, great suggestions. What are some ways they can stay ahead of the curve?
Dr. Jean Norris
Kathaleen, I like your post a lot because it describes why I love working in career college education. Often when one thinks about his or her leadership legacy, it is how he or she wants to be remembered by those he or she has led. In career college education, this expands to the students. Our leadership affects not only those we directly supervise (our constituents) but also our customers (the students).
One of the ways I believe leadership most affects students is through the modeling of successful and professional behaviors. When I was working on my master's degree, it was beneficial for the students who complained about how hard life was dealing with family, work and school, for me to be able to say that I understood - and I really did! I could model to them the importance of receiving an education, and that although it is hard to manage one's time and finances while working full-time and going to school full-time, it can be accomplished through hard work, determination, and dedication.
The role of legacy for leaders is to stay in tune with industry trends and changes in regulation. Today's students are not the same as yesterday's students and therefore today's curriculum design and facilitation cannot be the same as it was yesterday.
With so many institutions competing for students, leaders must stay ahead of the curve and create/modify programs based on student need and employer demand.
Leadership in education must address not just educational issues, but the framework that the student base come from. The better we understand who, why, and how students come to us, and what they hope to gain, (besides just a degree or diploma) the the better we can serve our community and reform our curricula. This hopefully will create better prepared professionals within a system that facilitates their financial as well as educational needs.
A leader must embrace the fact that one has an enormous impact on the customers we serve. Helping students from "modest backgrounds" to learn to do their best in every situation; including studies, personal life, managing finances, and being accountable will improve outcomes and create a better image for the sector.
You're right, Christina, leaders will face a myriad of challenges with the organization. It sounds like you believe it's important that leaders within the organization are aware of solutions that have worked as well as watch trends in education to determine what might apply to the organization. What might you do to increase your solutions to challenges for your institution?
It is the responsibilty of leaders to establish thier legacy to set a positive example in the organization. The leaders must proactively find solutions to all the challenges facing education so that all students have the ability to start and finish a degree that will enhance his or her life. The leaders must encourage their teams to do what they can for the students that they can; and overcome challenges one at a time.
There always have and always will be challenges in Financial aid, graduation rates and enrollments rates, etc; the leaders in any organization must learn new skills and trends to overcome whatever obstacle is presented.
