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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Lesson 280 Transforming the Future of Higher Education

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned on July 21, 2015| 1 Comment »

This week I fine-tuned my blog site to focus more on the global future of higher education. I have come to believe that international education is our best hope for achieving world peace, expanding media revolution literacy, solving debilitating global problems, achieving cross-cultural understanding, and producing informed and effective global-thinking leaders.

As a result, I spent several years studying globalization in general and have concluded there are two primary forces already at work reshaping the academy:

Disruption: The digital technology revolution has disrupted the academy with new social media platforms, interactive websites, and other Internet innovations. Technology changed how we teach and replaced traditional lectures with Internet searches and ever-expanding interactive media tools and resources. New on-line markets are also appearing. How institutions are marketed and communicated has changed as well. And the changes brought about by the Internet revolution have even enabled governments to change their national priorities and refocus their education roles.

Convergence: These forces are extremely powerful, but may be less apparent. They are accelerating globalization while at the same time stimulating the transformation of higher education. Beyond technology disruption, forces such as worldwide economy shifts, changing faculty and student migration patterns, intensified foreign competition for money and students, increased world travel in general, the impact of polarized political ideologies, new aggressive foreign policy initiatives, a growing nationalism in some part of the world, and aggressive nation-branding campaigns, all are converging to change and globalize virtually everything.  And all of these forces also have strong implications for how international higher education will inevitably evolve.

In the coming weeks and months we will be exploring the implications of these forces for university advancement professionals, academic leaders at all levels, faculty, students, alumni, donors, business leaders, foundation heads, prospective students, politicians, and everyone  affected by the consequences and opportunities of the globalization of higher education.

Coming in August: My new book The Transition Academy: Seizing Opportunity in the Age of Disruption addresses many of these issues. (CASE Books at http://www.case.org/books)         

 

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Lesson 279 Advancing Institutions in Times of Disruption

Posted in International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week I attended the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s annual Summit for Advancement Leaders.  Each year the CASE Summit examines the issues that will disrupt and change the future of higher education. My last post discussed some of these higher education issues and previewed my new book on the topic coming in August.

The fact is almost all nonprofit institutions face many of the same challenges. They must find new donors, deal with the consequences of a technology revolution, compensate for changing government support, and face the economic and marketing realities of globalization. This certainly will require more sophistication. But because most of these problems are related to advancement work, there also will be many new opportunities for higher levels of institutional leadership.

As I thought more about what success in this changing marketplace will require I became more convinced than ever that advancement professionals will have to be very integrated in how they go about their work. In fact, I now believe they should go so far as to incorporate each other’s language when explaining their individual goals and visions. For example, when talking to donors  fundraisers should also reference the need to build strong institutional brand identities, the importance of consistency in explaining competitive advantage, the need for high visibility in new target markets, the coming changes in student recruitment, the benefits of an international student experience, etc. And this same type of cross-discipline referencing should apply to everyone else in advancement as they communicate with their constituents.

In other words, when all advancement professionals talk with their constituents as if they are all in the business of marketing the institution, the result will be the perception that this institution understands the challenges of a rapidly changing world and is on its way to a whole new level of academic distinction.

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Lesson 277 Leading Issues Negotiations

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on July 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

After criticizing President Obama’s handling of several crises, I am now inclined to give him much higher marks on his handling of several critical issues. Handling crises requires a quick, decisive, confident response. Handing issues requires a much different approach.

In the case of Syria and Russia the president took too long to respond. His time-consuming analytical approach made him look indecisive. In the case of Syria he drew a line in the sand but then ignored it. In the case of Russia he made demands and imposed consequences that Putin ignored, giving Russia the appearance of seizing the upper hand.

Nuclear power negotiations in Iran and renewing trade with Cuba were handled much better.  Effective leadership on issues requires clarifying all competing positions and then imagining possible compromises that can lead to acceptable win-win conclusions. With Iran and Cuba this is being managed more skillfully.

The fact is, effective leadership on issues allows for making a favorable impression even when a deal is not reached. This is because the deliberation process itself can make news, and skilled leaders have the opportunity to sound impressive and come off looking like statesmen.

Crisis communication is a matter of confidently and quickly doing the right thing. But leading on issues is more a matter of strategic thinking and skillful facilitation.

While Obama is not a participant in the EU vs. Greece deliberations, it will be very interesting to see which participants get high marks as leaders, and why.

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Lesson 274 Teacher. Trainer. Coach.

Posted in Higher Education, Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on June 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This past week I was impressed by several interviews with the trainer of the Triple Crown winning horse. I have been thinking about what he said ever since. He repeatedly said it was all about having the right horse. He dodged every opportunity to take credit for the win, pointing out that the only way this can happen is having a horse with both the talent and the will to do it.

It occurred to me that athletic coaches wanting to win championships have said basically the same thing. It’s all about the players. It’s absolutely necessary to have the right athletes with the right talent and a single-minded commitment to winning. In other words, even a really good coach must have talented athletes with commitment in order to be able to use his or her knowledge and experience to enable their best performance.

I have learned this same lesson about teaching. For many years I was just fine teaching anyone in my classes about what I thought I knew about communication and media. But in time I realized that when it came to helping students achieve truly major things it was all about them. If they had the talent and a relentless desire to make a difference I could call on my hard learned lessons to help them turn their potential into impressive accomplishments.

And I also found that this applies to strategic communication and marketing administrators and leaders. My last blog post described both Bob Schieffer and former TCU Chancellor Michael Ferrari as opportunity enablers. Looking back on my administrative years I now know that my greatest satisfactions came when I hired people with extraordinary talent and helped them develop it.

In the end, helping professionals fine-tune their special talent enables satisfying working relationships that continue well beyond your time at work. In fact, you are making an ongoing difference in people’s lives that you may eventually come to see as your “crowning” achievement… your Triple Crown.

 

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Lesson 273 Bob Schieffer. Mick Ferrari. Opportunity Enablers

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned on May 31, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Broadcast journalism pioneer and icon Bob Schieffer hosted his last Face the Nation program and retired from CBS News today. Also this week Mick Ferrari, higher education giant and former TCU Chancellor, passed away. Both enabled opportunities and careers for so many students and others who had the good fortune to cross paths with them at this grand university.

It was in this environment I learned to advise my students to always send a thank you note to every interesting person they meet. Never ask them for a job. Rather ask, “Could I please schedule a few minutes of your time to learn more about what you have learned?” While there also ask, “Could you suggest others I might meet with, and do you mind if I mention that you suggested I talk with them?” One contact leads to another, which leads to still another… and on and on. Before you know it your world will have been enlarged in miraculous ways, and opportunities for projects and even jobs will open to you along the way.

For those students and others who demonstrated above average initiatives, Bob Schieffer enabled contacts with giants in the media, in government, in politics and at think tanks in Washington. Contacts led to contacts and many high level careers followed. This happened both at CBS, and TCU.

Chancellor Ferrari consciously enabled this kind of relationship-building for those around him who demonstrated potential for more responsibility. As a matter of course, his associates would meet other leaders in higher education, education associations, foundations, corporations and individual philanthropists. Careers were enlarged. Opportunities followed.

Both of these giants meant more to me than I can say. I spent this week in deep contemplation about how they made themselves so accessible to so many. Ferrari’s journey is over. But Schieffer’s will continue on in many new and exciting ways. It will be fun to see what comes next.

The key lesson for me in all this is that enabling larger opportunities for talented students and colleagues can be the most satisfying thing a person can do.

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Lesson 268 Authenticity Earns Credibility

Posted in Branding, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy on April 30, 2015| 1 Comment »

Many people in the US think of their country as exceptional. Individual freedom and justice is promised to all. But there were too many reports this week about rather dramatic exceptions to those values. Authenticity earns credibility, and without it people will not believe what you say. Here are some of those reports:

*Live coverage of riots in the streets about police brutality in Baltimore, with demonstrations and similar problems in other cities.

*Scenes of “mean-spirited” political polarization in congress and on the campaign trail.

*A TV documentary about the My Lai massacre in Vietnam showing mass killing by US soldiers.

*Video recollections on PBS of North Vietnam rolling into Saigon, the US pulling out, and the South Vietnamese losing their country.

*Reporter recollections of Richard Nixon promising a truce in Vietnam, but then following  with an invasion of Cambodia and riots in the US streets.

*Documentary coverage of students at Kent State University being gunned down as they demonstrated their war opposition.

*Reported perceptions that the US makes promises it does not keep and draws “red lines” that it does not enforce.

ISIS beheadings imagined next to those of the US Vietnam My Lai massacre create a rather serious credibility problem for the US. Images of Middle East dictators cracking down on citizens pictured next to those of US police brutality certainly do not reinforce values of freedom and justice.

In a new media 24/7 cable news environment both live and imagined images will either reinforce or contradict promises of “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Authenticity is what earns credibility. And credibility is essential for people to believe what you say about your values.

 

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Lesson 265 Leadership, Communication and Media

Posted in Higher Education, International, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on April 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Last week I had the pleasure of helping to welcome the new president of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) to Washington. CASE is the largest and most international of all education associations and it serves those who handle marketing, communication, fund-raising, alumni relations, and government affairs. She comes to her new responsibility from Melbourne, Australia. But she also has years of experience in the UK, Europe, and most of the rest of the world.

Reflecting on the future of education and what it will take to adapt to the challenges of a revolution in technology, major changes in government support, and the unavoidable forces of globalization, I became acutely aware that communication and media savvy leadership will be essential for every organization, not just CASE.

I also realized that for some time now I actually have already been writing about all this from the perspective of leaders, or more precisely what leaders need to know about why communication always breaks down and how media revolutions really do change everything.  Whether I was writing about governments and foreign policy, or about universities and globalization, I was always focusing on implications for leaders.

So I was able to welcome the new CASE president by telling her she is the right person at the right time. But I also suggested that all CASE members will need to assume new leadership roles because competition will become global, student markets will change, new money will have to be found, and everyone will have to be kept informed.

Realizing all this, I decided to adjust the theme and content of my blog site and posts to reflect the perspective that was already evolving… what leaders in all types of institutions need to know about communication and media.

Not only do leaders need to know why communication always breaks down and how to respond, but they need to know why brand identity is so important and how to use it. They need to know how internal communication becomes external, and how to deal with challenging political realities inside and out. They need to know how to run really productive  meetings, and build forward-looking innovative teams. And they need to know how to deal with the increasingly aggressive 24/7 news environment, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of various social media platforms.

Leadership is a much written about topic, to say the least. But not enough is written about its many complex and challenging communication and media dimensions. This blog will set out to fix that.

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Lesson 262 Why Government Communication Fails

Posted in Integrated Marketing, Leadership, Lessons Learned, Strategic Communication on March 19, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Effective organizational communication requires the source to be credible, the message to be simple, and those doing the communicating to be working with a coordinated and simple  bureaucratic structure. If the source is not credible communication will fail. And if the structure is too complex messages will not come through consistently.

Governments face a special dilemma. They usually only have credibility with those audiences already in agreement with their policies. And they are often too complex bureaucratically to achieve consistently.

Messages must be simple and sent simultaneously to multiple audiences. Media platforms  must be selected based on each audience’s primary use preferences. Communicating complex issues simply and using different platforms for different audiences are significant challenges, indeed.

What makes matters even more complicated for governments are the relentless demands of 24/7 journalists for something to report all day long. If no news is forthcoming some reporters will write that the administration is not responsive, or that the staff is indecisive, or that the president is just too “professorial.” On the other hand, when statements are made under constant pressure the result can be widespread misunderstanding.

And to add even more complications, foreign audiences and political adversaries are ready every day to actively misunderstand. So even efficiently managed messages are likely to breakdown.

All that said, my experience with institutions and nonprofits would suggest that if there is a  simple message about core values which defines an attractive and compelling identity, it just might be possible to get that message through by relentlessly repeating it over time. And in the long run, getting that message through might be the most lasting communication success a government of goodwill can have.

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Lesson 261 Political Games Constantly Change

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on March 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The presidential primary election season is underway and I have been reflecting again on just how much the game has changed in recent years. What does it take today to win a primary, and then a general election? And what role does new technology play?

When television became a dominant medium more than 50 years ago it literally changed the game in fundamental ways. Suddenly a candidate had to look good on television, be able to afford to buy time, and present the image of a confident leader able to make everything better. The Kennedy-Nixon debate was the classic example of how one candidate could hold his own on the issues, but still lose out to the one who looked more presidential on camera.

Now we are in the age of digital media. Looking presidential on television still counts, but even more critical is the capacity to build a highly motivated “community-of-interest” among like-minded individuals using two-way interactive media platforms. Such communities are not limited by geography and can be sustained over time.  And this same technology has the power to inspire them to attend rallies and vote on election day.

Election districts are also shaped differently in this new media age. Today, districts are clusters of like-minded people with their boundaries drawn by the most powerful party. Representatives are expected to champion their district’s thinking. This generally results in taking extreme positions on issues. And the situation keeps getting worse.

In presidential and gubernatorial primary elections this same kind of extreme thinking will take place. Confusion then develops when the winners must adjust and broaden their appeal in general elections. Candidates are often driven to say things they can’t sustain after elected. Then, their popularity fades and the political pendulum can easily swing from one party to the other.

The intensity of 24/7 news and ongoing community-of-interest building activities can keep these ideology-driven issues hot long after elections. This requires year-round fundraising which continues daily. More and more money is needed, and it only comes with clear voting expectations. This is what has put wealthy individuals and corporations fully in charge.

A new media world would seem to have the power to reduce the cost of campaigning. But the opposite has actually occurred. It takes huge amounts of money to sustain this constantly changing political game, including to pay for the last-minute negative attacks which many consultants believe win elections.

It’s amazing to think that it’s television imagery and community-of-interest building technology that enabled all these changes and contributed to this mess. Time heals, to be sure. But let’s hope it does not run out before another promising society collapses. Lessons of history can be sobering.

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Lesson 260 Media and the Balance of Power

Posted in Leadership, Lessons Learned, Media Literacy, Public Affairs, Strategic Communication on March 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to the US Congress at the invitation of the Speaker of the House without the concurrence of the President, breaking all established protocol for a state visit. This event had me thinking again about how the balance of power is supposed to work versus how media revolutions in the past have been able to significantly disrupt it. And the more I thought about it the more I could see media influences once again contributing to this disruption.

In the US we have a checks and balances system designed to balance the power between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. But with each media revolution, from print to TV to digital and Internet technology, the balance of power has shifted in favor of those branches and individuals who understand and use the new dominant medium most effectively.

For example, among the 425 members of the House of Representatives and the 100 members of the Senate, only those who know how to use television and digital media effectively are able to attain widespread visibility and influence. The executive branch, by virtue of its administrative importance, has greater media access and so the president has the advantage of his powerful “bully pulpit.” And the judiciary’s “court of last resort” function tended to diminish its media access and influence, although recent hot constitutional issues might be changing all that… producing more balance disruption.

The appearance of Netanyahu before the US Congress is still another development in this changing media dynamic. Was the US speaker of the House’s invitation to speak to Congress without consulting the US President a pure Republican political move?  Was Netanyahu’s interest in coming primarily influenced by his impending bid for re-election back home? Was this just a dramatic  example of an inevitable permanent shift in the balance of power? Or was it a horrible blunder with negative consequences for the Speaker and/or the Prime Minister?

Whatever the motives, television and digital media and the ability to use it clearly made this event possible. And yes it could change the protocols for conducting foreign affairs in the future. Are we better off? Only time will tell. Change is difficult no matter how it comes, and this is still another example of what I mean when I argue that “media revolutions change everything!”

 

 

 

 

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