Lessons I Have Learned About Experience, Knowledge and Diversity

By: E. Gordon Gee
President, The Ohio State University

E. Gordon Gee

With increasing frequency, I am asked to speak on the topic of leadership.  I attribute the growing number of requests to age and longevity, as much as anything else.

I always preface the talks by saying that we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes.  Truth be told, I have amassed a treasure-trove of mistakes – rich material for these discussions – during the past three decades of leading universities.  And whether we are college presidents, physicians, business-owners, elected officials, or students, the same rules of the road apply.

Here, I offer a couple of my many leadership lessons-learned principles.

First, as the world becomes increasingly complex and nettlesome, it is absolutely critical that leaders assemble the most dynamic, capable teams.  Forevermore, our economy will be tied to the generation of ideas, creativity, and collaboration.  It is essential that we hire the most talented people to generate those ideas and to work together to solve the day’s pressing problems.

The ultimate litmus test for leaders, I believe, is their ability to hire and retain exceptional people.  And so it is a grave mistake to think that if we cannot hire the person we want, we should move on to our second, third, or fourth choice.  Simply put: Mediocre people breed mediocre organizations.

Another mistake I made early on in my career was believing that my experience of the organization was similar to that of others.  Leaders must understand that their experiences differ greatly – in my case, from faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and others who are engaged with the University.  For example, bureaucratic processes spike my blood pressure as little else can, and yet I am not nearly as encumbered by them as are others in the University.

To fully understand the organizations we lead, we must reach out and treat everyone in our institutions as our teachers.  We must regularly take the pulse of our organizations, ask others about their circumstances, and act quickly and decisively when problems arise.  In an age of nomadic leaders, assertively understanding organizations is essential.

The real lesson, of course, is that simply celebrating our triumphs does not move us forward or prepare us for the next challenge.  The truly teachable moments are often the most painful ones, but they offer lasting benefits if we are wise enough to think them through and to consider what we could have done differently to achieve better results.