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. Continue reading →
Posted in Leadership, Talent and Recrutment
Tagged college, diversity, experience, gordon gee, hiring, knowledge, leaders, Leadership, ohio state, team
Photo Credit: Discovery Education
Organizations use their rankings primarily as public relations and marketing tools. As such, institutional efforts to improve rankings are often, but not always, made for their marketing impact. This opinion is based, in part, on my interpretation of countless billboards, newspaper advertisements, and TV and radio commercials across the country.
While rankings can function as organizational performance metrics, rankings are indirect measurements better suited to creating an immediate impression. They rarely provide the critical details necessary for iterative revision of tactics and strategies. While this is a disadvantage in their operational use as metrics, it is an advantage in marketing, where a ranking is often used to make the simple statement “We’re better than others.” Creating this impression through the aura of “ranking” adds an additional quasi-scientific credential to what is otherwise an advertisement.
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