Riding the Waves of Transformational and Complex Leadership Roberta J. Cordano
Gallaudet University
Journal of Higher Education Management, 35(1), 63-70 (ISSN 2640-7515). © Copyright 2020 by AAUA—American Association of University Administrators. Permission to reprint for academic/scholarly purposes is unrestricted provided this statement appears on all duplicated copies. All other rights reserved.
“That life is complicated is a fact of great analytic importance” (Patricia Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights)
On our campuses across the country, we are experiencing movements awash with heightened awareness about disparities and the painful roles exclusion and privilege play in our history. These movements challenge us as leaders of higher education, particularly when we are asked to transform our institutions. Missing this can imperil a leader’s path—even those who are most respected. In this article, I share my reflections about leadership and lessons I have learned with our community over the course of my first term as president of Gallaudet University. As senior leaders in higher education, our leadership must provide experiences that prepare our students to engage and lead in the healthy civil discourse upon which our democracy relies to thrive. The dynamics of conflict and division experienced on in most of our campus communities mirror significant social, cultural, and demographic changes occurring globally, and they underlie the complex leadership challenges we face as we lead transformation. These dynamics can be dangerous and tricky to navigate. Our challenge is to create an environment where our students, faculty, and staff feel welcomed and encouraged to learn and grow collectively—which brings about transformation and assures that our institutions are places of safe harbor for learning, experimentation, and innovation. Higher education’s tradition of shared governance adds to the complexity of leadership. Shared governance, with its system of checks and balances, represents the ideals of a democratic and engaged citizenship. The ethos of shared governance (Rosenberg, 2014), grounded in curiosity and learning, is an asset that invites close collaboration among stakeholders required to change the behavior of an entire institution (Rosenberg, 2014). This ethos also instinctively appeals to those who demonstrate leadership reflective of and responsive to our community’s values. As a result, the strength of this ethos can be a measure of our success, because as we practice this ethos, we model the ideals at the heart of our democracy. Recalibrating Leadership Through Mindshift Consciousness Since my arrival at Gallaudet University in January 2016, I have been buffeted by emotions, frustrations, hopes and high expectations for change, all rising before me as large waves, some with whitecaps. I have felt, at times like a surfer, falling often and hard, feeling the slap of the water upon impact. (Many of these feelings in the community stem from movements led by this and other communities to fight for rights, call attention to inequities, and celebrate our essence and beauty as a diverse and complex community.) At first, I quickly got back up and pushed ahead. As I faced challenges, I learned that to strengthen shared commitment to our future, there would be 65