I had the privilege of attending a luncheon today at Otterbein College, hosted by the Westerville (OH) Area Chamber of Commerce Women in Business committee. For the first time in 25 years, Otterbein has a new president, and its first female president in the school’s 162 year history, Dr. Kathy Krendl.
Dr. Krendl was the featured speaker. Her topic: Challenge of Leadership in Today’s Economy. Dr. Krendl had just returned the day before from a conference at Harvard about academic leadership. As a person interested in all topics relating to leadership, I had my pad and pen ready.
What impressed me as I jotted my notes was how much academic leadership is like business leadership. She spoke about leadership as not being just a static set of values, but a two-way relationship; leaders and followers, mutual influence and shared purpose. Certainly makes sense in academia. Also makes sense in the business world.
“You can’t be in front leading if you aren’t in tune with who’s following.” – Dr. Kathy Krendl, President, Otterbein College
Dr. Krendl spoke about the skills she developed while growing up on a farm, and later as a teacher and mother, that have also helped her be a leader: a strong work ethic, critical thinking and problem solving skills, a trio of good communication skills (listening, speak and writing), as well as interdisciplinary thinking.
One of her examples was teaching a two year old how to share.
What a great example of flexibility in problem solving and seeing an issue from various perspectives! Again, a set of skills that applies to the leadership in a business environment.
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She spoke of the need to help students develop skills that are transferable from situation to situation and from organization to organization. Wouldn’t business benefit from that focus in higher education? Dr. Krendl encouraged us to seek out positive role models and look for interesting challenges and opportunities to grow leadership skills.
The actual work in leading a college staff, faculty and administration may be very different than the day-to-day tasks of a manager in a corporate office. After listening to Dr. Krendl, however, I know that leadership is leadership.
Have you had interactions with leaders in roles that are far different than yours? Even though the “job” may be very different, what was the same? Do you have a similar story to tell?
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Eleanor Biddulph is the Executive Vice President of Client Services at Progressive Medical, Inc.
She can be reached at [email protected]
Image Source: poshtotsacademy.com
