A 7 Minute Read, By Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, founder of Collegiate Empowerment Posted April 17, 2020
If you open your Facebook feed, check your Twitter account, or turn on the news, you will likely be hit with the same destructive words we’ve been hearing over the last five weeks: pandemic, death, sickness, disease, and contagion. The virus ravages on. We, like you, are living through this scary time, and we, like you are committed to the long haul of American Higher Education and we all must make a decision. With so much destruction around us, we must create. While the globe is facing this shutdown, we can’t stick our heads in the sand. We must be leaders. We must step-up to the plate. We must focus on creating value. So how exactly do we create value?
We create value through a Collegiate Empowerment Concept called Real GPA™, not academic “grade point average” GPA, but your Real GPA. Interestingly is not about why you got hired by your university, but it is why you will stay employed when things get really tough in the coming months. You will have lifetime employability because you are creating value- real value via your real GPA: your real Genius, your real Passion, and your real Achievements.
I want to take this article, both part 1 and part 2 to talk about your real Genius. Now here at Collegiate Empowerment, when we speak about Genius, we’re not talking “Einstein” genius or “IQ” genius. Leave that kind of stuff for the academy. Right now you are leading an educational enterprise which must create value or it will die. This is serious stuff. So here are the four pillars of value creation to keep both yourself and your enterprise alive.
The Four Legs Of Value Creation: Picture a table. How many legs does it have? Four. In the context of your educational enterprise, you need the balance and stability of the four legs of Leadership, Relationship, Creativity, and Management. Every person has two out of these four of these unique Geniuses. Each person has one dominant core Genius, and then a secondary Genius. This is how you bring value to the world. These are your gifts.
You need to tap into your gifts. It's up to you, the leader, the professional in the room: the one who remains on campus, the one who'll be here to weather the storm after the layoffs, after everybody's been cut and you're down to a skeleton staff, it's you who is going to be leading the ship. In this 2 part series, we’ll explore each of these four geniuses and how we can tap into them to best serve our people, our students, and our campus communities.
LEADERSHIP:
People want your leadership because they need clarity to calm the confusion. They want a sense of direction. Leadership is about taking action. So, you stop “stewing” and you start “doing”. Leadership is about having a vision. To have a vision, you must plan ahead. The most important thing you can do at this time is give yourself a long-term vision. Having a long-term vision will help you to set a short-term vision as well.
Long-Term Vision: At Collegiate Empowerment, our operating mindset is a 20-year framework Yes- 20 years! These are extraordinary times. If you haven’t yet committed, commit now to playing the game for the long haul, and think about the next 20 years. Think about your life between now and 2040. What are the things you want to accomplish for yourself personally and professionally? What do you want to see happen in your institution over the next 20 years? If 20 years is too big for you right now, then just think about the next 4. What needs to happen between now and 2024?
Near-Term Vision: Now think about the near-term dates. The reset date that Collegiate Empowerment is operating off for American Higher Education, is Friday, October 1st, 2021, the date we have been forecasting since March 19th. This is when we believe we’ll reach our “new normal” after COVID19. In the Breakdown to Breakthrough Cultivator of our last post, we encouraged you to think about the current quarter, Q2. Q2 is this season we’re in right now: April, May, and June. As of now, we know that the shelter-in-place order is still going to be in place until at least April 30th, if not all the way through June and it’s likely that we will be in lockdown mode, working remotely, until Monday, July 6th.
The Next 90 days: The next time frame after these 90 days, would be the first 90 days back. So that would be either Q3, or Q4, depending on how long the stay-at-home orders are in place. None of us knows yet for certain. Here's the key thing: your focus needs to be on what to do right now. Don't try to do everything in a year as you navigate these scary times. Give yourself that 90-day framework. Think about the current 90 days and think about the first 90 days back.
Time is your greatest ally. When you don’t have time, you feel jammed, compressed, and crunched. But this pandemic has created a hard reset. You now have the time to plan. This plan will enable you to provide clarity and direction for those around you. They’re looking to you to lead them. What are you going to do right here and right now?
RELATIONSHIP:
Relationship is about creating confidence and connection to ease the pain of isolation. This is important now more than ever as people are physically isolated which also can lead to a feeling of intense emotional isolation. Here are some strategies that we've been implementing here at Collegiate Empowerment as a company, and as a community to enhance our connection.
The Top 25 Club: First, as a leader, pick your Top 25 Club. Think about 25 people, 25 relationships that are critical for you to focus on in the next 90 days. In that Top 25, you're going to have 5 core relationships, the 5 people who are at the center of it all. Focus your planning around these people. Build your bigger future with your Top 25 Club in mind.
Increase Frequency of Interaction: After you make those lists, set up at least one connection call with your top 25 and/or your core 5 people. Whatever you have been doing BC, “before Corona”, increase that frequency of interaction. If you’ve been doing a weekly huddle, do a daily huddle. At Collegiate Empowerment, we were doing a monthly connection call with our team. We're now doing that weekly. Remember, people are silently begging for confidence. The word confidence comes from the Latin “con-fido” which means “with faith”. You want to show up. Be there for your people.
Multi-directional Reach: We talk about “reaching out” to people but think of multi-directional. Yes, reach out. Reach outside of the little bubble of your college campus. Talk to the mayor, the county commissioners, the county officers because the way it works in the federalist system of the United States is on all three levels: the national level, the state level, and the local level. Whether you like it or not, you are an adult at the local level of leadership. If you're a college president or a university executive, make certain you reach outside your campus community.
But you also need to reach up to your state senator, to your congressman, to the people in charge. I'll be reaching up to college presidents I've never met or talked to before. You need to reach down. Make certain you talk to and connect with your students. They're not below you or beneath you, but they are looking up to you for your leadership. If you're politically to the right, reach to the left. If you’re politically left, reach to the right. Give yourself the grace to realize we have to be unified during unstable times. Reach in front of you, to the people ahead of you: your mentors, your teachers. Of course, reach behind to check in on your people. Bring them that connection. Bring them that confidence. Find new ways to be emotionally present while being physically distant.
Create Value Where You Are Right Now. Take a breath and look over the two Geniuses of Leadership and Relationship. Do you see yourself looking to plan and take action? If so, get specific about your vision, the dates, and the specific actions. Then take that clarity to your people. Or do you feel the need to focus on the people in your life and provide that support, that connection? Are you striving to bring people the confidence to get through this scary time? If neither of these are your genius, have no fear. We will explore the geniuses of Creativity and Management in Part II of this article.
The world is silently begging for Leadership, Relationship, Creativity and Management...
Continue to bring your gift of Leadership. Bring clarity to all the confusion. Provide direction.
Continue to bring your gift of Relationship. Bring connection to all the isolation. Provide confidence.
For those with a genius in Creativity & Management get ready, you’re on deck.
See you in the next article.
CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE COMPANION PODCAST TO THIS ARTICLE.
Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, is founder & Chief Visionary Officer of Collegiate Empowerment, a educational production company dedicated to serving the US Higher Education Industry. Since 1995, Tony has served as a coach and strategic consultant to thousands of Higher Education Professionals and University Executives from over 2,500 US colleges. Learn more @ www.Collegiate-Empowerment.org or Follow: @TonyDAngelo on Twitter.
COLLEGIATE EMPOWERMENT
Enhancing Educational Impact In US Higher Ed Since 1995
400 Northampton Street, Suite 402 • Easton, PA 18042
Toll Free: 1-877-338-8246 • www.Collegiate-Empowerment.org
Anthony J. D’Angelo & The Collegiate Empowerment Company, Inc. © & ™ 1995-2020 All Rights Reserved.