Managing and leading people in colleges and universities
This writer has the fortune of being a member of the board of trustees of a number of private educational institutions. What I bring to the table of the highest policy-making bodies of such colleges and universities are my long experiences as a practitioner of labor law and as a long-time HR or human resources top executive of the country's leading corporate conglomerates and multi-national organizations. I have gained tremendous quantum of insights and knowledge on the science and art of managing organizations and leading people, both teaching and non-teaching personnel.
One of the most important lessons I learned is that religious congregations and private families that own and manage educational institutions should invite independent directors or trustees, so that the perspectives of decision-making will not be limited to the confines of the religious orders and big families. For instance, a religious order that limits its board membership to priests or sisters belonging to their congregation may turn out to be a rubber stamp board because the superior general or provincial superior tends to dominate and dictate decisions. So also the patriarch of the family that owns a university may have the children of the board chairman or younger siblings follow his words hook, line, and sinker.
Another lesson is to recruit deans and directors who are graduates of other universities so as to obtain a cross-pollination of ideas and paradigms. Still another is to appoint a dynamic, forward-looking, developmental and passionate HR director He or she is the catalyst for continuing change and development, a developer of people and the articulator of vision, mission and values. This person shall bring in talents that manifest a healthy balance between academic excellence and behavioral alignment, a balance between technical skills and strength in values and character.
Then the university or college should install a performance-based total rewards system so as to ARM (attract, retain and motivate) talents. There must also be a continuing engagement program (or employee and labor relations) especially in unionized colleges and universities. Lastly, career management, talent development, endless training and non-traditional mechanisms for building multiple competencies that shall breed multi-skilled and multi-tasking personnel, both teaching and non-teaching staff. Suffice it to say that one of my most fulfilling tasks is helping educational institutions become centers of excellence in education, the rearing of the youth for a strong foundation of nation-building. I give seminars and symposia for educators. What matters most is the feeling that I help touch the lives of the future generations, a way of creating change in the future.
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