Column
from the president
• I believe servant leadership must be at the
forefront. By that I mean that the posture of
the leader must be one of servant. There is
not room for huge egos to get things accomplished. A servant leader listens to those with
whom they work and collaborates in order
to initiate new things. In some ways a servant
leader is really a follower because the voices
of others play a pivotal part in the role of
the leader.
The Best Leadership Comes
by Serving
Recently, on behalf of Siena Heights University,
I had the honor of accepting the 2010 Parthenon
Award for Business Leadership from Athena
Lenawee, an organization recognizing and celebrating women’s leadership.
This occasion allowed me to reflect on my time
as President here at Siena Heights, and what
leadership has meant to me.
The leadership of the Adrian Dominican Sisters
had the vision and sense of mission to found this
institution. The university was named in honor
of St. Catherine of Siena, a leader in her own
time in the 14th century. She assumed leadership
roles within the church and within the community both local and beyond.
As we leave our 90th anniversary behind, Siena
Heights has since expanded its outreach to lead
students from all backgrounds (and genders). I
want to share with you what I believe constitutes
great leadership and what kind of leadership is
needed in our world today:
2
Reflections Summer ’10
• Leaders must be constantly in tune with what
motivates them. For me, and for many of us at
Siena, our motivation comes from our God,
who encourages us to do good things, to build
up individuals and the community through
our mission, which is primarily education.
• Leaders must constantly recognize others and
their gifts that build up the community. Some
leaders think that by recognizing others they
become less themselves. This is so far from the
truth. When recognizing others, we are more
connected, more interdependent so the whole
community flourishes.
• And lastly, I would like to mention relationships. Of course, all life is relational, and therefore, leadership is relational. No leader can
lead alone, no leader can survive alone and
no leader can be effective alone. How we lead,
who we lead and why we lead can only be
born of relationships.
I could probably go on talking about leadership
and many of its qualities, but the way we influence the lives of others in positive ways is what
will ultimately define us as good leaders.
Let me share this story with you: At the beginning of the past academic year, a faculty member
noticed one of our students was having a difficult
time. Something just wasn’t right. So she invited
this student to come into her office and talk.
He finally opened up and shared that he didn’t
have any place to live. His mother recently
moved to the south and he was living in a different home every night with friends. He was finding this difficult. She also discovered he rode his
bike to Siena every day and was just recently hit
by a car. The professor was concerned about this
student so she sent him to see Dean for Students
Trudy McSorley. After talking with the student,
Trudy called me, and a few minutes later she arrived at my office and told me this student’s story.
I said to her that he needed to be with us. So we
put him in the residence hall and figured out the
finances later. A few days later I attended performance by our theatre department, and who did
I see up on the stage? The young man who had
experienced so many difficulties.
I tell you this story for this reason: Leadership
has no boundaries. It is not defined by role but
rather by the character of the person. If that professor did not have the insight to approach that
student, if Trudy didn’t take the time to listen
to the student, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to offer a solution.
Leaders do what must be done to enter into
peoples’ lives in meaningful ways. That has been
my rationale behind all the decisions that have
been made during my time at Siena, including
the recent decision to begin a football program,
which is described in greater detail in this issue
of Reflections.
Siena Heights will continue to provide leadership, but only with your help and support.
Sister Peg Albert, OP, PhD
President