Perspective Essay

Stephen Sterling

Northern Arizona University

CCHE 690 - Masters Seminar

Dr. Cynthia Villarreal

December 6, 2024

Analysis of the current educational landscape, which include current events in higher education, an examination of the academic literature on the subject-matter, interactions with fellow classmates and professors, and in interviews with corporate training and continuing education leaders, reveal the pressing issue of efficiency and efficacy of curriculum development and learning outcomes of students and employees alike.  

Time really is money when it comes to completing overall objectives of learning at the speed and quality needed within an ever decreasing budget apparatus. Money does not buy time but a savings in time really does translate to money via time saving measures: do more with less, and achieve better learning outcomes sooner. The ability to solve this problem through proper education leadership has massive economic and societal benefits. Higher and more efficient productivity both saves money and time and makes money, creating a compounding positive effect.

More than the standard model of evaluations typical in higher education, it really does matter if teachers are good teachers, curriculum is organized in a coherent and optimal way and students walk away with a sense of intellectual and personal growth. Students should walk away with different perspectives than when they started a course, at least with a sense of knowing how to consider and digest complex and opposing viewpoints. Failure to encourage respectful disagreement deprives the student of developing emotional maturity and strips the class of witnessing mature academic clash - an example for which to follow.

The emphasis on personal identity over the past decade or so has had a paradoxical effect in my view. On one hand, it is eternally valuable to look inward and understand oneself as a being born with dignity regardless of which protected class one aligns with. On the other hand, however, we’ve seen an increase in diverse campuses divided into small groups of homogenous people, at least in thought if not physical appearance. We see this in clubs on campuses and social circles. But more damaging, we’ve witnessed people seeing others as different and using this as a reason to stay away and not engage. People now dislike others because they are different. This was never the point of diversity. The point is to view others as individuals and value their differences.

Magic happens when one actually looks outward into the world and collaborates with those that are not aligned with ones views or identity. Looking outside oneself is what makes diversity, equity and inclusion a superpower. But only looking internally and not outwardly divides and does not unite.

But I’ve never been interested in just identifying problems. I am much more interested in solving them. Where others see disarray, I see opportunity. Right now, there is a good opportunity for leaders to instill in students the traits that make others want to follow them to begin with: Warmth, competence and consistency.

The servant leader is one that is concerned with the wellbeing of their followers before their own needs and wants (Canavesi & Minelli, 2021). You could say that this would qualify as warmth. Studies show that “people care more about a person’s disposition to help or to harm even more than their competence” (Eisenbruch & Krasnow, 2022). But competence matters as well. We don’t want to create leadership that pretends to know what they are doing but whom are woefully incompetent, regardless of how many people follow them. In addition to productivity and capability (Eisenbruch & Krasnow, pg. 2. 2022), competence in this sense refers to emotional intelligence, proper perspective, relationship building and self-awareness.

The combination of both warmth and competence is the cornerstone of leadership. Indeed, there are too many people in leadership positions that do not have warmth nor competence. We know this to be true. But as I get older and the more I learn and experience life and the people in it, the more I’ve come to appreciate consistency. We all can be warm some days and competent in others, but the best leaders - and I believe this is evident - are those that are also consistent. They are the same today as they will be tomorrow. And that’s where the three traits align and the people follow.

This is the leader I am and will continue to be, and this will be my identify. No, not because I say so, but because others do. And I’ll only achieve this by looking outside myself after first looking in.

References

Canavesi, A., & Minelli, E. (2021). Servant Leadership: a Systematic Literature Review and Network Analysis. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 34(3), 267–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09381-3

Eisenbruch, A. B., & Krasnow, M. M. (2022). Why warmth Matters More than Competence: A new evolutionary approach. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6), 1604–1623. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211071087

Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S., Nagesh, P., Bharath, S., & Vignesh, K. M. (2024). Leadership theories and styles—A systematic literature review and the narrative synthesis. Human Resources Management and Services, 6(3), 3477. https://doi.org/10.18282/hrms.v6i3.3477