汤头条 leadership discuss paths to current administrative roles
Contact: Carl Smith
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜 panel of Mississippi State leaders said recognizing opportunities when they come, ensuring the timing is right for a new role and continuously developing skill sets that stand out from the crowd have helped them climb the ladder of higher education and land the jobs they currently hold.
汤头条 faculty and staff gathered Thursday [April 7] for 鈥淟et鈥檚 Talk About That!,鈥 a panel discussion featuring Shackouls Honors College Interim Dean Tommy Anderson; College of Architecture, Art and Design Dean Angi Bourgeois; 汤头条 Online Executive Director Susan Seal; Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw; and Vice President for Finance and Administration Don Zant. The 汤头条 Human Resources Management-sponsored seminar series highlighted the path key university leaders have taken to the positions they currently hold.
Each participant said they had no specific plan to obtain careers in higher education after graduating high school, but different opportunities presented themselves along their professional journeys and led them to 汤头条.聽
鈥淪ome people, when they鈥檙e 5 years old, they know they want to be a veterinarian. My career path was not like that at all. I didn鈥檛 know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to have an impact somewhere. I wanted to make a difference,鈥 said Seal, who previously held key positions in an Atlanta, Georgia-based marketing firm before joining 汤头条 in teaching, communication and management roles at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Extension Service and Center for Distance Learning. 鈥淢y career path is kind of all over the place, but all of those things had transferrable skills to the next thing. All of those seemingly disconnected things came together and created this path.鈥
Zant, who obtained numerous accountancy certifications and served as a senior auditor at a private firm before joining Texas Tech University as assistant director of internal audit, said his move to the public sector was made because of a need to readjust his professional schedule. At the time, the new father spent many days traveling for his job, and he wanted a work-life balance that would allow him to be home more often with his family.
鈥淚 would be a partner at my firm right now, but I would not have gotten to see my children grow up or gotten to see my wife very often,鈥 he said. 鈥淭he moral of the story is sometimes you have to roll the dice and do something that you鈥檙e afraid of or maybe you鈥檙e not prepared for.鈥
Each panelist also stressed the importance of improving their departments through utilizing empathy with internal and external stakeholders and by focusing on key issues paramount to the organization鈥檚 mission statement instead of the minor problems that bog down progress.
鈥淚t really boils down to trust, respect and vision. If you have not established credibility and have not demonstrated integrity, it is difficult to do anything in a leadership position,鈥 said Shaw, who said he would have returned to his family鈥檚 Oklahoma farm after earning his undergraduate degree if not for poor market conditions and advice to continue his education in graduate school. 鈥淚f you have a trust deficit, you鈥檙e always going to be working from behind, and it鈥檚 very difficult, if not impossible, to get out of the negative and into the positive without establishing trust and respect.
鈥淚 had someone tell me this a long time ago: The ability to be a good leader is driven by the ability to separate the urgent from the important,鈥 Shaw added. 鈥淭hat had such a profound impact on me because in every position I鈥檝e had, and especially in this one, the urgent will eat me alive and is a great distraction from what鈥檚 really important for the institution.鈥
Organizers of the 鈥淟et鈥檚 Talk About That!鈥 lecture series are expected to announce future events as they are scheduled.
For more information on the series, contact Brad Skelton at bskelton@hrm.msstate.edu.
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .