Great Administrators and the Qualities They Have

Administration must be cut, radically cut (including salaries), at most schools.

That’s the truth and I have been saying it for decades.

Sometimes this sounds as if I do not value the back office work that must be done. Nothing could be further from the truth: if Roy Disney had not kept the books, there could have been no Walt Disney.

The back office makes the work of creative people possible and I have been blessed to many who were both competent “bean counters” and creative talent.

If I list some of the great administrators I have known at places like Biola University, Houston Baptist University, or The King’ s College, I run the risk of having people assume that anyone not listed is one of the truly dreadful folk I have experienced! God forbid. I have seen grift, Oh the stories I could tell, but I have also seen greatness.

I shall pass on naming names with three exceptions: Clyde Cook was a good man in a tough business, Sherwood Lingenfelter was willing to take risks as a provost, and Doris Warren endured turmoil to be a steady hand as a dean. Dr. Cook is in glory, but I hope both Dr. Lingenfelter and Warren get the credit they deserve for careers well spent.

What makes a great administrator in higher education?

A great administrator teaches or does academic research every year. If you are full time, you should teach or be involved in an academic activity.

In my current school, I have an operations officer who delights to sit and teach younglings math and has cleaned up after a music concert without being asked. She educates future business leaders. The head of marketing teaches crochet, math, and just about anything else she is asked to do. Our provost taught a full time load in addition to his administrative job.

These folk exist. Find them. Hire them.

Do not tell me there is “no time” when I have watched hundreds of hours of administrative time frittered away in useless meetings or junkets. If a person is not interfacing with students or doing research, find a way they can. Make time.

A great administrator is loyal and knows how to hire better people. 

If you see churn, or fear, around an administrator, he is bad at his job. A great administrator builds a team. Since the central job of a school is education, there should be least churn in central academic jobs. The incompetent leader will churn his staff in the core area. A great leader hires people better than he is and retains them.

A great administrator follows data, has vision he completes, and eschews the lazy phrase “best practices.”

The great administrators I have known love data. They do not want data that fits their plan, but form a plan that responds to data. They do not confuse data with a vision or growth with a plan. They do not find out what someone else did, call it “best practice,” and then hope it works again.

They look for what God is saying in this place, time, and people.

Great leaders have a vision for their teachers and students and not their institutions.

A great administrator puts people ahead of programs. 

People are immortal souls, institutions come and go. The greatest administrators I have known have always put people ahead of programs. Why? He looks toward eternity and not just to the next one hundred years. The history book he hopes to enter is the one God writes for the final judgement.

A great administrator never spins his superiors. He admits when plans must change. 

If you have never watched an administrator get ready to “spin” the Board, then you are blessed. A real master at spin can constantly change goals and plans without ever admitting any change at all. I have seen hours spent on hiding the data from the Board and high-fives all around when they missed what was really happening.

Speak the truth and you may have to change jobs, but you will be able to change jobs. The man or woman who will count the failures as well as the successes will build up a reservoir of trust for the truly hard times.

If you feel discouraged know this: for every grifter running an education con, there is an adjunct faculty member commuting between three schools who will still stop and try to help a student. The just do not always prosper in this life, but the day will come when our accreditation is reviewed by God. On that day, the Lord will ask what we have done for people, because every institution will have burned by fire.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.