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January 22, 2026

What's Going On?

My Leadership Playlist

During the winter break at Rutgers, I was able to slow down and reflect—on the events of the past year, my transition from Louisiana to New Jersey, and the leadership lessons I have learned over the course of my career. I took some of these reflections to social media and found that they struck a chord with many people, some of whom offered their own insights to personalize or complement the lessons.

I share these with you here in the hope that they resonate with you as we engage in shared leadership across Rutgers. At the very least, they might help you understand my approach to making decisions on behalf of our university.

Leadership Lesson #2: Tight control is a mirage for the insecure. Eventually the quality factors get choked out and die. As one of my friends phrased it, tight control can force a situation where decisions pile up on senior leaders and nothing moves without their approval, creating bottlenecks that stifle progress. 

Closely related is Leadership Lesson #3: Sharing authority is like buying cheap assets. In the end, you will multiply your value. The process of collaborating is a low-cost investment of time. Collective engagement fosters greater buy-in and affords different perspectives and, together, acts as a compounding factor that accelerates the attainment of organizational aims. A colleague extended the concept, arguing that leadership that empowers others allows quality and creativity to grow while strengthening the institution and sustaining excellence. This approach develops talent and positions the organization for positive outcomes over a significant period.

This last lesson generated a lot of wonderful feedback on social media. One wise colleague noted that the ability to acknowledge a mistake, pursue mercy where appropriate, and press "play" without getting emotionally hijacked requires developing self-awareness and regulation. Too often leadership development skips this entirely.

The biggest leadership lesson of all might be that the lessons don’t end. Organizations consist of archeological digs of suboptimal decisions. This presents an opportunity for all of us to work collectively toward improvement. I am still learning all the time and always trying to apply those lessons to decisions we make at Rutgers. I hope the same is true for you.

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