By Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, Collegiate Empowerment © & ™ 1995-2020 All Rights Reserved.
As I pen these words from the 4th floor offices of Collegiate Empowerment, I have the fortune to look down upon the town square of Easton, Pennsylvania. It’s a warm Spring day which typically means the square would be a buzz with activity. Yet today it is still. From being the nation’s oldest farmers market, to serving as one of the first locations in which the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in July 1776, the town square has always been the center of our little city. Yet today it is silent. An eerily relatable symbol of what your campus quad, and thousands of other campus quads around the country may feel like during these scary times. Never before has American Higher Education sensed such stillness, such silence, and such solace.
Six months after the public reading of the Declaration, which rallied our new nation to war, the ragtag band of American soldiers had quickly become weary, defeated, and ready to quit. Then on the cold December night of the famous Crossing of The Delaware, 40 miles down river from Easton, General George Washington shared the words from a tattered copy of a pamphlet entitled, The Crisis, by Thomas Paine. To paraphrase Paine, “These are the times which try our souls.”
As an American Higher Education professional on the front lines of this new American Crisis, we are all in the midst of unprecedented and unpredictable times. The world needs Good Souls, like you, who continued to be both unfazed and united. To support you and your fellow colleagues in fighting the battles ahead in American Higher Education, here are the 10 Things That Every Higher Ed Pro Needs To Do During These Scary Times:
1) Remember the world of today is less than 50 years old.
If we go back 50 years from today, we'd be looking at the year 1970. Think about how much has changed within the last 50 years. To deal with this crisis now, we must understand the world we live in today is still very new. In 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, and in 1995 the World Wide Web went up. It is fresh and fertile ground for a much bigger future. We've been through great plagues and wars as a nation. Right now, we're going through a major reset as a society. Very likely, this experience is causing you to make a personal reset as well. Give yourself the grace to reboot what it means to be an American Higher Education Professional in the 21st Century. And remember the next 20 years of American Higher Ed will look radically different, than the past 20 years of American Higher Ed. The game is being transformed as we play it today.
2) Always make your future bigger than your past.
Look back on your own life. What other trials, tribulations, and traumas have you been through and survived? Not only have you survived, but I sense you have transformed. Keep in mind this isn't the first and it certainly isn’t the last. In order to not just let these hard events “pass” us, but “transform” us, give yourself the gift to come from a mindset of always making your future bigger than your past. In the meantime, don’t over focus on 2020. You’ll get overwhelmed. Think about the space of 2020 to 2024. Use this period of time to make a quantum leap in your life. Allow this breakdown to empower your next breakthrough.
3) Transform all the obstacles you face into the raw material of your future success.
In life, one of two things happen: A) Things either work according to your plan, or B) they don't work according to your plan. In other words: SHIT HAPPENS. As every great farmer knows, shit makes great fertilizer for future growth. Don't let this obstacle paralyze you. It's here to serve you, to challenge you, and to help you grow. It's not going to be easy and it may hurt. The paycheck may get cut; the job might be lost. But trust in knowing this: All the obstacles we face are the raw material for our future success.
4) Focus on progress, not perfection.
This is important for those of us in Higher Ed who strive to always be perfect. Striving for perfection will threaten to sabotage our success. As we go through this traumatic experience, we're being forced to work remotely from home. Most of the work we're doing right now, is stuff we’ve never done before. At least, not in this way. It's okay not to be perfect. You went from the world of the physical campus to the virtual classroom in a matter of days. It's a scary space for many. However, to truly make an educational impact, we now must let go of perfection. Perfection will stifle you. Progress will inspire you as well as others. Focus on progress, not perfection.
5) Practice high intention, low attachment.
Like Zen Masters in the dojo, we as Higher Ed Professionals need to have high intention, low attachment. During these unpredictable times a few things will work, and a lot of stuff won’t. For now don’t be overly attached to the outcome. The key is bold, direct action. It’s what the world is begging for. Don’t sit back and try to figure this out perfectly. Right now, we need quick, immediate action. Part of that is high intention, but low attachment. If you only focus on perfection, you're going to be attached to the outcome, but what you want to do is focus on the progress, the journey. Take what works and leave the rest behind. Breathe.
6) Realize that you are in charge, but you're not in control.
That’s right. You’re in charge, but not in control. There's a much higher power that is in control: call it Jesus, call it Allah, call it Buddha, or call it Yoda. I don't care what you call it but understand you're not in control. However on the flip side you are ridiculously in charge. Empowering people is not about control; it’s about energy. You have an important job to do: to bring positive energy to your students, colleagues, family, and friends: to charge them, whether through a phone call, a zoom meeting, or a handwritten card. Like an electrical outlet, give your people and your campus community the positive charge they desperately need. As for the control thing, give it up to that higher power. Look to that higher power as your guiding force, your energy source, so you can then give clarity and confidence to the people around you.
7) Always make your learning bigger than the experience.
You are not a victim. You are a creator. This can be one of the most powerful and transformational experiences you will ever have. Wisdom comes from experience. Wisdom comes when we get wounded. Difficulty can be a call to arms. Know you are in charge of your own learning. You get to decide what you take away from this experience. Are you going to use the shit that is happening as fertilizer, or are you going to let it bury you? This experience is big. Make the learning bigger.
8) People are silently begging for: Leadership, Relationship, Creativity, and Management.
Right now people feel confused, isolated, powerless, and discouraged and they are silently begging you for something. The operative word here is silently. They don’t know what they need. Well, here’s a core insight for you. If you’re reading this, you have at least two out of these four gifts: Leadership, Relationship, Creativity, or Management. This is what your people are silently begging for from you. They want your leadership. They want clarity, to calm the confusion. They want a relationship. They want confidence, to ease the pain of isolation. They want your creativity. They want new capabilities to empower the powerless. They want management. They want someone to keep them accountable, so they can feel courageous once again. Remember every one, including yourself, is silently begging for this stuff. Give yourself the Grace to tune into your two gifts so you can share them with others during this difficult time.
9) Use The 3Es as a compass and The 7Rs as a rudder to help you navigate the rough seas.
We didn’t plan for this, but we do have tools for how to get through it. Firstly, The 3E’s: engagement, enrollment, and endowment. Engage the people around you and be fully present. Then the enrollment will happen. But right now, schools will need to tap into that endowment. The storms are going to keep coming in the next couple of months. We must be prepared. Now is the time to use your dry powder. The 3E's are at the core of The 7R's: Recruitment, Retention, Revenue generation, Risk mitigation, Research, ROI, and Reinvention. What’s happening right now is all about risk mitigation. That's what we must do first and foremost. As we go through this, you must deal with the present reality first, and then focus on the future of reinvention. In the meantime, be prepared as the industry of American Higher Ed reinvents itself.
10) Take Higher Education deeper, further, onward, and upward.
This is our time. We were made for this. We've been chosen. We are at the right place, at the right time, and we are the right people for the job. This is a defining moment for us all as a generation of American higher education professionals. We’re all part of an historic industry that is over 380 years old, older than the country. We have the privilege of advancing society through this powerful industry of Higher Education. We must press onward and upward. We must take Higher Education deeper during this difficult time so as to remember our deeper purpose and meaning. We’re in this together.
These are indeed, “Times Which Try Our Souls.”
Future generations will look back on us and this moment in history.
Will we be a warning? Or an example? The choice is ours for the making.
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Anthony (Tony) J. D’Angelo, is founder & Chief Visionary Officer of Collegiate Empowerment, a educational production company dedicated to serving the US Higher Education Industry. Since 1995, Tony has served as a coach and strategic consultant to thousands of Higher Education Professionals and University Executives from over 2,500 US colleges. Learn more @ www.Collegiate-Empowerment.org or Follow: @TonyDAngelo on Twitter.
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