Leaders on Leadership featuring Dr. Suzanne Smith, President of  SUNY Potsdam

Episode Transcript

Jay Lemons:

Hello and thank you for listening, I’m Jay Lemons. Welcome to Leaders on Leadership brought to you by Academic Search and the American Academic Leadership Institute. The purpose of our podcast is to share the stories of the people and forces that have shaped leaders in higher education and to learn more about their thoughts on leadership in the academy. I’m really pleased today to be joined by Dr. Suzanne Smith.

Suzanne serves as the 18th president of the State University New York Potsdam, a role she began in April of 2023. Suzanne brings a strong background in academic leadership, most recently serving as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Southwestern State University where she led academic planning, launched new degree programs aligned with workforce needs and secured external funding to support program growth and development. There, she also guided the institution’s post-pandemic strategic planning efforts, helping to find a framework centered on people, purpose and profession.

Earlier in her career, she spent more than two decades at Washington State University Vancouver where she transitioned from faculty to administration. She is a scholar and an educator with more than 25 years of teaching experience in sociology and human development and has received multiple teaching awards and is the co-author of the textbook Exploring Family Theories. She earned her PhD in child and family development from the University of Georgia, her masters in family and child development from Virginia Tech and her bachelor’s degree in behavior science from Erskine College and she has also completed national leadership programs including the AASCU Millennial Leadership Program. Suzanne, welcome to our program, we’re so happy to have you with us.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Jay Lemons:

Well, I want to jump right in and, again, just really great pleasure to have this opportunity for a heart-to-heart visit, that’s the way I like to think of it. I’d love for us to start in the same way I do always and that’s to ask folks to reflect, something I don’t think presidents get to do nearly enough, but think about your own pathways to leadership. And my hope is that, in the sharing of your story, that you’re going to probably strike a chord that is going to be meaningful and might inspire someone else. So, why don’t you jump in and talk a little bit about the people that have impacted you, the things, the events that have forged you as a leader in higher education?

Suzanne Smith:

Sure, I’m happy to do that. So, I actually started, I go back to my undergraduate years. As an undergraduate student, I did some research on college students’ love attitudes and things that impact that. My professional home is the National Council on Family Relations and, as a senior in college, I was invited to present my research, I submitted a proposal and was accepted for submission. So, very excited to go to this national conference, I was a senior, I didn’t exactly know what I was going to do yet when I graduated but I figured I was going to hit the job market. And I got there and I met a guy named Mike Sporakowski, he was at Virginia Tech and, for me, I was always a nerd, it was like meeting a rock star because he wrote my favorite textbook, he was the author of one of the scales I used in my undergraduate research and so I honestly was a little starstruck to meet Mike Sporakowski.

And he asked me what I was going to do when I graduated and I said, “I have no idea,” and he said, “Well, come work in my research lab,” and so I said, “Okay.” So, that’s how I got into my master’s program, how I got into higher ed and I, from that time forward, really was very lucky to find mentors along the way. I worked with Mike Sporakowski, Catherine Allen, some of the people that are pretty phenomenal researchers in the field and they helped me better understand my path forward. When I graduated from Virginia Tech, I was once again in a place where I was looking at jobs, I had a few interviews lined up and I got a phone call from my undergraduate institution saying that my major professors in undergrad had just turned in their notice and it was about two weeks before classes started and could I come take her place and that she had recommended me.

Jay Lemons:

Wow.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, I know, it was pretty overwhelming. I have a history of family who are educators and so, growing up, the only thing I knew I didn’t want to do was teach. But I thought, well, I can handle this, it’s a year, it’ll give me some time to figure out what I want to do.

Jay Lemons:

So, you went back to Erskine?

Suzanne Smith:

I went back to Erskine, yeah. So, two weeks before classes started, I had five classes to prep for and a trial by fire. But I called my parents after the first week and I was crying and mom’s like, “Baby, you can do anything for a year.” And I said, “I’m crying because I love it and this is what I want to do with my life. And so, I was mad that you were right all along that education is where I belonged.” And so, speeding up from there, I went to University of Georgia to get my PhD and then went to Washington State University Vancouver to start my career there. It was a brand new campus, our goal was to start a program in human development and that was an exciting time, basically developing a campus from the ground up which is not something many academics get a chance to do.

Jay Lemons:

Nope.

Suzanne Smith:

But being a part of that process, I was able to work my way up the tenure track, eventually, I served as the academic director which is the equivalent of a dean on another campus and I really liked that. At one point, they asked me to serve as the interim academic director for the College of Education as well while they held a search so I did that, at the same time, I was Director of Human Development. And then I thought, oh, I actually really like a little bigger picture so not just my discipline but learning more about other disciplines and how they impact things. So, from that, I worked with Mel Netzhammer at Washington State University and he’s probably one of the people that’s influenced me most in my career but he encouraged me to move towards a provost type position and I worked in the provost office there, I went to the AASCU Becoming a Provost Academy and I’m huge on professional development.

From there, I got a provost position at Georgia Southwestern and loved it while I was there, loved being a provost but, honestly, being a provost increased my confidence enough to know that I could be a president because it’s something I’ve always thought about but, like a lot of people, thought that maybe I don’t really have the skillset to do that job. But the closer and closer I got to working with presidents, the more I thought you can have a lot of different skill sets and still be a good president but the number one thing that you have to have is a love of students and a desire to help others and that’s what I had. And so, I went to the MLI program at AASCU which is a place where you learn whether presidency is really something that’s going to work for you or not and decided that clenched it for me that this was the path that I needed to take. I’ve been here at SUNY Potsdam for a little over three years and it’s been an amazing ride.

Jay Lemons:

That’s fabulous. Your mention of the opportunity working with Mel in Vancouver, really birthing a new campus, I’m curious, was there a spirit that was more open to change and experimentation than in our hallowed institutions that are measured in centuries old or are we academic animals no matter where we are with regard to change? As scholars, we’re trained to be skeptics and be conservative with regard to embracing new and different ideas so what’d you experience there?

Suzanne Smith:

That’s actually a great question. And I probably got spoiled in my first years because, everyone that was there, I think was there because of an adventure, they were there to be a part of something new and to try new things. And so, every decision we made, we would look at what happened in other institutions, places that we came from, what was happening within our system but really had that spirit of but that doesn’t mean that we have to do it that way. And so, we tried things, we developed programs and policies and procedures and would try them and some of them worked and we kept them and some of them didn’t and we scratched it and started over. And I didn’t realize it at the time because of that being my first professional job in higher ed but, in hindsight, I know how lucky I was to be a part of a really innovative environment and a group of people who want to change I think it’s because we didn’t have a history or tradition that we had to fall back on or that we felt inclined to fall back on.

Right now I’m at an institution that’s one of the oldest SUNY in the system and there’s a lot of history on this campus and a lot of desire, as you said, in higher ed in general, to keep things the way they have been. So, yeah, I’ve had two very diverse experiences with regards to that. That was a good question.

Jay Lemons:

That’s interesting. One of the things that I like to explore and I really appreciated you, in some ways, described your north star as a love of students and I suspect that that’s the foundation upon which all else is built but I want to hear your definition of what makes a good leader. And as I always say in framing this question, I don’t mean grade B, I’m really talking about virtue and effectiveness and the ability to move an institution forward.

Suzanne Smith:

Sure. When I think of great leaders, I think of words like compassion, empathy, transparency, they have to have a desire to see others succeed, in my opinion, they have to be confident in the face of adversity no matter how you feel on the inside. I really feel like people look to our leaders to be strong and to be the voice of reason or to keep us from panicking I guess is the easiest way to think about it. I think they need to be able to create a vision that people want to follow and you do that by creating it in a shared manner by having people help you in that process. For me, it’s really about being human, it’s about showing emotion, it’s about doing work alongside people, leading by example. I’m an emotional person by nature and so I’m also an emotional leader and some people are drawn to that and some people aren’t and that’s okay because to me it’s that authenticity, I think, that people like in a leader, that approachability.

Jay Lemons:

Authenticity is a lack of it becomes apparent early and quickly and probably hard to recover from.

Suzanne Smith:

I think so as well especially in today’s higher ed.

Jay Lemons:

Yeah. Well, it’s related to this, I think of the classic work of Ed Penson and John Moore about the president and the presidency and the presidency is way more than a solo act. So, when you’re creating a team, that group of people, that group of leaders you lean on, what do you look for in those leaders?

Suzanne Smith:

I really want people that want to be a part of a team, people that aren’t territorial. Another thing that I think we’re known for in higher ed is being territorial and whether that’s about what classes you can teach, what building you’re in, what … Space is a big thing that people are territorial about but our job as campus leaders is to have a big picture and to look at the best possible outcome as opposed to just being expert content knowledge people. I think you have to be able to be knowledgeable in your area but also able to take a big picture perspective. I want people who get along well with others, it’s important to me that my team works together as a team. You don’t have to like everybody on the team but you have to be willing to work with everyone on the team.

You can ask people that have worked with me, I do a lot of team building as a part of my leadership style, we do a lot of, I’ll call them icebreakers for lack of a better word, but just things to … Higher ed is hard, our jobs are hard and so we need each other to be there and to support each other and so it’s easier to support someone that you know than someone that you don’t know so I feel like I have to build those personal relationships. It’s equally important to me as it is to build those professional relationships. I like to laugh and have fun with my team and we laugh a lot in our meetings and I think that that is important.

I really like the CliftonStrengths assessment, I don’t know if you’ve ever used that one before, I do a lot of work around CliftonStrengths, it helps me understand why people do what they do and why they say what they say. Because, if you have people with very different profiles than you, I might in the middle of a meeting think I don’t get why they can’t get this and then I think, oh, okay, because this is one of their traits and so this makes sense, this is how their brain works.

My team could tell you I also group people according to Winnie the Pooh characters and so I think that everyone falls into, I’m a big Winnie the Pooh fan, into a Winnie the Pooh profiles sometimes. And so, that helps me a lot and I’ve done fun exercises with my team around what Pooh character are you and what are other people and I want people that … I don’t want a team that’s all alike, I want people that has skill sets that complement each other because we don’t need 10 people that look the same, we need everyone to have something different that they bring to the table because it’s all about problem solving as a group or as a team and so, if we all looked the same or we all had the same perspective, then our solutions wouldn’t be good, frankly. So, those are the kinds of things that I look for in a team.

Jay Lemons:

So, I want to follow up in a couple ways. I love the Winnie the Pooh character, I don’t … I’m not familiar with that one but I am familiar with the dominant in some ways personality that I really think about a lot is what do you do, how do you handle the Eeyores on your team?

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, that’s a great question. And so, one of the things that to me is the benefit of doing all of the character assessment upfront is that we can call it out in a meeting when we need to. So, I will literally say, “Okay, Eeyore, so you’re bringing up some good points but let’s look at the potential positive sides of this.” Or I’ll say something like, “I appreciate that you help us understand what our possible downfalls are and that you help us understand things that we need to think about, things that are red flags or things that could be potential dangers, I appreciate that you bring that perspective to the team so now let’s look at the other side and see what the potential benefits of this are so that we can make sure that we’re making an informed decision.”

Jay Lemons:

Yeah, I appreciate that. And, yes, I’m a big believer, big proponent of the CliftonStrengths. Our executive coaching practice really is built on a strengths-based approach and really important and powerful parts of this that I will put myself largely in the same academic camp as you as a developmentalist. The way we get the strongest organizations is to grow our people and work as effectively as we can.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jay Lemons:

How unusual do you think that is across the landscape of higher education?

Suzanne Smith:

I don’t know. I spend a lot of time thinking about succession building and people will get mad, so-and-so’s only been here three years and they’re leaving to go so-and-so. And to me our job is educators, it’s not just students, it’s my team, I want people to be where they want to be. And so, if someone that works for me wants to be a college president, my job’s to help them figure out how to do that, that’s what we’re all here for is to support and build each other. But I don’t know that that’s common, I feel like-

Jay Lemons:

Yeah, it’s an impossible question.

Suzanne Smith:

That’s just the way I’ve always been, mentors like Mel, that’s the way they are, how can we help and support you but I’ve certainly seen it where people get really angry when people on their team make a choice that’s best for them and their career.

Jay Lemons:

Yeah. And I don’t know how many times you might have gotten eye rolls but, oh, no, not trust falls again.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, yeah, yes. Oh, yes, my team’s quite vocal about what happens when I roll out the …

Jay Lemons:

I hear you, I hear you. We know a part of our listenership are people who are interested in higher ed and may be considering leadership. For those who might aspire to leadership or new leaders in higher ed, what’s your advice?

Suzanne Smith:

So, the first thing I would say is something that I’ve already said is to be your authentic self, that’s what people respond to in me. I am flawed, I make mistakes, I sometimes speak before I think, I shed tears when I deliver painful news but I’m always me and so that’s one thing that you can count on. People learn to believe in me and trust in me because they know that what they’re getting is real and I think, in today’s climate, that’s really important. Whatever it is that’s you that you present that in a way that people trust and believe that that’s who you are. I would say always take advantage of professional development and trainings when you can, we are never too old or too knowledgeable to learn from other people and other experiences.

Jay Lemons:

So true.

Suzanne Smith:

I think I’ve probably done every program that ASCU has along my path because I believe in learning from others and, frankly, that’s where I’ve met all of my colleagues across the country that I reach out to when something is going on so people in these programs are now my foundation for … The higher you go up the ladder, I’ll say the lonelier it gets, it’s not as sad as that sounds but you have fewer people that you can turn to that have shared experiences. And so, as your pool gets smaller, you need to be sure that you’re developing relationships in some way and, frankly, professional organizations, professional development, all of these are great ways to do that, I think that’s important.

If you don’t have a mentor, I would say find one and it might not be as hard as it sounds, frankly. So, find someone on campus that you admire and ask them if they’re willing to spend some time with you or go to a professional conference or go to one of these development programs that I’ve talked about or that maybe are in your field. And if you find someone that you really feel like you could work with, ask them, people are honored when you ask them to be a mentor for you. To me, it’s important to have someone that you can go to when you don’t know what to do and I’m lucky to have some of those people in my life.

If your work has been primarily on one campus, I would say go shadow someone that has the job that you want on a different campus. It was an invaluable experience for me for some of the programs that I went through to do some shadowing on a different campus because we often forget that the world looks different from another spot. And so, college campuses are the same in a lot of ways but they are different in a lot of ways as well and we have a lot to learn from each other.

Jay Lemons:

So true. Well, I think you put your finger on an interesting, unusual, in some ways, I think, characteristic of higher education. While we compete on athletic fields and we compete to see who has the best facilities and we’re all competing to try and have the most and the best students, et cetera, it’s a world in which my experience has been professional colleagues in other institutions have been incredibly generous and open and willing to talk about the challenges that I faced, about the worries that I had and to really help guide a lot of the decisions that I had to make. So, you’re exactly right, that’s a way of dealing with that loneliness.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, absolutely. It’s an invaluable part of my life.

Jay Lemons:

I just want to call out for our listeners, if you heard the first part of Suzanne’s response there, you also heard be yourself, be authentic. I really appreciate what you shared there. We are in a complicated time, the landscape is challenging, what are the most important or biggest challenges facing leaders today?

Suzanne Smith:

Where to begin, right?

Jay Lemons:

Where to begin.

Suzanne Smith:

As a president, I spend a lot of time worrying about our enrollment, the enrollment cliff I think for me is one of the things that keeps me up at night. Fewer college age students, particularly up here in the Northeast where I am in New York, our numbers look worse than they do in other places so that means that we now turn to retention so you need to really keep the ones that you have. So, we’re spending a lot of time and energy on our campus, what can we do better to … We know that the research says that a sense of belonging is the number one predictor of retention on a campus even more so than having the degree program that they want so we’re spending a lot of time working on that sense of belonging on our campus because of the enrollment cliff.

Other things that are contributing to enrollment, obviously, the national rhetoric against higher education, fewer people are going to college because of what they’re hearing in the media. And I find this interesting and it’s probably because I’m an academic but the research is still clear that those with a college degree have greater success and higher financial rewards than those that don’t so the fact that this is leading to fewer people going to college is a mystery to me. I worry about the conversations which make our most vulnerable students feel even more vulnerable instead of feeling supported. I worry about the way that our college campuses are being restricted in how we can support our students, I think that’s a challenge for higher ed leaders today. Obviously, expense for college is, for both the students, frankly, and the colleges trying to keep their doors open, money’s going to be a big issue for quite some time, I think, if you look at what’s happening with the economy.

And then obviously social media and AI and how they impact your entire campus community. The conversations around AI are fascinating to me, my personal belief is, and this is not … I don’t force this on my campus but my personal belief is that our job as educators is to be teaching students how to be good consumers of AI and when and where it’s appropriate to use AI and where it’s not. And so, I co-taught a freshman class last fall that was amazing and I’m teaching it again this fall and we talked about, for every assignment, the role that AI could or could not play and talk to them about, if you use AI, don’t just assume that everything that it gives you is accurate, it’s how to be good consumers of that. So, I think that’s a big problem.

And social media, I just got back from New York City last night meeting with some alumni and one thing that a big group is talking about is that we’re thankful that social media wasn’t around when we were in college because it makes it hard. You make a mistake and it’s not just your friend group or your campus that talks, it’s now broadcast across the world and that’s hard. And platforms like Yik Yak that I just find intolerable that this anonymity leads to some just really mean and cruel behavior. I could go on but those are the primary things that I think about when they impact on higher ed. It’s hard to be a college student today particularly if you feel like who you are as a person is being questioned by our country, that’s tough.

Jay Lemons:

I really appreciate that and I think it reflects again this powerful theme about you, Suzanne, that I appreciate a great deal. The question was around leadership and challenging times and you brought it back to it’s also a challenging time to be a student and that focus on that north star really is evident. Thank you, thank you for that. Let’s move to what I call a lightning round which really means just shorter questions.

Suzanne Smith:

Okay.

Jay Lemons:

You can answer whatever length you want.

Suzanne Smith:

Okay.

Jay Lemons:

You’re not really on the clock.

Suzanne Smith:

Sure.

Jay Lemons:

Who’s had the greatest influence on you?

Suzanne Smith:

Mel Netzhammer, I’ve mentioned him a few times. He’s such a compassionate leader, he’s led through some pretty tough situations in a way that I found empathetic but intelligent. He looks at students first, he looks at the multiple sides of an issue but then is willing to make a decision and I think that that’s really important.

Jay Lemons:

Well, Mel’s a tremendous leader and certainly led the development and the growth of that campus for a long time.

Suzanne Smith:

Absolutely.

Jay Lemons:

Is there a book that’s had the most influence on you?

Suzanne Smith:

Probably Dare to Lead by Brene Brown.

Jay Lemons:

Ah, yeah.

Suzanne Smith:

And the thing I liked about this book is I think that women in particular, how to say, we don’t always educate our women to be strong and to deal with conflict. And so, to me, this book is really about being able to have those tough conversations and then learning from it and then figuring out how to do better the next time around. You have to be willing to take risks and we are in a risk-adverse environment, I think. Knowing that it’s okay to fail and knowing that it’s okay to do things and not have them work. And, honestly, I think that that’s something that being on WSU Vancouver my first job really helped with. We tried a lot of things that didn’t work but it wasn’t a big deal so you scrap it, you start over, you learn from it and you move on. And so, that’s a really valuable lesson for me that I try to keep with me.

Jay Lemons:

Well, I appreciate that. I work with so many campuses and boards across the country and things are hard and the number of presidential searches I’ve heard, we have got to get this search right as if there is absolutely no room for any failure ever, anytime, no matter what. We do lose sight of all the learning that comes from the things that don’t work well and yet I also understand, from the fiduciary responsibility of trustees and board members, these are tough times. I want to take you back to Due West, South Carolina.

Suzanne Smith:

Oh, wow, okay.

Jay Lemons:

Erskine College, what was your fondest memory?

Suzanne Smith:

Fondest memory. Honestly, I think it would just be hanging out with friends, it would be the time we spent late at night just talking about our dreams, our values, our families. And for me that’s one of the things I love about higher ed, we’re helping the total person. We’re giving you an education and we’re giving you job skills, yes, but we’re also giving you relationships that will last for the rest of your life and we’re giving you opportunities to be a good friend and to be a good person and to learn about the civil dialogue, those kinds of things. And I learned all that by just hanging out with my friends, I learned a lot of that by hanging out with my friends and so I don’t really I can’t think of one specific memory, I think about the times just being together.

Jay Lemons:

How’d you choose Erskine?

Suzanne Smith:

I wanted to play tennis and it was one of the places that I could go and play tennis. I also wanted to go someplace that I didn’t know anybody and, in hindsight, it shocks me that I would do that. But, yeah, I didn’t know a single person before I went there, it was a beautiful campus. It was close enough to home that I could go home when I wanted but far enough away that my parents couldn’t pop in and that was important to me, I was wanting to, like most college students, to seek some independence but yet still know that my safety net was close.

Jay Lemons:

Lovely. Thanks for sharing. I’ve always thought well of Erskine, my immediate predecessor at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise was an Erskine grad.

Suzanne Smith:

Oh, wow. We’re everywhere.

Jay Lemons:

Yeah. How about that? How about that? If you hadn’t found your way to this pathway in higher ed, that fork, being at that conference as an undergraduate, what else might you have done?

Suzanne Smith:

I think I probably would have been a flight attendant. I’ve told people before that, when I was a small child, I wanted to be a ballerina astronaut because I didn’t know that that wasn’t a thing. But once I learned that that wasn’t a thing, I probably would have been a flight attendant. I love travel and so I would love the ability to … The benefits that come with being a travel agent where, on your days, off you have free flights. So, that’s probably what I would have done.

Jay Lemons:

Love it. Well, I want to come back to your campus based experiences and tradition is one of those things that I think makes our higher ed culture memorable and special and a place of ritual and circumstance. Is there a favorite tradition at a place that you’ve attended or served that you would hold up?

Suzanne Smith:

I really like the presidential challenge coins and I’ve seen it look a lot of different ways on different campuses. When I came to SUNY Potsdam, I started it here. At a new student orientation, I give out a silver coin that has our mascot on one side and it says you made a difference. And so, I tell the students that, over the next four years, think about someone that has really impacted their ability to graduate, to get their education and then, their senior year and their last semester, I want them to give the coin to someone who made a difference in their ability to be successful. And then on commencement I’ll give them a maroon coin to keep for themselves to remind them the importance of showing appreciation and having gratitude.

What I like about it is it ingrains in them the idea that this is a campus where it’s important to us that we show appreciation for each other but that this is also a place where people will make a difference in your lives and so you have to open yourselves to those opportunities so reach out for help if you need it and that concept of mentorship and it wraps all of those things up into one thing. And as someone receiving that coin, it changes them, it gives them a sense of gratitude that they can’t get, really, in other ways. And, again, lots of campuses do this in different ways but that’s how we do it here. Just the coin concept itself I really love.

Jay Lemons:

I do as well. And in my 25th and final year as a campus president, I adapted gratitude as my theme for the year and-

Suzanne Smith:

Love it.

Jay Lemons:

… it was very, very real for me and I got coins made and, as a part of the ritual of that final full year, it was very meaningful to me to do that. And then I designed a separate set that, at our baccalaureate service, and the graduating students were given some notice, they were to bring to that graduation service or that baccalaureate service someone that had really made a difference to them and they each had a coin of their own to award just in the way that you did and it gives me chills to hear you talk about it. It was certainly one of the most satisfying and fulfilling times in my own career so thank you for raising that up, that’s a fabulous tradition.

One of our traditions here on Leaders on Leadership is we like to close by inviting our really generous guests to talk about the distinctive qualities that make SUNY Potsdam the institution that has hold of your head and your heart and all of your energy and I’d love for you to do that.

Suzanne Smith:

Sure. That’s an easy question for me that this is a special place and I know everyone says that but, on this campus, it’s a feeling, it’s the people, it’s our sense of purpose that make it so special. We have a very strong sense of community and we support one another. We put students first which, as I’ve said, is one of my core values and so I wouldn’t work at a place that didn’t have that same core value. We value and support experiential learning which is also something that’s important to me and one of the reasons that I was drawn to this campus. We really lean into our location which I think is good, we’re hard to get to but we are beautiful and we have opportunities that people don’t in other parts of the country because of where we are so we really lean into that.

But I guess probably most important to me is that we welcome people who we are. It’s our tagline, you can come as you are, be yourself and we’re going to support you no matter what. And so, it’s a place where people really feel free to figure out who they are and be that person and they know that they’re going to get supported and that’s a special thing about SUNY Potsdam.

Jay Lemons:

Thank you, Suzanne, for joining us here on Leaders on Leadership and for sharing with us those thoughts about SUNY Potsdam. We’re really grateful to have had you and I very much have appreciated hearing your insights and your thoughts about leadership and welcome you to share any parting words with our listeners.

Suzanne Smith:

I guess I would say don’t let fear of failure keep you from trying to lead. Every leader’s going to make mistakes and every leader needs to call on other people to help them figure things out. So, it’s not a weakness, to me it’s the greatest strength that you can show as a leader that you seek support from other people and you allow them to be a part of the decision making process. So, I guess just don’t be afraid of failure. If you think that you might lead, try it out and you might find out that it’s amazing and you might find out you hate it but we’re all leaders in our own way so you don’t have to be running a campus or running an organization or the leader of your club to be a leader. We’re all quiet leaders in some way so just really lean into the way that leadership works for you and use that as a way to make an impact.

Jay Lemons:

I appreciate that. In a way, I heard again a consistent thematic around being authentic, the power of vulnerability, not fearing failure and resilience.

Listeners, we welcome your suggestions and thoughts for leaders we should feature in upcoming segments, you can send those suggestions to leadershippodcast@academicsearch.org. You can find our podcasts wherever you find your podcasts, it’s also available on the Academic Search website. Leaders on Leadership is brought to you by Academic Search and the American Academic Leadership Institute. Together, our mission is to support colleges and universities during times of transition and through leadership development activities that serve current and future generations of leaders in the academy.

Suzanne, it’s just been a great pleasure to have you with us, thank you again for joining.

Suzanne Smith:

Yeah, it’s been my pleasure. Thanks.