At the Texas Tech University System, our focus is different. Yes, we are a system of five higher education universities, but in addition to our focus on top-tier education, we strive for something more. Our aim is to create someone different—students, staff, faculty and leaders who live and lead through their values.
In 2018, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center engaged in a shared values summit in order to identify shared core values that the university could rally around when bringing its strategic vision to life—transform health care through innovation and collaboration.
From this experience—which brought students, community members, faculty, staff and leadership together—five core values were identified to lead the university forward: One Team, Kindhearted, Integrity, Visionary and Beyond Service. Each of these values was given a definition and guiding behaviors that provided perspective to all students, staff, faculty and leadership.
Since this initial summit, each of our universities engaged in a shared values journey that has hosted a summit that brings together students, community members, staff, faculty and leadership. These perspectives are all essential when identifying values that create alignment toward a strategic vision set by each university.
Once the five universities determined their shared core values, the Office of Leader and Culture Development at TTUS sought to identify how we could create enterprise alignment in our actions. The Life-Long Leader Compass was created in response to this challenge. The Compass is designed to provide foundational competencies that support each university’s values and guide how the next generation of leaders are developed across the system.
Each compass point is intended to provide autonomy and clarity in what we feel is needed when developing the next generation of leaders.
Compass points:
- Values: Our true north. Since 2018, universities across TTUS have engaged in shared values summits. These summits include students, faculty, staff, leaders and community members where discussion and collaboration are the focus. Identifying values that identify who the university is and who the university aspires to be. From these values, definitions are created to demonstrate shared understanding and guiding behaviors are developed to provide examples of how the values can be operationalized.
- Character: A pattern of behaviors and decisions in a person’s life that are influenced by the virtues they have developed. A systemwide focus on moral, intellectual, civic and performance virtues leads to phronesis which is our desired end state.
- Ethics: The application of the moral principles of our character to the daily decisions we make in our lives.
- Self-development: Considering the four dimensions of self-renewal—mental, social/emotional, spiritual and physical—students, staff and faculty are guided through self-development plans to support their well-being and growth.
- Management: Leveraging thought leaders Warren Bennis and Peter Drucker, management is taught through a dual lens: All leaders are managers, but not all managers make good leaders, and all managers are good leaders, but not all leaders are good managers, a journey to understanding the role and value of both leader and manager is explored to better understand how we can influence those around us.
- Decision-making: This is a learned competence. We can learn to make good decisions from others—trusted mentors, friends or colleagues. We can learn through our own experiences of successes and failures. We can also learn the process of decision-making. This competency aims to develop all team members to be effective decision-makers regardless of their role.
- Communication: This is one of the most commonly known development areas for leaders and teams, yet it is the most difficult to align. Development in communication focuses on breaking down silos and increasing collaboration through meaningful communication at all levels of a university.
- Organizational acumen: Effective individuals master their required competencies, build strong relationships and get results in their part of the organization. For many, the pace of our daily work causes us to keep our heads down, focus on the tasks in front of us and work closely with those in our own silos. This competency aims to develop an awareness of the functional components of each university to broaden perspectives on the decisions we make every day.
These compass points serve as a guide for each university. Each president has their own President’s Academy for Life-Long Leaders. The compass is the core of each president’s academy and programs developed at each university allow for university members to have a say in how they interpret and apply each of the compass points.
When building the content for each of the programs, we leverage thought leaders from the military, business, and other fields where insights and perspectives can be incorporated to expand how we approach the challenges faced.
To support each university’s President’s Academy for Life-Long Leaders, the Office of Leader and Culture Development provides additional development to all students, staff and faculty through:
- Values summits: Students, faculty, staff, leaders and community members come together to discuss their personal values and identify those values where they can align. The results are a list of shared values that identify the desired values of the university. From these values, definitions are created to demonstrate shared understanding and guiding behaviors are developed to provide examples of how the values can be operationalized.
- Leadership development programs:
- Our shared values Initiative: A virtual program for all to identify how to operationalize each of the shared values for the university.
- Leader Foundations: A development program for members who desire to learn more about what it means to be a leader.
- Emerging Leaders: A development program for those who are newly promoted into a leadership role. This program focuses on team development, team effectiveness, employee well-being and managing dynamics of leadership.
- Next-Level Leaders: A program focused on self-awareness. Taught through Socratic means, this program is built for experienced leaders seeking to move into higher levels of leadership within their university.
- One Team Fellows: Our flagship program, this program aims to build “bench strength” for the next generation of executive leaders. Participants engage in experiential learning activities, university projects, and mentorship to begin developing their skills around leading in their area of performance.
- Webinars: Every month, six to eight webinars are delivered around the latest trends in leader and organizational development.
- Podcast: The “Creating Us” podcast aims to provide perspective from industry experts and university executive leaders. This podcast is another avenue to growing perspective and building collaboration across our system.
- Executive and professional coaching: To support continuous learning, executive and senior leaders are supported through coaching. Internal and external collaborators are provided to ensure leaders have the support they need to remain innovative and flexible in our ever-changing environment.
In addition to the leader and culture development initiatives, our office partners with the human resources function at each university to develop values-based hiring processes to ensure values are being leveraged in the recruitment and onboarding processes.
Shared values are also an integral part of the evaluation and employee review process. Team members self-assess their performance around their role and values expectations and leaders are encouraged to meet or check in with employees on their performance and development quarterly.
Policy enhancement is another collaborative effort to ensure our values guide the development and application of our university policies. When shared values are developed at the summit, they are not intended to be “just placed on a wall.” We strive to incorporate our shared values into every facet of the university.
At the Texas Tech University System, we are focused on education, yes. But, our drive is more than that. According to our chancellor, Dr. Tedd Mitchell, we are not only in the business of education—but we are in the people development business. We understand our greatest impact is made through the students who graduate from our universities.
As Jim Collins says in “Leadership Reckoning”: “What if students graduated with the perspective that the point of their education is not just to gain knowledge and a degree but to become a certain kind of person. Highly proficient in some domain, yes, but more than that. The kind of person who sees clearly what must be done and does not wait for permission from authority or peer-group approval to act. The kind of person who sees everything through the prism of core values and who strives to live up to those values in every aspect of work and life. The kind of person who never sees other people as merely an expedient means to one’s own career success and who earns the trust and love of those they lead. The kind of person who, by virtue of personal humility and indomitable will in service to a cause larger than oneself, inspires others to help in achievement of Big Hairy Audacious Goals that stimulate progress.”
It is this different kind of person who motivates our efforts. While we may never know the true impact of our actions, we are driven by the belief that we have a responsibility to develop students, staff and faculty that positively impact the world.
