By Rick Vacek | June 27, 2024
When she interviewed in 2017 for the role of Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Dr. Inga Musselman expressed her determination to create a program that would enable the further development of academic leaders at The University of Texas at Dallas.
She incorporated the idea into her application materials and made it a key plank in her interview. Then, after she was chosen for the position, she set in motion the machinations that would make the program – which she named Lead UTD – a reality.
“I wanted a program to help our institutional leaders be more equipped to serve in their roles at UT Dallas, within the UT System and in the state of Texas,” she said. “It is designed to provide them with operational guidance and exposure to leadership theory and strategies while helping them develop their personal leadership style.
“This is their opportunity to engage in discussions about case studies of administrative challenges that experienced colleagues have confronted in the past. They can participate in sessions on emotional intelligence, leading teams and change management. An added benefit is that it improves collegiality.”
Two years later, she saw it through to the inception of Lead UTD and designated Serenity Rose King MA’06 PhD’19, then Associate Provost for Policy and Program Coordination, as the administrator. The invitation-only program, which was paused for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21, recently completed its fourth year.
It was a comfortable fit for King, now the Associate Vice President for Institutional Success and Decision Support. Her dissertation had been on succession planning and leadership development in Texas public universities, and she hoped to apply those ideas someday at UT Dallas.
She begins each year with a clear message for attendees.
“It’s for them,” she said. “I make a really big deal in the very first session of saying that in these leadership roles you’ve got to balance your students, your faculty, your dean, the provost, maybe the vice president for research, a research group, an industrial advisory board – you’ve got all these stakeholders.
“For those three hours, it’s about the cohort. This is their time to invest in themselves. I try to structure it around things that benefit them as individuals and, in turn, benefit their school and then the University. It’s really about giving them the tools to perform that administrative work well.”
Dr. Anne Gray Fischer, a 2023-24 cohort member, appreciated the way the meetings taught her things she didn’t know and helped her generate more questions she can ask in the future. The feeling it gave her was equally important.
“For me, it was very validating,” said Gray Fischer, an assistant professor who teaches U.S. and women’s gender history in the Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology. “It showed great faith that I do have a role to play at this University beyond my responsibilities of teaching and mentorship. It changed my orientation to the institution. I now see myself as part of a collective with other faculty and colleagues in a way I had not thought about before.”
But it is equally important for administrators, such as Dr. Donal Skinner, dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College and another 2023-24 cohort member.
“I now have scaffolding on which to place knowledge and a better sense of the decision-making processes,” he said. “Without it, I would have gotten the structural side of UTD and how UTD works, but it would have taken me a lot longer. Now it’s easier to get a grip on, ‘This is where it’s coming from. That’s the history behind it.’”
Lead UTD program is about more than leadership development or administrative training.
“It’s a hybrid of those two,” King said.
It’s about more than simply dispensing valuable information about how the University works to a cohort of faculty (usually about 15 to 20) chosen by their supervisors.
“I have some set topics I cover, but it’s also cohort-based,” King said. “I ask in the first meeting: Why did you say yes to this? Why are you here? What are you hoping to get out of this? Who are you hoping to hear from?”
It’s about more than interacting with faculty members from other schools and departments although the importance of that byproduct is not to be discounted.
“Some of what has been lost through the pandemic is these interactions that are more than just one-offs and help you form relationships,” Skinner said. “I think it’s harder to form those relationships now, and not just at UTD. This was really nice for me, getting to know people who don’t easily come into my orbit.”
And it’s about much more than the hot chocolate that quickly became a staple of the monthly meetings after it was suggested by Vy Trang BS’06 MBA’09, Assistant Director of Policy and Program Coordination. But that doesn’t minimize the sweet treat’s allure. “Every cohort loves it,” King said.
Put it all together, and it’s easy to see why Lead UTD already has carved an important niche among its faculty participants. Some of them still meet socially after their cohort year has been fulfilled. The add-on events are informal but informative.
“Our common interest, of course, is UTD and our work, so that’s what we talk about,” said Dr. Dawn Owens, associate dean of undergraduate programs for the Naveen Jindal School of Management and a member of the 2022-23 cohort.
Some of the participants have something else in common: They were promoted after completing the leadership training, which further validates its value. Owens, for example, was a program director before becoming associate dean.
“We’ve changed roles, so we talk about that and continue to learn from each other,” she said.
Clearly, they want even more.
The cohort’s knowledge of the University’s inner workings was most brightly illuminated in a new session for 2023-24: Musselman was joined by nine of the other 10 vice presidents.
“I hope they enjoyed it because the cohort loved it,” King said.
Part of the attendees’ education was simply to discover how many vice presidents the University has. When King asked them in advance to give her a number, many were shocked to learn that Musselman is one of 11 peers.
The simple act of putting them in one room and having them discuss their jobs had far-reaching value.
“We had a chance to understand the roles and responsibilities of the top administration, which helped us understand the context in which we work,” Gray Fischer said.
Dr. Mary Urquhart, department head and associate professor of science and math education in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said the session “was informative and interesting to me and will help me navigate university systems in the future.”
It made those systems more relatable for Gaurav Shekhar MS’16 MS’23 PhD’24 in his new role as senior assistant dean, graduate programs, in the Naveen Jindal School of Management. And then when he looked around the room at his peers, he saw something more.
“Just understanding how different and unique the different roles are in the University and how they come together,” he said. “We might have colleagues in the same roles in different schools, but our jobs might be very different depending on the focus of the school and its students.
“It’s a good understanding of seeing how there are so many varieties in the University and how people come together to make it work.”
With any institutional leadership development program, one additional benefit is dispersing institutional knowledge so that it becomes more systematic rather than collected in individuals.
“Serenity King holds so much institutional knowledge. For me, one of the most valuable components of the Lead UTD sessions was the way she carried that institutional knowledge to us,” Gray Fischer said. “At any institution, institutional knowledge just pools in a single person, and the question is how that will be distributed.
“By building this program, she is seeking to externalize her institutional knowledge and inviting people in to develop their own institutional knowledge. Serenity has a clear vision to seed new leaders on campus and perpetuate more investment and growth at UT Dallas.”
The university-specific information in Lead UTD is balanced by content that explores the latest in leadership research and disciplines.
This year’s group took a multifactor leadership questionnaire as well as PsyCap 24, which measures psychological capital. But the training that every cohort takes is Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership assessment – Critical Thinker, Relator, Visionary, Warrior and Sage. (UT Dallas staff, faculty and students can access Academic Impressions resources via single sign-on with their NetID and password.)
“The one thing that I hear everybody rave about is the Five Paths to Leadership. That was very helpful and insightful,” Owens said. “It’s something I’ve incorporated with my team, looking at how we utilize that to work together and to understand each other better in our day-to-day roles.”
Urquhart found all the training to be really powerful, but particularly Five Paths. “Not just for thinking about how I interact with others,” she said, “but thinking about how my team interacts with others.”
The attendees’ Lead UTD endorsements are as enthusiastic as their participation. Most telling is the fact that it often changed how they do their jobs.
“It gives you some validation about what you’re doing and highlights any areas where you can improve,” said Shekhar, who wants everyone who reports to him to go through it. “People tend to not know what they’re good at. They might have an idea, but you need some validation. These tests are really good to help you with that.
“Leadership is a science. It’s not something you can just passively respond to.”
DR. DONAL SKINNER
“The folks at your table are all very accomplished people. Given the opportunity to hear them talk about something that you might not have thought about, now I go back and speak to my staff, my faculty, my colleagues, my students and my perspective is broader.”
Skinner found value in King’s session about decision-making as a leader, which emphasized being aware of how others act and react.
“Leadership is a science,” he said. “It’s not something you can just passively respond to.”
Urquhart, who has been at UT Dallas since 2002, appreciated her first opportunity to train with people outside her department and learn a lot about how to manage those within her department.
“You’re going to have people coming from different perspectives,” she said. “Of course, they have different personalities. They bring different things to the table. They have different expectations. Managing those expectations is a different part of our job.”
Ultimately, Lead UTD is like an invitation that is not to be passed up. No wonder the cohorts remain cohesive long after the last session.
“Clearly, it is having an impact,” Musselman said.