Learning to Walk Our Talk

Sometimes it takes a caring confronting colleague to help walk your talk. And sometimes leadership is about accountability and transparency with your peers.

Here’s a story from my faculty years, when I was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.:

“You don’t have a choice, Roger. You teach this stuff. Either you write the letter or stop teaching.” My colleague Kurt was responding to my request for help by reminding me that I had an obligation to fulfill and some talk to walk.

The letter was the one I was thinking about sending to the search committee, evaluating three of my faculty colleagues. They were the three finalists for the Director position at the University Institute in which I was a professor. I wanted one finalist to be the director, I was ambivalent about the second, and the third I had serious concerns about. My problem – as I framed it – was that I was an assistant professor (read untenured). The search committee responsible for recommending the final candidate wanted the input of the Institute faculty, but it would only accept signed email – no anonymous comments. I was concerned that if I evaluated the three candidates honestly, I might not get tenure if candidate three got the position and found out what I had written about him.

Having been appropriately rebuked and energized by Kurt, I sent my letter to the search committee, describing each of the candidate’s behaviors, the inferences I made about their leadership abilities, and my final recommendation. Then I realized I had another obligation to fulfill. I started another email, which went something like this:

“Dear Candidates: Attached is a letter I just sent to the search committee evaluating each of your candidacies for the Director position. Given that you are my colleagues and I am evaluating you, I believe I should share this information with you. I owe you this. My only request is that if you have questions or concerns about what I’ve written that you talk with me directly. Thanks.” I pressed send.

A few minutes later there was a knock on my door. “I read your email. I’d like to talk.”

Kurt gave me a gift that day – one that I reopen every day to ask myself if I’m walking my talk.

Originally published February 2009