Smart Leaders
Climbing ahead
How to remain focused on respect and openness
By Meredyth McKenzie
Smart Business Orange County | January 2009
Page 1 of 2
Jim Doti
president, Chapman University
When Jim Doti was climbing Mount Elbrus in Europe several years ago, he
had to stay focused while going
down a narrow ridge. If he lost
his footing, he would have fallen down a steep vertical drop.
Doti must also keep that
same focus as president of
Chapman University, whether
it’s guiding his 1,125 employees to reach the university’s
vision, keeping the lines of
communication open or treating
everyone with respect, and
spreading those values throughout the institution.
“The most important quality
is to be highly ethical and to
have a high character and an
attitude where everyone you
interact with, every individual is
treated with respect and dignity,” says Doti, who oversees the
university’s $230 million operating budget. “If you can do that,
then people will respect you,
and over time ... that particular
attribute will begin to pervade
the entire institution.”
Smart Business spoke with
Doti about how to maintain
your focus on creating a
respectful and open environment.
Treat everyone with respect. You
think about how you would like
to be treated. Let’s say if I have
to let a person go, I put myself
in that situation of that individual. ... What would I want to
hear? How would I want the
senior person with whom I’m
interacting to interact with me
about that situation? And think
about that before you act.
In many cases, leaders don’t
do that. They sometimes think
about what they might want,
what’s most comfortable to
them to say, when they should
be thinking about what is it that
the individual would want to
hear.
You don’t want to just talk
about the negative aspects —
much more important is commending individuals and communicating that openly. If I were
to be commended, I would
think about, what would I want
to hear? If I did something good,
is it just a slap on the back or
what was special about what I
did that is worthy of being recognized?
And that’s what I would want
to communicate to that individual. The key is put yourself in
the role of the other person, and
that’s a part of interaction with
other people and treating people respectfully.
Your workers have a much
better attitude. People are generally good, people try to do a
good job, but they’re not going
to give you their all unless they
feel good about the place, and
they will not feel good if they’re
not being treated well, being
treated with respect and dignity.
It can only move forward if people feel good about the place
Remain open and candid. It’s honesty, but it’s being honest in a
particular way. If you have to be
open about a particular issue
where you need to change an
individual’s action ... you need to
be honest about it, but honest
about it in a respectful way.
There’s a way of being honest
where you don’t dress down a
person, you’re open about the
issue. What people want to hear
then is not, ‘Why did you do
this, how could you do this after
the many years you’ve been
with the organization, don’t you
understand what we’re trying to
do or what we’re seeking to
achieve?’ That’s dressing down
a person.
But by treating that person
respectfully, if you were in that
person’s position, you would
want to know, what is it that I
could do that would put me in
this more positive path?
That’s being candid with the
person in a way that will be
more productive than simply
leading to ill will and a feeling of
frustration, rather than leaving
an office feeling invigorated
about, ‘Hey, I have a better idea
of how I could do a better job at
this place.’
