Tenets of Classical Leadership

A Dean should be able to make decisions in their respective college within reason. What is within reason, (?) administrative decisions regarding instructor performance, guidance with curriculum and assessment, student\instructor conflicts, etc. Although a Dean is an administrative position and represents the best interests of the school (should represent the best interests of the school) he/she should be an advocate of the staff. At times this could be difficult when instructors and leadership do not see eye to eye. Our college (as many I am sure) is encountering a budget crunch. I am presently a PRN employee and instruct while students are in their didactic portion of their program. The full time instructor would like me to be their while the students are in their clinical but the budget does not allow for this to happen (at this point, crossing my fingers that things will change). Our Dean would love to say yes and have me here more, but she has a responsibility to the school to be fiscally responsible.


A great level of “expertise” is required to be a successful leader. In our situation experience in health care is a must and educational leadership is a bonus. Our nursing program is much larger than our allied health programs and much of our leadership has a background in nursing. Our Deans is a trained RN but she also has experience in Sonography. What makes our department successful is that although she has expertise in health care she relies on her instructors to provide insight and “information” on various topics to be certain she is making informed decisions. By her involving the staff in decision-making it really helps with bringing us all together as a team.