Michael Sorrell serves as president of Paul Quinn College in Dallas, a post he has held since 2007. During his tenure, the Oberlin College graduate has led the historically black college from near extinction to a campus that is seen as one reshaping college education. His leadership prompted Fortune in 2018 to name him as one of the world's top 50 great leaders.
In this Listening to Leaders conversation, Sorrell explains the importance of vision and values in effective leadership. That includes in his own school's work, where a premium is placed on servant leadership.
How do you define great leadership?
Great leadership is the ability to speak to the needs of the people you lead in a way that demonstrates character, compassion, vision, discipline, toughness, vulnerability, and love. If these qualities seem to contradict each other, it is because they represent the tensions that exist within all leaders at any given time. Quality leaders, those who might be considered “great,” are those who are able to balance these demands.
How did you create priorities as you went about redirecting Paul Quinn? You once said "We just blew it up and rebuilt it."
I thought that the first place we should start was improving the finances and economic model of the institution. If our foundation was flawed, meaning the economic model, our transformation would not have been sustainable. Now that we have fixed the economic model, we have turned our attention to improving academics and we are attacking that area with a missionary's zeal.
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