IDSL 830 Dr.

Sandy Shugart Reflections

Post:
Wilkerson-Johnson, V., Reflections on Dr. Sandy Shugart
Author:

Veronica Wilkerson-Johnson
Posted Date:
February 20, 2015
Status:
Published

I admired the interview by Dr. Sandy Shugart. I was

reminded that I also enjoyed reading his book Leadership in
the Crucible of Work last year during another course. He is a
talented, well spoken and a sage leader. He has solid ideas
about change theory and change management, and he has
done much in the mastery of both. Valencia College in
Orlando, Florida, where he has served as President for the
last 14 years, is a winner of the Aspen Award, serving and
graduating a high number of students every year, exceeding
the national community college completion rate average. Dr.
Shugart has clearly led his college and stakeholders to a new
plateau of success. This attainment will continue at the
college beyond his time there, for now it is a part of their
brand, their culture and is proudly who they are. Like many
of our colleges, Valencia began as a training academy for the
manufacturing job pipeline. It took real patience and staying
power to change their culture to a student success based
approach.
Like some of the other leaders we have reflected upon in this
course, Dr. Shugart indicated that he did not first seek to
become a college leader, but that certain opportunities
presented themselves, and he said yes.

He is a good storyteller. In fact, this is another of has creative

talents, along with his love of music and poetry writing and
publishing. Dr. Shugart related that our creative sides, our
talents, and the ways in which we express them, are an
important part of our success. He said that we should take
the gifts that we have and make them work for all of the parts
of our lives. We will be more whole if all those gifts are
working in us as one fabric. He said that there is synergy in
that approach, and it will help us to be whole, not living in
roles and silos.
In his book Dr. Shugart referenced the "crucible ", or the
difficult experiences people face in life, as the process that
"consumes the dross of self" so that the servant leader in us
can emerge. He also wisely said that "we are all in this
together", which I took to mean that we must empathetically
work together in an organization, not adopt the common but
fatal us/them mentality. He said that we must also get to
know ourselves well, our strengths, good traits and bad, ego,
hubris and blind spots, so that we can grow as people and
hone ourselves as leaders. His words and his approach can
help us "find our inward journey to become outwardly
successful, authentic leaders"! Dr. Shugart reminds us that
difficulties and setbacks can fuel our transformation if we
remain diligent, and avoid developing a sense of entitlement
in settings where executive and political power rein. He said
that he realized that the jaded "jerks" he encountered early in
his career were once idealistic young leaders, just like him,
and that somehow along the way the pressures of life
changed them into these people he never wanted to be. He
then realized how easily he could suffer the same fate if he
did not choose a more deliberate path to be an enlightened
leader, poet and music writer.

Of change models, such as Lewin's "unfreeze, transition,

refreeze" approach, Dr. Shugart said that they are "warmed
over Soviet plans", and that the real theory of change is one
in which first we change the conversation, then we change
who's in the conversation, and then we change everything. I
also liked that he said, of the theory of cultural change, that
when we start right and design good systems around an
adopted institutional theory of change, that if the outcomes
are not what we hoped for, we keep the theory and try a
different approach to see what will support and help it work
better. We do not discard the theory and seek a new one.
This approach takes time and patience, but obviously
Valencia College is an excellent example that it works!

References:
Shugart, Sandy, PhD. Leadership in the Crucible of Work.
Maitland, Florida: Florida Hospital, 2013.