Excellence to Eminence
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What Success Looks Like
Ensuring success: Executive coaches keep OSU’s leaders on top of their game
Excellence, Leadership
On his first day on the job after becoming dean and director of Ohio State Mansfield nine months ago, Steve Gavazzi was handed a book titled The First 90 Days, a not-so-subtle hint that leaders at Ohio State are expected to the hit the ground running.
Every new OSU senior leader - deans, vice presidents, senior vice presidents, vice provosts and other people in key roles at the university - receives the same book written by Michael Watkins.
But the book is merely a tool to give senior leaders the opportunity to succeed - a highly desirable outcome given the time, money and resources Ohio State has spent on national searches for these leaders or on training them from within the university.
The other critical tool is a transition coach assigned to each new senior leader for his or her first year. The coaches come from the ranks of three Ohio State employees who run the program or are external ones who have worked or taught in higher education. Read more
If you have a story about faculty and staff making a difference, send it to francis.57@osu.edu.
Read more examples of What Success Looks Like in the story archive.
External Coverage:
- Jobs at Ohio State come with great perks, WBNS 10TV, July 8, 2010
- OSU Athletic Director Gene Smith Strives to Develop the Total Student-Athlete, Outlook Columbus, March 2010 - Reprinted with permission
- Everybody is Important: Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel, Outlook Columbus, March 2010 - Reprinted with permission
- City, OSU agree on East Side program, The Columbus Dispatch, February 23, 2010
Taking Action
Tom McGinnis
Assistant Athletics Director
Department of Athletics
What did you do?
We knew it would take awhile to get everyone in Athletics through an unfreezing retreat. To reinforce the concepts with those who have attended, and introduce them to staff who haven’t attended, we’re conducting a series of education sessions around the tools and mindsets that will have the most value in our area.
What changes have you noticed?
This has helped us speed up the process of shifting to a high performing environment and work to improve our culture. Everyone in Athletics is gaining a baseline around these concepts, and we’re able to think and operate with the same mindsets.
