University of the Virgin Islands President Dr. George outlines her philosophy of leadership, which blends courage, compassion, accountability, and authenticity into a model she believes higher education urgently needs. She explains why disruption is sometimes necessary, how mentoring with empathy creates stronger leaders, and why self-transcendence — the ability to put mission above ego — is central to shaping institutions that can meet today’s challenges.
Yeah, I honestly, I think our country or higher education institutions, our communities, the biggest issue we're facing is a leadership crisis. I think people have good intentions, but I think most people don't know how to lead. Because leadership is portrayed in so many different ways. Telling someone what to do as a kid. When you think of being a leader, you think of, I get to tell you what to do, right?
And so, My style of leadership that I coined is courageous, caring leadership.
It takes courage to do what's right, even if it's less popular, even if, you know, constituents might not feel good to them. But you as a leader, if you know that's the best decision, it takes courage to do that.
And so my biggest thing as a leader is investing in those under my sphere of influence, always mentoring, always giving them, always giving opportunities for progression. Not always. Every day,
And so the other aspect of courage in caring leadership is authentic presence. Right? And so letting your authentic self come through, as a leader, even though I'm president, I don't have to be up in front. I don't always have to have the spotlight on me. I am confident in who I am, and I'm not too proud to get ideas from anyone, to take advice from anyone, or to see anyone as less than.
Because no one is less than. Although there's a hierarchy. I tell people everyone matters. You know, the whole concept is finding out what matters most to people. So what matters most to my members of my leadership team? What matters most? Like I said, students.
And then I don't think in leadership anyone ever talks about self-transcendence. I don't think I've heard it anywhere other than when I just said it here for the first time out loud. And so that concept, if you're not willing to be self transcendent, you shouldn't be a leader, right? Because then that opens you up to be humble and to invite others at the table to lift in to multiple perspectives, not just perspectives from the C-suite, but to dig deep down into and out into an organization and community, you know, to hear the hard truths and to hear solutions from those who we wouldn't normally listen to.
And then to think about the impacts of our decisions on on others. Right. You know, to be compassionate, but also to really focus on accountability. And the other thing is, I think in our world, we have to we have vision.
How we do things, meetings. Meetings are boring. Meetings are boring and a waste of time. They they do need to happen, but we have to re-envision what we do in meetings. Our world loves to talk. Most powerful book ever read was The Power of Quiet in the world. I can't stop talking. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but that's what people do.
We talk, talk, talk, talk. Okay, talking is great. But when do we get to the doing, implementing and being accountable? Talking feels good, but if you don't do anything with it, it's a waste. It's like my grandmother would say you're just blowing bubbles.
And if you're not willing to do that, if you're just coming in to do same old, same old, where is that going to get an organization, where is that going to move the needle forward? You have to be willing to leave a place better than you found it, and not just incrementally better. It has to be substantially better, unrecognizable, better, and whatever that means.
So getting leaders to really dig deep and address their own insecurities, their own shortcomings, embrace those and be willing to, you know, improve on a daily basis and to bring others up with you in that journey.
I think the more leaders we bring alongside us, then the more the work gets done. But also that piece of accountability is is so critical because otherwise it's more of the same
And if you're not willing to do that, if you're just coming in to do same old, same old, where is that going to get an organization, where is that going to move the needle forward? You have to be willing to leave a place better than you found it, and not just incrementally better. It has to be substantially better, unrecognizable, better, and whatever that means.
So getting leaders to really dig deep and address their own insecurities, their own shortcomings, embrace those and be willing to, you know, improve on a daily basis and to bring others up with you in that journey.
I think the more leaders we bring alongside us, then the more the work gets done. But also that piece of accountability is is so critical because otherwise it's more of the same