Learning Leadership Blog Highlights Ritch's Book & His Tribute to Carol Tomlinson-Keasey

The Learning Leadership Blog by Christopher Scott kindly described my book, Real Leaders Don't Boss, and posted my recent article about the late Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, the founding chancellor of the University of California, Merced.  I had the privilege of working with her while serving on the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees.

I call it "Real Leaders As Trailblazers" and this marvelously gifted female leader was that and then some. I hope you enjoy the article as we need more leaders like Carol T-K.

Real Leaders As Trailblazers

Circumstances beyond our control sometimes require leaders to be trailblazers. I had a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to work with one such person who easily could have been the CEO of a major Fortune 500 company, the commodore of a flotilla of ships or a university chancellor. Fortunately for the students at the University of California, Carol Tomlinson-Keasey chose the last one.

As I suggest in my just-released book, Real Leaders Don’t Boss (Career Press, 2012), when you’re in charge you must be willing and able to assume a role much like that of a quarterback by calling the signals, initiating the plays and being able to execute while continuously earning the trust and respect of your fellow players. But as any quarterback worth his salt will tell you, it takes a full team effort of fiercely determined players to win and to keep winning. Tomlinson-Keasey was an inspiring, vibrant and easily approached strategic leader-- a woman of indomitable spirit and personal strength to whom people naturally gravitated. She was, for a time all too brief, our quarterback.

Her initial team was comprised of only a handful of faculty and staff but augmented by growing numbers of volunteers, all of whom were fully engaged and completely dedicated to helping her attain the goal. She was willing to tackle challenges no matter how daunting or how many obstacles lay in her path. And, the roadblocks she had to confront were numerous (including a very personal one of battling breast cancer diagnosed during her second year as chancellor). At the same time, she also realized that one of her major responsibilities was “to mentor” so that her team would continue to grow professionally at each step along the way.

The herculean task handed her in 1998 was to plan, secure funding for and later open a new campus, the University of California at Merced, in the middle of California’s rich agricultural and culturally diverse San Joaquin Valley. With higher poverty levels, lower education levels, worsening air pollution and an increasing medically underserved population more problematic than other parts of California, a new campus was needed, one that would become a powerful economic engine for the valley and the state. In 2005, it became the 10^th campus in the UC system, the first new research university in the 21^st century and she its founding chancellor and the university’s first female to occupy the top spot at any UC branch.

The fact that the campus was even built is practically a miracle, as it required every bit of her indefatigable spirit, high energy, stamina, unwavering belief in youth and it came at great personal sacrifice. Reluctant state legislators, working with four different gubernatorial administrations, nagging environmental issues and a state budget crisis that delayed the opening of the campus by a year confronted her at practically each step along the way. And so did fierce competition on the part of other UC campuses and the California State University (CSU) system vying for state appropriations and private monies, as well as often-provocative central valley pressure groups, a skeptical media and formidable construction challenges. Her story of perseverance in successfully spearheading the founding of a major research university in a huge underserved part of the country is a tour de force. Where others saw a Merced field with cotton growing or cows grazing, Tomlinson-Keasey envisioned students of immigrants, farm families, and others (often first generation college attendees) becoming tomorrow’s leaders in science, technology, medicine, engineering and the environment.

The great former University of Notre Dame president, Father Theodore Hesburgh, said: “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”

Carol Tomlinson-Keasey’s vision was clear, easily understood, often repeated and withstood the test of time. She was a distinguished psychologist and author, a highly ethical, exceptionally bright and persuasive woman who built effective relationships with all. But, as importantly, she was fun to be with, had an infectious sense of humor, was a humanist, a mother, a spouse and a compassionate leader who made you feel special and valued—no matter who you were, what you did or where you came from.

Those of us who served with Carol T-K (as she was affectionately known) on her staff or, in my case, as a founding trustee on the UC Merced Foundation Board, were privileged to be a part of her team. When she died in 2009 of breast cancer, three years after the opening of the University of California, Merced campus, our country lost a real leader-- a true trailblazer. She may be gone but she is not forgotten.