Sunday, March 26, 2023
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Samford Crimson
weather forecast
  • News
  • Sports
  • Arts and Life
  • Opinion
  • COVID-19
    • CDC
    • AL Public Health
    • WHO
    • Samford Updates
  • About
    • Staff
  • News
  • Sports
  • Arts and Life
  • Opinion
  • COVID-19
    • CDC
    • AL Public Health
    • WHO
    • Samford Updates
  • About
    • Staff
No Result
View All Result
The Samford Crimson
No Result
View All Result
Home Arts and Life

President Taylor hosts leadership lunch talk

by Connor Loyd
February 22, 2022
in Arts and Life
0
President Taylor hosts leadership lunch talk

Katy Beth Boyers, The Samford Crimson

0
SHARES
32
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

On Feb. 16, Samford President Beck Taylor hosted a presentation titled “Leading When People are Unhappy.” The presentation was an installment in the ongoing Leadership Lunch Series, a monthly speaking series made up of Samford staff and faculty members who each discuss a topic focusing on leadership through a Christian lens.

Free lunch from Ashley Mac’s and convo credit was provided to students who signed up to attend the event, which was held in the Howard Room in the UC. The talk began at noon and lasted about an hour.

During the lecture, President Taylor discussed his own experiences and difficulties in leadership, focusing on the difficulties faced when those you’re leading are upset or unhappy.

Those specific difficulties in leadership may prove more common now than in years past. Taylor described our present moment as an  “age of discontent,” a time in which people, as a result of the reduced face-to-face accountability brought on by factors like social media and the pandemic, have become much more vocal about their anger and dissatisfaction than they might have been previously.

Taylor cited numerous examples from his own life when people were displeased with his actions and leadership, including a union controversy from his early days at Whitworth University, and the extended news coverage that occurred after he severed ties with Planned Parenthood.

His role in higher education, Taylor explained, involves a variety of diverse constituencies, including everyone from students to staff, parents to policy-makers, and these assortments of alignments, agendas, and opinions don’t always agree with one another. Because of these often-conflicting desires and demands, disappointing people is a foregone conclusion. And deciding who it is that ends up unhappy can be difficult.

“As a leader, you don’t get to make an easy decision,” Taylor lamented.

He explained that if a leader does their job well, only the hard decisions will end up on their desk. The decisions found on said desk won’t be a simple case of good and evil, but a frustrating and difficult choice between competing goods.

While there may not be a way to avoid disappointing someone, Taylor believes there is an antidote which can alleviate some of the ill-will garnered from these tough positions. That antidote is open communication.

If people understand the reasoning behind the choices that were made, they can sometimes understand it, even if they don’t necessarily agree with it.

This openness and honesty, Taylor believes, is especially important when communicating with the current generation, who have learned to maintain a healthy skepticism of institutions in a way his generation hadn’t. Over the years, accessibility and transparency have become necessities for gaining and maintaining trust.

Taylor wrapped up his lecture by reciting his favorite leadership quote, spoken by Teddy Roosevelt during his 1910 “Man in the Arena” speech, which expressed how it is “not the critic who counts” but “the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,” and how, though some failure may inevitable, “if he fails, [he] at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Connor Loyd

Arts & Life Editor

Tags: Beck TaylorChristian leadershipleadershipLeadership Lunch SeriesLeading When People are UnhappylecturePresident Taylor
Next Post
LSO celebrates Valentine’s Day with Frida Kahlo event

LSO celebrates Valentine's Day with Frida Kahlo event

Recommended

Samford Student Athletes: Injury Prevention and Recovery

4 months ago
‘Ella Enchanted’s’ Prince Char talks play, acting

‘Ella Enchanted’s’ Prince Char talks play, acting

3 years ago

Popular News

    The Samford Crimson

    © 2019 The Samford Crimson

    Navigate Site

    • News
    • Sports
    • Arts and Life
    • Opinion
    • COVID-19
    • About

    Follow Us

    No Result
    View All Result
    • News
    • Sports
    • Arts and Life
    • Opinion
    • COVID-19
      • CDC
      • AL Public Health
      • WHO
      • Samford Updates
    • About
      • Staff

    © 2019 The Samford Crimson

    Welcome Back!

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password?

    Create New Account!

    Fill the forms bellow to register

    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In