Dear colleagues,

Dr. Jeffrey Buller’s workshop series on higher education leadership stood out last week. I am pleased with the attendance from our campus community. Dr. Buller introduced fresh perspectives on leadership in higher education, particularly highlighting "Positive Leadership." One excerpt he shared from Kim Cameron's book is as follows:

Positive leadership focuses “on strengths and capabilities and on affirming human potential. Its orientation is toward enabling thriving and flourishing rather than toward addressing obstacles and impediments…Positive leadership does not ignore negative events but builds on them to develop positive outcomes….In sum, positive leadership refers to an emphasis on what elevates individuals and organizations (in addition to what challenges them), what goes right in organizations (in addition to what goes wrong),…what is experienced as good (in addition to what is objectionable), [and] what is extraordinary (in addition to what is merely effective)….

The meetings and discussions we had last week demonstrated relevance of positive leadership: discussions on our administrative values and on our strategic plan progress (both led by President Torres), and Information Technology strategic planning. I see a common thread running through all of these activities: practicing positive leadership, to achieve positive outcomes building on "negative events" and current challenges at hand.

I am pleased with the interest and participation demonstrated by our department heads and administrative leadership in these workshops. This positive response has fueled our enthusiasm to now plan for a comprehensive department head training and workshop in the fall semester.

Also last week, I had the privilege of sharing the podium for a brief moment at the New Mexico 4-H State Conference Awards Ceremony. 4-H stands as a cornerstone program of the New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service in College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at NMSU. For many of these young individuals, 4-H represents their first exposure to our university. My hope is that they will all return to NMSU to pursue their college degrees and become "We" in We are NMSU.

Lakshmi N. Reddi
Interim Provost
New Mexico State University