Willard Community,
If you missed last week’s amazing conversation between Dr. President Cotton and his Terwilliger College counterpart, and sometime rival, Dr. Degrafeuse, keep reading because we have excerpted some of the evening highlights!
Dr. Degrafeuse: Talk to us about your Leadership Principles?
Dr. Cotton: What an interesting question! Leadership requires confidence. Leadership means knowing when to not ask questions. Curiosity and questions are signs of weakness. If you are at the front, you can’t worry about everyone behind you. You move forward. You don’t look backwards.
Dr. Degrafeuse: What a wonderful answer to my interesting question! How do you know when your leadership is working?
Dr. Cotton: When I’m leading, my leadership is working. When I’m not leading, my leadership is failing.
Dr. Degrafeuse: Some people look at your life style, the houses in Vail and Florida, the expensive cars, and they wonder how a college president can be so well compensated. What do you say the critics?
Dr. Cotton: I’m reminded of a wonderful question: what is a crown to the clouds? Meaning, you have everything in this world to be successful. You don’t needs watches, or jewelry, or fancy clothes. You don’t need frivolous affirmations. Everything beneath the sun is yours to use. Again, what is a crown to the clouds?
Dr. Degrafeuse: What a great question. What is a crown to a cloud? Much has been made about the decline of the Humanities in American colleges. Your thoughts?
Dr. Cotton: We are all humans. And we all have Humanity. I don’t see less Humanity at Willard College. What about Terwilliger College?
Dr. Degrafeuse: Gosh, people seem great on our campus. It bothers me that the folks in History or English seem to claim all the Humanities. That seems, well, wrong. Henry, how do you set priorities?
Dr. Cotton: I start by setting boundaries. Boundaries first. Then Priorities. And my first priority for Willard College is to lead authentically. My authenticity is where it all starts. And if someone questions by authenticity, we have a problem. A crisis. If you can’t trust me, trust me blindly, what are we even doing? That is what I tell my team. Every. Day.
Willard College 
Such an inspiring leadership narrative conversation so completely aligned with “Be Differently”! I look forward to to an annual commemorative piece on this date for years to come.
Be Differently is still very much an active campaign to build Willard-awareness.
“When I’m not working…”. My leadership style aligns so well with theirs. I persist and have grit, and then I turn to trusted teams when I get stuck, and I contribute to a collaborative environment of belonging. All synergistic!