Learning to Navigate Online Leadership: An Invitation to Collaborate for Group Project Skeptics

Lehman highlights how she learned to navigate a challenge faced by many leaders: the idea that we can “go it alone.” As the leader of Ivy Tech Community College’s IvyOnline School of Arts, Sciences, and Education—a unit offering 35,000 seats each semester to students enrolled in 70 unique courses across Indiana—managing independently wasn’t working. The only non-white individual in leadership meetings, Lehman was hesitant to speak up and ask questions. Learning from the “4DX” (4 Disciplines of Execution) podcast, though, Lehman developed new communication strategies and the ability to be “strategic” with time and energy. She then paused to listen to her team, identifying areas of strength and the ability to develop a shared vision and work strategies.