Leadership in Higher Education

CHAPTER 5Enable Others to Act

CAROLYN BORNE IS PROGRAM DIRECTOR of the Women’s Health Initiative in a well-known medical school at a large state university. Part of a National Institutes of Health project, the Women’s Health Initiative is one of the largest and most ambitious longitudinal studies of postmenopausal women’s health concerns ever undertaken. The study requires careful planning, analytical ability, and meticulous attention to detail.

Because of its sensitive and significant nature, it also requires that the staff members have a high degree of collaboration and trust. But that climate didn’t exist when Carolyn arrived. The emphasis seemed to be on competition and suspicion rather than cooperation and support. Hard as the staff members ...