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I’ll never forget the moment that changed how I think about leadership. It happened during my tenure as president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, when I learned that one of our longtime supporters, a commercial real estate developer named Irwin, was nearing the end of his life and despairing that his contributions no longer mattered.
We brought him to campus to show him otherwise.
He arrived in a wheelchair, accompanied by his wife and driver and we took him around to revisit the many places shaped by his generosity. As we passed each building, program and project he helped make possible, he grew emotional. He didn’t need fanfare. He simply needed to see that his work had left a lasting impression.
At the end of our visit, I told him something that came to me at that moment: “If we have seen further as a university, it’s because we’ve been standing on the shoulders of giants like you.” I hope that assurance allowed him to rest easier in his final days. It taught me a truth I’ve carried ever since: leadership should be about securing the legacies of those around you.
That realization transformed the way I lead. It deepened how I listen. And it expanded my impact far beyond what I could have accomplished by focusing on my own accomplishments.
When you build others’ impact, you amplify your own
Once I adopted a people-first mindset, something unexpected happened: I became far more effective.
During my time as dean at Washington State University, the business school was on the verge of losing its accreditation. I didn’t have all the answers, so instead of trying to devise the solution myself, I opened the accreditation documents to everyone—faculty, staff, and alumni—and asked for help.
Together, we pulled off a turnaround no single person could have achieved. Research consistently shows that leadership styles rooted in empowerment and collaboration elevate organizational performance as a whole. The collective ownership accelerated the work and built momentum I never could have generated from the top down.
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