The Art of Diplomacy

Diplomat—”someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you begin to look forward to the trip.” Well, dean colleague, how good of a diplomat are you? The best deans I know have honed their diplomatic skills to a fine art. Let’s talk about diplomacy as one of those essential ingredients in a dean’s arsenal of human relations skills. After all, we academic leaders are in the people business, working with highly intelligent faculty, serving in loosely coupled organizational systems, and succeeding not so much by institutionalized authority as by our ability to persuade.