Employee Engagement

Office of the President
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5202 USA
(269) 387-2351

Senior Leadership Feedback

During the Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 planning sessions, participants engaged in table-top exercises prompted by the theme "Help Define Success" in three focus areas—senior leadership, communication and collaboration. Below is a summation of responses under senior leadership.

Theme 1: Visibility

  • Attend events on campus and in the Kalamazoo community
  • Attend department/college/division meetings impromptu
  • Be accessible to faculty, staff and students
  • More frequent town hall style meetings
  • Engage on campus and in the greater community
  • Make WMU visible
  • Cabinet should be identifiable by campus

Theme 2: Clarity

  • Clear vision for the University
  • Decision-making process should be transparent
  • Share President’s expectations of Vice Presidents
  • Evidence of cohesion among cabinet
  • Shared vision by all
  • Decisive/address issues head on

Theme 3: Trust

  • Be willing to use employees' ideas—empower thoughts and actions
  • Authenticity
  • Demonstrate ethical behavior
  • Commitment to WMU—students and institution before divisions/departments
  • Cabinet must trust each other, faculty and staff
  • Create atmosphere of appreciation
  • Honesty
  • Reliable
  • Dependable
  • Feeling of safety and security—bullying

Theme 4: Communication

  • Frequent
  • Consistent
  • Honest
  • Active listening
  • Open
  • Share positive and negative

Theme 5: Fiscal Responsibility

  • Strategic budget cuts
  • Create new revenue streams
  • Limit budget cuts
  • Responsible management of resources
  • Reduce deficits/debt
  • Merit based raises
  • Stabilize/increase enrollments

Theme 6: Inclusivity

  • Leverage expertise of staff and faculty
  • Diversity within in leadership
  • Staff participate in system changes and processes
  • Partner with faculty on major initiatives
  • Engage more of campus in planning
  • Shared governance bi-directional
  • Eliminate “The Western Way”—remove silos
  • Promote collaboration

Theme 7: Stability

  • Less turnover in leadership
  • Follow through on ideas
  • Less reactive responses

Theme 8: Strategic

  • Use data to make decisions
  • Smart goals
  • Use survey results to determine next steps
  • Prioritize initiatives
  • Connect decisions with goals—communicate progress towards achieving goals
  • Students First

Theme 9: Accountability

  • Remove or remediate poor performance
  • Promotion based on skill and achievement not legacy
  • 360-degree feedback
  • Acknowledgement of staff/faculty achievement across the board
  • Cabinet/Senior leaders role models actions—“Walk the Talk”
  • Job opportunities