Interview Story - Time You Failed

To stem the growing student attrition rate, our new college president issued a challenge to all department heads and coordinators: meet all deadlines for student progress reports and data reporting. We were reminded that “the buck stops with you!” I was a new department head, eager to please and make my mark.

I saw this as my opportunity to stamp my authority on the department.

I’ve always been committed to meeting deadlines and this was no different, or so I thought.

I was managing the largest department and we had several programs on the college’s two campuses. For three weeks I worked long hours each day and every weekend to sign off on progress reports and complete department data. This work was in addition to teaching classes and supervising students on internship. It was rough but I was determined to meet deadlines, and I did it with little assistance from senior staff.

Unfortunately, in my rush to meet deadlines I made a huge mistake: I had posted the wrong set of course grades and made errors on progress reports for the satellite campus. What’s worse, I didn’t discover the error until I got reports of student unrest and protests on that campus. It was embarrassing and hard work correcting those errors. But I now had the support of my senior staff. They were there all along, ready to help me but I had not allowed them to assist.

That negative experience taught me the value of teamwork and delegating responsibility. This lesson has served me well throughout my professional life.