I recently went one on one with Dr. Benjamin Akande, the President of Champlain College. Benjamin has served as a director of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a $5 billion publicly traded manufacturer of high-quality private food labels, including Post, and has consulted for Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Voith, SeaWorld, and many other companies.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

Benjamin: I am a proud Nigerian-American citizen who came to the United States to attend college at age 17, just as my parents had. I have had the distinct honor of being a global consultant to Fortune 500 companies and higher education institutions in the areas of strategy, leadership development, corporate responsibility, and market positioning. Over the years I have served as a director of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a $5 billion publicly traded manufacturer of high-quality private food labels, and consulted for Anheuser-Busch, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Voith, SeaWorld, and many other corporations. 

Inspiring and mentoring others--students and colleagues, as well as other leaders--with the goal of transforming organizations and the people connected to them, is my most important work. With the experience to recognize when to take calculated risks and the confidence to make tough business decisions, I truly believe the future belongs to those who can see it. Helping others to see those opportunities and seize them, particularly in times of crisis, is the role of a transformational leader, and a role I am honored to hold today at Champlain College. 

Adam: Your team just released a survey highlighting several findings regarding COVID and its impact on American adults and their overall feelings of optimism regarding higher education and their careers during this time. What were your key takeaways?

Benjamin: The survey revealed that 66% of Americans feel positive when they think about their future, even amidst the uncertainty of COVID-19 and the 2020 election season. At the same time, this positivity is translating into action, with two out of three respondents taking steps to improve their career prospects. The survey also revealed that top actions adults have taken to improve their career prospects included updating their resumes (38%), reaching out for career help (37%), developing new skills through free training (36%), and exploring a career change (35%). These insights prove that, often, alongside looking for continued education, adults are looking for areas to improve and develop. WIth this insight, colleges and universities can provide adult learners with career resources and support them in meeting their professional growth goals, including partnering with outside experts.

Adam: What can employers do during this time to ensure they are fostering growth and supporting employees who are working to advance their career prospects?

Benjamin: Employers have always had an obligation to energize their employees: to encourage them, to seek different avenues for reskilling. COVID hasn’t changed this concept broadly, but it has disrupted age-old systems and has forced institutions to examine their approaches to work, engagement, collaboration, morale, and development. 

Investing in employees shouldn’t only be viewed as a benefit to the recipient alone, but also an investment in the institution’s health and bottom line. Champlain College Online has been developing tools for workforce upskilling in high-demand industries for years, partnering with corporations to understand their workforce skill gaps and needs. Through our truED Learning at Work model, we’ve found ways to provide customizable, scalable, and data-driven solutions to workforce challenges. Time and again we see our corporate partnerships and collaborations pay off and we believe it’s because these relationships are centered around listening, collaboration, partnership, trust, and iteration. We see our truED partnerships as a way to improve the future of work for our adult students so anything we can do to invest in that success is worthwhile to us.

Adam: What do you believe the future of higher education will look like post COVID-19?

Benjamin: Institutions willing to think differently, revisit their market positioning, explore new markets, and redefine who they are and how they lead will come out of the COVID-19 crisis stronger than ever. Places like Champlain College–which has reinvented itself time and again since its founding in 1878–will make the bold pivots necessary to weather this storm and some others won’t. Champlain is not in the business of standing idly by relying on old habits and approaches, but is instead focused on rapid change, creativity, growth and future-proofing our mission. We’re doing this by building new classroom technologies with the ability to compete with the likes of Zoom, developing Gap Year programs for college credit, and doubling down on our investment in online education for adult learners who time and again prove that they are resilient and driven in the face of great challenges. As our recent survey highlighted, adults are not only optimistic about the future, but are also willing to take the necessary steps to remain career competitive, build their skills, and focus on what’s next. 

Adam: What are your best tips for leaders and entrepreneurs in the worlds of education and higher education?
Benjamin:

• Never sit it out on the sidelines. Take every opportunity you are given to increase your relevance in the marketplace.

• Strategy conversations should never be solely focused on what you are going to start doing, but also what you need to stop doing. 

• Don’t focus on what is being lost, but instead on the potential of what’s to come. 

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level?

Benjamin: Great leaders bring all of the perspectives to the table–those who can define and articulate why the status quo works and shouldn’t be changed, the change masters who are always chasing the next big thing, and the soldiers who want to fall in line and be told what to do. All of these constituents should be heard and then must be engaged with differently. 

Great leaders know how to customize these engagements to transform teams, inspire others, and improve an institution’s trajectory. As leaders are being judged at every turn right now, their ability to build the potential of their human capital will define this pivot moment in time. Crises drive emotion, passion, and uncertainty, and leaders can intentionally choose to perpetuate or manage these.

Adam: What are your three (3) best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders?
Benjamin:

• Look at failure as real time feedback, not defeat. Find ways to adjust and recognize the lessons you are learning along the way.

• Never stop looking around the corner and asking yourself–as well as the smartest people around you–what’s next?

• Listen more and talk less. Sometimes the greatest ideas come when we choose not to finish someone else’s sentence. 

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading and managing teams while maintaining employees' optimism and productivity?

Benjamin: There is a tendency in times like these to focus on morale and not draw connections to optimism and employee engagement. Good morale is the direct result of positively engaged and deeply connected people. We must have the hard and honest conversations while also painting a vivid picture of the reality we hope for so employees can see themselves in it. 

Be precise about strategy and goals–employees want to know what big and small contributions they can make for the greater good. Celebrate those big and small moments even if they feel like tiny steps. A lot of small steps add up quickly and motivate people along the way. And don’t be afraid to add a lot of color to your painting so everyone can imagine the good opportunities that await if the effort is collective and additive. This is an equal opportunity crisis, so no institution will be spared. It’s how we lead through it that will make or break us. 

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

Benjamin: My father always told me to learn from other people's mistakes because I can’t live long enough to make them all myself.