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How Crises Make Us Lead (and Feel)

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How Crises Make Us Lead (and Feel)

Inside Higher Ed,

5 min read
3 take-aways
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Different types of crises demand different leadership skills.

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Scott Cowen, president emeritus of Tulane University, recalls two crises he handled as a leader in higher education: Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans in 2005 and the pandemic’s impact on Case Western University in 2020. He notes their differences: Administrators at Tulane felt isolated by the hurricane, but Case Western’s leaders felt like part of something bigger than their school that affected the entire nation. In this essay for Inside Higher Ed, Cowen explains that different crises require different leadership styles. He points out how he had to learn to adapt, choosing to be top-down at Tulane after Katrina but more “emotionally transparent” at Case Western during Covid. 

Summary

Managing different crises demands different leadership skills.

Scott Cowen, then president of Tulane University, did not know that the university would be forced to close for six months after Hurricane Katrina hit in September 2005. He had to communicate the “unfathomable” scale of the disaster and, even after the rest of the nation moved on, Cowen had to assure students, parents, faculty and the public that Tulane would recover. As president, he had to demonstrate authority, and he found that he made mostly top-down decisions, because he had no time to waste. If Cowen hesitated, he knew rival schools would leave Tulane behind and the university might never regain its pre-Katrina standing.

Covid-19, in contrast, presented a far more fluid situation, with no predictable ...

About the Author

Scott Cowen is President Emeritus and Distinguished University Chair at Tulane University, where he was president from 1998 to 2014. In 2020 and 2021, he served as interim president of Case Western Reserve University where he is now the Distinguished Presidential Visiting Professor of Leadership and Management.

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