Brandon W. Jones

The article about the dean’s disease is very powerful. As the article pointed out there is a big problem when people let their power go to their head. Power and authority are good when used properly, but when it goes to a leader’s head it is very destructive. One very important aspect of the article about the dean’s disease was that it not only identified the symptoms of the disease, it also gave a checklist to do a self-check of dean’s disease.

There are two things that good leaders must do regularly. They must do a self-evaluation on their performance as a leader, and they must make changes once they recognize problems.

In order for excellence and success to be obtained, change needs to continually occur. There are always ways to be better. In a way, success is the hardest challenge to overcome. Once someone is successful, they think that their methods are the best even when they aren’t treating people with the respect they deserve. The article gave eight different aspects that a leader can review to find out if they are being effective. Everyone should review them.

Once the self-evaluation has been completed, one must make to necessary changes to improve. Improvement can be very difficult and sometimes even painful, but it is always worth it. In order to make an effective change that is long term, one must set out a plan of action. With that plan, they must follow through to see that it happens. Just as change plans are common in the business world on a company level, they must be instituted on an individual level to avoid the pitfalls of the dean’s disease.