How Focus Fuels Leadership Success With Harry Williams

Harry Williams:
[0:00] I wanted to be a college president. That was a big, bold, and audacious thing to think of. I put a time on it. I said, in 10 years, I wanna be a college president of an HBCU. True story. And I said, in order for me to do that, I put the five things down that I needed to achieve in that 10 year window.

Jon Clifton:
[0:20] Dr. Harry Williams is a visionary leader whose work as CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund is transforming the landscape for higher education. With a deep commitment to education and equal opportunity, Harry has dedicated his career to expanding access to higher education for underrepresented students, empowering them to achieve their full potential. Under his leadership, TMCF continues to be a powerful force in advocating for the rights and successes of students at HBCUs, creating opportunities that will impact generations to come. I recently sat down with Harry to learn more about how his strengths-driven leadership empowers those around him.

Dr. Williams, thank you for being here with me today talking about your CliftonStrengths.

Harry Williams:
[1:05] Thank you, Jon, for having me.

Jon Clifton:
[1:07] Harry, going from a college president to being CEO of Thurgood Marshall is a massive leadership adjustment. What strengths are you drawing upon when you make that change?

Harry Williams:
[1:19] I had to literally shift my whole way of thinking in terms of coming into this environment because I'd never been in a corporate environment like this. I'd never been a CEO of a major nonprofit, but it was a risk that the leadership decided to move in this direction. Previous leaders were all corporate leaders, but coming in and bringing in a college president, because there's a whole different way of thinking when you're running a university, it's shifting to run an organization that you're going to be solely responsible for the revenue that's coming in. Because if the revenue doesn't come in, people don't work. And that was what the chairman of the board at the time told me. He said, you got to get money coming in this organization. If you don't, we're going to be out of business.

And recognizing the magnitude of that responsibility and aligning my strength, the Responsibility strength, was a key driver for me, along with the confidence from the Self-Assurance strength. Knowing that I had confidence in myself, recognizing that I could do it, was important for me. And my focus and the leadership behind me, meaning that the chairman of the board supporting me when people would come in without my knowledge, pointing out things that I wasn't doing that was consistent with what people in that previous role had done and allowing for me to have some runway to be able to do it. Understanding clearly that the runway was short, wasn't long. I wasn't going to have two years or one year and I wasn't going to have a year. I had a short window to prove that this was the right decision that the board had made. And I was confident that I could do that.

And again, those strengths of Focus, high Achiever. You know, Achiever, this was something that was really big, you know, the taking risks. Again, that played into this and knowing that it was a risk going out here, but being self-assured that you can make this thing work. And also the Learner piece, because, again, as I said, I had to learn a whole different language and understanding what that meant. It was those strengths that really gave me the confidence that I could do it. And it was an amazing transformation for me. And it was the best thing that I could have ever done in terms of leaving that world and coming into this world. I don't want to ever go back to the other world. I like this world a little bit better than the higher education world because it's a different lane, completely different.

Jon Clifton:
[4:10] When you think about your top five, is there a particular strength that you think that's contributed the most to your success as a leader?

Harry Williams:
[4:17] Well, I want to, first of all, say when I took the CliftonStrengths exam and I got my top five, I was blown away because it's been a game changer for me. In particular, I have five strong, but I, you know, the one that I use probably more than anything is Focus. And that was a game changer when I started my new job at Thurgood Marshall College Fund because it required for us to be focused and to drive the organization and move the organization forward. So I have lived by my top five strengths in terms of Achiever, Learner, being the Responsibility one, Self-Assurance, and Focus. But Focus is my number one in my book, even though it didn't get the number one in the top five. Achiever was number one if you look at the top five, but Focus is the one that I've used probably more than anything.

Jon Clifton:
[5:12] When I first said about high-pressure situations, you said that you often rely on your Self-Assurance. Is there an example when you had a high-pressure situation and you used yourself Self-Assurance in it?

Harry Williams:
[5:24] Well, you know, when I was trying to decide on whether or not we were going to let a particular partner go, which was a major, major, major partner.

Jon Clifton:
[5:36] Partner meaning a funder.

Harry Williams:
[5:37] Funder here, a funder that supported the organization and that, you know, our organization is a nonprofit that relies on others to provide resources so that people can stay employed and people can work. And as a CEO, my job is to make sure revenue is coming into the organization. And we had a particular funder that didn't align with the direction we were heading in. And so the decision I had to make was whether or not to allow for that funder to go away. And I'm talking millions of dollars and not having millions of dollars lined it up to come in to replace it. That's a difficult situation to be in because if you let this person, let this one go, who's going to fill the hole?

Jon Clifton:
[6:29] You used your Self-Assurance to tell a particular funder that didn't align with the organization. And the fact that it is millions of dollars meant there was going to be a lot of risk.

Harry Williams:
[6:39] It could be. There was a lot of risk. I had to meet with the chairman to let the chairman know that we were no longer going to have this funder with us. And the thing that was great about that was the chairman supported me 100% and that was important. But he had the confidence that I knew what I was doing by saying that this particular funder did not align with the direction that we're heading in. And it was my Self-Assurance, my confidence and knowing that we could get through this, and my Focus would allow for me to move forward. And when we made that decision, it was very, very, very hard. I mean, very hard. And within a matter of weeks, we had another funder that came out of nowhere that actually did better than what we had there. And that just gave the momentum to the organization that this leader, me, was doing the right thing. And it gave confidence to everybody because by staying with that particular funder, it was going to disrupt a lot of things that was happening in the new direction that we're heading in. So it was a difficult one, but it ended up being the right one. But my strengths really played a critical role in saying, hey, we're going to make this call. It's a pressure call because it aligned with revenue that could impact others. But that's part of the role of a CEO to make those difficult decisions.

Jon Clifton:
[8:13] In our literature, we talk about how people with Self-Assurance like taking risks. When I say the word risk, do you get energy from it? What are your thoughts?

Harry Williams:
[8:22] Yeah, yeah, I'm a risk taker. You know, I get excited about it. When I started here at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, when I was interviewing, the chairman of the board and the vice chair of the board and the founder all asked me if I could double the amount of revenue coming in here within five years, top line number, double, you know. And I said, yes, we can do it without knowing what that yes meant. But it was an incredible challenge, and I saw that, and we have surpassed that in five years, you know, going out on the edge, doing things a little bit different, and just pressure testing different things that allow for you to move forward. So I get energized by that. You know, leaders take risks. Leaders, you know, move in a direction that's going to move the organization forward. Because if you're too conservative, it can hold you back in a lot of different ways. Sometimes you've got to be willing to go out on the edge. I always say we start with yes, then we figure out how we end up getting to no later on.

Jon Clifton:
[9:27] When you're working with your teams, your existing team, leadership teams you've had in the past when you were president of a university, how did you use strengths philosophy in day-to-day management?

Harry Williams:
[9:38] As a university president, taking those high achievers, you want to move your institution up in the rankings. We set big goals that require everybody to align behind those goals. So it requires that and it requires Focus again. And it helps you with your direction too when you're making decisions because you know you're making them based on years of just confidence from that perspective. So yeah, it's been a game changer for me as a leader not only in the nonprofit space, but in higher education in general.

Jon Clifton:
[10:15] Did you draw on different strengths as a university professor compared to a CEO?

Harry Williams:
[10:20] Yes, I did. I mean, again, when I would say different strengths, I think it's the situation that you're in.

Jon Clifton:
[10:27] What's an example?

Harry Williams:
[10:28] I'll give you an example. I had a particular faculty member that wanted to submit a proposal to NIH for $10 million. One particular faculty member wanted to go this direction. Other faculty member wanted to go in the other direction. We're only going to have one that can come from the university. So I had to bring both of those in to hear and everybody make their case to me. And as a person that ultimately will be responsible for submitting the grant forward, I had to make those decisions. So relying on those strengths of looking at, you know, the objective here, the responsibility here is for the institution to get these dollars. And being able to navigate the relationship between the faculty without having one faculty member leaving upset because they didn't get their award because they felt like they were going, but how do you massage that process? But having, again, the Focus and laying out the big picture and being clear in the direction, the strengths really played a critical role in helping me to navigate a lot of those things.

Jon Clifton:
[11:29] It sounds like what you're saying is that when there is conflict, what you use originally is your Responsibility. It says there is mission, there's purpose here, we need to achieve this particular goal. But then in delivering the message, you're saying it was more of your Focus to make sure that the one who maybe was suggesting the way forward that you weren't necessarily agreeing with, helping them through and saying, no, this is actually what's best for the university.

Harry Williams:
[11:54] You summed it up. Yeah, absolutely. I used them without thinking about them, you know what I'm saying? You just wrapped it around in a nice bow, the way you just described it. But absolutely, because you got to use the Responsibility side so that everybody understands the big picture. Why are we here? What's the mission of our institution? And how are we going to use these two different proposals that's going to move the institution forward and letting them know that both of them are winners, but they only can have one. But those strengths, again, helped me navigate those processes.

Jon Clifton:
[12:28] You mentioned when you first became CEO of Thurgood Marshall and you're thinking about the strategic direction. What strengths are you drawing on when you're visioning?

Harry Williams:
[12:37] I tell you, when I'm looking out to the future and where we're going, I have to really think about Achiever, right? And because of pushing and having high aspirations and doing those impossible things and dreaming about the impossibilities, thinking about how do we move forward in a very intentional way? And how do we take an organization who's already at a great spot, how do we take it even higher? And so the Achiever in me is that that drives me more than anything because I want to win and I'm open to learning new ways of doing things because there's a big shift from higher education to corporate America. I had spent 30 some odd years in higher ed and now shifting from higher ed to a space that required me working with corporate leaders, working with corporate boards. I had to get a whole new language when I arrived here. That required learning again. And that my Learner strength was that that allowed me to come into a space that was basically foreign to me and having the confidence, Self-Assurance, to know that I could do it. That strength leaned into that for me and was something that really had played a critical role in my journey.

Jon Clifton:
[14:09] You know, for those of us that have Achiever in our top five, one of the things that we face is this fact that we have these big milestones that we're trying to hit. But a lot of times we get the same emotional hit of getting something small done. So we get up in the mornings, we look at our email and we say, you know what, I'm going to get through these 30 sort of easier emails, and we start to get caught up in sort of potentially mundane tasks and it causes us potentially to take our eye off the big picture. What do you do to control for that?

Harry Williams:
[14:39] When I realized I wanted to be a college president, that was a big, bold, and audacious thing to think of. And I can tell you the moment, the day, the time when I said I wanted to do it.

Jon Clifton:
[14:56] When was it?

Harry Williams:
[14:57] I was working on one of our HBCU campus in Greensboro, North Carolina. I was in my room. I took a note card out.

Jon Clifton:
[15:05] What role did you have at this time?

Harry Williams:
[15:06] I was director of undergraduate admission. I didn't even have my doctorate. I had met with some senior leaders at this institution. I looked around. I said, this is what I want to do.

Jon Clifton:
[15:15] How old were you at the time?

Harry Williams:
[15:16] I was 30, 32 years old. And I said, I want to be a college president at an HBCU. That's how specific I was. Okay. At an HBCU. And I said, and I didn't even have my doctorate. I was working on my doctorate at the time.

Jon Clifton:
[15:31] And where'd the inspiration come from?

Harry Williams:
[15:33] The inspiration came when I met with the senior leaders of this institution. I looked around and I saw the impact that they were having on the students that I wanted to serve. And I said, you could have a bigger impact when you're the president of one of these institutions versus being a director of admissions. And that's what I was. I was a director of admissions. And I said to myself, this is what I want to do. And I went to my room that night and I took out a note card. True story, still got a note card. And I wrote down, I said, in 10 years, I put a time on it. I said, in 10 years, I want to be a college president of an HBCU. True story. And I said, in order for me to do that, I put the five things down that I needed to achieve in that 10 year window in order to achieve it.

That goes back to the Focus again. It goes back to being clear. It goes back to being self-assured. It goes back to being a Learner. I knew that I needed to do certain five things. I needed to get a senior-level position. I needed to get a senior-level position at a certain institution. I need to do all. I wrote those things down and I didn't tell anyone. I kept it all to myself. I used that as my driver to get me, to keep me focused. And I knew first thing, I said, I need to finish this doctorate. That was the first thing, because you can't get it if you don't have it. So I checked that off the box. Every time I would achieve one, I would check it off. And I said, I need to get out of this role as a director and become a vice president or something like that. Didn't know how I was going to do it, but I knew I needed to do it. So I had to use the networking skills to get that to happen. So along that journey, I did all those things. And I said, I needed to work at a major university. And I ended up working at a major university within that 10 year window. And within ... that was 2000, October the 10th in 2000. And 2010, January 10th, I was president of Delaware State, 10 years from the day of that. And I, and that's that Focus again, but I checked everything off.

Jon Clifton:
[17:29] When you've established the vision, one of the things that we've identified in our research, one of the single biggest demands is that leaders need to communicate clearly, communicate effectively. What strength do you draw upon in order to communicate that vision?

Harry Williams:
[17:44] Repetitiveness, saying the same thing over and over again and being consistent with it, constantly saying this.

Jon Clifton:
[17:49] Is it through emails? Do you do it one-on-one conversation? Do you do it in address to the entire organization? Which one?

Harry Williams:
[17:54] We do a wide variety of situations, constantly having weekly team meetings. That's required to keep them informed on the direction, repeating it, making sure that they're feeding it down to the people that report up to them. Monthly meetings, repeating again, keeping it all. We did something here for the first time. We brought everybody in for face to face. We're now ... we've grown as an organization from 40 to over 100 full-time employees. And we're hybrid and we brought, it was important to have face-to-face contact with people and bringing people together. So we turned that into an annual thing, bringing people together. So, and again, going back to this shared vision again, laying out the vision so everybody understands why we are doing certain things. Tell them we're going to do something, do it, and show them that we're doing it and let them know how it's being impacted and being consistent with that. And that's what we've been able to do and that's what we're doing, you know, consistently.

So the communication piece is very important because people like predictability. They don't like going into, they don't like uncertainty. You know, they want to know that you're a solid organization. You want to know, they want to know that their job is secure. They want to know that the work that they're doing is good work, that is meaningful. We do these employment engagement surveys, Gallup engagement surveys. Very, very important because it'll allow for us to see how people are feeling. Are you feeling, are you here because of the mission? Are you here because of the job? Making sure that you're understanding how do people feel? What are the missing things? And what are our blind spots?

Jon Clifton:
[19:31] Are there strengths specifically that you draw on when you mentor others?

Harry Williams:
[19:35] Number one is Achiever. Because I push people to think bigger than where they are currently. And I tell them, I say, you got a dream. And you got to set these high goals for yourself. In some cases, they could be unrealistic goals that people may say to you. But it's important for you to have big goals. So yeah, I push people. I said the Achiever is really strong. The Focus one, I lean on to help people to get clarity on what they want to do, you know, because a lot of people come to say, I don't know what I want to do. I had a Ph.D. candidate here this morning talking to one person who was trying to find exactly what she wanted to do with her Ph.D. I've had people who graduated from, you know, from law school, and that I've mentored, say, I don't know what I want to do with this law degree. You know, you went to law school. I don't know what I want to do with this law degree.

Jon Clifton:
[20:34] Was that me?

Harry Williams:
[20:35] No, it wasn't you. It was my daughter-in-law. And then she graduated and she had to figure out what she wanted to do. We sat down and put a plan together. And she's happy. She's doing, she's using it. But it's, again, helping people to realize what they have, their strengths. My top five has allowed me to help others move forward in a very intentional way. I still get calls from people, you know, wanting to bounce stuff off of me because that's what I did. And that's what I currently do with people that I really trust and believe in, people who know me.

Jon Clifton:
[21:11] Which of your top five brings you the most joy?

Harry Williams:
[21:14] The most joy, I would say, is the Responsibility piece. Because it's a big deal to have an organization like the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the responsibility associated with leading that and making sure that this organization is going to be here forever. And that sustainability piece, the legacy associated with that. You know, the same thing when I was president at Delaware State, that there are things up there that we put in place that will be there forever. And that Responsibility piece associated with that has been that driver. It gives me a lot of pleasure knowing that you've had an impact. You know, some people, you know, say, you know, what's our purpose? What do we, you know, what's our, why are we here? What are the things that we leave behind? Are we leaving things behind that people are going to look at and say, things are much better because you came down this path? Or are you leaving things behind where people say, I'm so glad they're gone because they messed up everything? You want to make sure you got a path of success that people can build upon and they can say, hey, they started something really positive. So that strength that aligns with Responsibility is something that gives me a lot of joy.

Jon Clifton:
[22:32] When we did a global study on leadership, one of the things that we found that was the demands of people everywhere is they wanted to feel hopeful. And you've led huge organizations. What strength do you draw upon in order to inspire hope?

Harry Williams:
[22:49] It was when the pandemic hit, and people didn't know what was going to happen. They thought it was going to be a week, two weeks, and it stretched out to six months. And one of the things that there was a big concern about was whether or not people were going to still give during this time. And being a nonprofit and not having revenue coming in, you had to really think about what you're going to communicate with your team members over Zoom to give them hope and encouragement to know that a paycheck is going to continue for the next two years. And one, the strength that, again, going back to this Self-Assurance again and knowing the mission, the focus, and being able to recognize that even in difficult times, your partners won't run away from you. They'll double down in their support. And that's what happened during the pandemic. That was a trying moment for not only for nonprofits in this country, but for everybody and figuring out how to pivot and adjust to a new normal.

And so getting that through and making sure that people, going back to Responsibility again, going back to Self-Assurance again, knowing that what you are doing is the right thing and the work that we're in is the right lane that we're in. And it is not going to fold. A lot of companies folded during the pandemic. People lost jobs. People didn't have their consistent revenue. We didn't have to lay off a single person. We were able to continue to do our work. We were able to allow people ... we were able for students to continue their internships. We were able to students continue their scholarships. We were able to do everything we were doing, but we had to adjust. And it required leadership during that moment. And people were looking for leadership that was going to help provide them the confidence to know that everything was going to be okay. So that Responsibility strength and that Achiever strength is key to that and along with the Focus of knowing, hey, we're going to stay focused on what we said we're going to do. We're not going to change our direction.

Jon Clifton:
[24:58] Dr. Harry Williams, thank you so much. Thank you for your leadership, and thank you for everything that you're doing for this country.

Harry Williams:
[25:05] Thank you, Jon, for having me. Appreciate you.

Transcript autogenerated using AI.