Strategic Leader Spotlight: Simone Biles

January 18, 2024 by Ruchi Watson

Simone Biles is the epitome of what we at the Goff Strategic Leadership Center call a Strategic Leader. By leveraging the self-awareness she had cultivated in her many years of training, she made the difficult decision to drop out of competition, ultimately leading Team USA to earn a coveted Olympic silver medal in 2021. And, Biles was relentless in creating value, coming back after two years to claim her 8th U.S. National Championship and her 6th all-around title at the world championships.

"There's no time for strategy!"

January 18, 2024 by Ruchi Watson in Business, Strategic Leadership

"There's no time for strategy!"

This is a common refrain I hear from countless professionals -- including those who attend our graduate programs and executive education courses. They are learning new theories, approaches, and tools, but are worried about falling back into old patterns when they return to the office.

I found the article below that has many ideas, but I also wanted to share some of the specific things I do to "make time for strategy"

Q&A: Entrepreneurs Maximize Their Potential

March 20, 2021 by Ruchi Watson

Recently I shared my perspectives with the folks from the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute.

“For Watson, education is all about connection: connecting professors to students, students to material, and material to the real world. Young people are poised to take on an ever-changing world, and Watson believes that strategic navigation of problems, and a problem-finding approach, can help them tackle big issues.”

Academic Leadership Already Lacked Women Representation Pre-Pandemic. Now What?

March 12, 2021 by Ruchi Watson

Several years ago, when I started my research on the advancement of women in academia, I didn't know then how this would become a passion project that would stay with me for years to come.

On #internationalwomenday2021, I was honored to share this piece, co-authored with Women in Business Education CEO, Lisa Leander, for Harvard Business Publishing Education, which shares the updated experiences of current women leaders, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Developing new curriculum during COVID-19

March 05, 2021 by Ruchi Watson in Business, Higher Education, Strategic Leadership

Over the summer, I took on a new role as Managing Director of the Goff Strategic Leadership Center. As a part of that role, I am involved in much more curriculum development, including the development of a new class that I started in Fall 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like many teachers and professors, there was much to learn in developing a new online course in the “IVC” or synchronous format. Here’s my story - hope it brings you a bit of humor and perhaps some tips as well. If not, it certainly comes with a generous amount of empathy.

Delivering Results with Strong Personal Ownership: What does it mean and how do we do it?

December 08, 2020 by Ruchi Watson in Business, Higher Education, Strategic Leadership

Accountability. Responsibility. Integrity. Personal Ownership.

These are qualities we’d like our colleagues, team members, employees, and classmates to embody.

At the Goff Strategic Leadership Center at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business, one of the key Principles of Strategic Leadership we teach is to Deliver results with strong personal ownership. That means knowing you’ve done all you can do to push the work forward as you collaborate with others to create value.

However, while this all sounds good in theory, the actual practice of taking personal ownership over one’s work is not always as easy as it seems.

Call Me Oobleck

September 13, 2020 by Ruchi Watson

I’ve discovered that I am oobleck. What is oobleck, you ask? For those of you who haven’t hung around a young child or a chemistry class recently, oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid — it acts like a solid under pressure and a liquid otherwise. If you push on it, oobleck hardens up. Without pressure, it drips right through your fingers…

Based on my COVID experiences, I can relate to the properties of a non-Newtonian fluid, because that describes my work experiences pretty well: solid under pressure and otherwise…kind of squishy.

Forget the Golden Rule. Try this Instead.

May 02, 2020 by Ruchi Watson

We’ve all heard of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (or some variation thereof). Does anyone else have as much of a problem with this so-called “rule” as I do? Because, frankly, it seems a bit self-centered to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those if-it’s-not-perfectly-right-than-it’s perfectly-wrong kind of people, but I do think we can do better, particularly when it comes to one of the most often cited rules in the book.