Dr. Timmerman: President Bell, when you came here in 1976, was this part of your plan, to eventually become the president?

Dr. Bell: Well, I never planned to be president, that wasn't part of my career goal, it wasn't even really a vision that I had in those days. In fact, it was a very late occurring vision, even after I became Dean in the 1990's, so no, I never expected to be President of Tennessee Tech University, or any other university.

Dr. Timmerman: So, what were some of the pivotal people and experiences and relationships that helped you develop into the leadership position?

Dr. Bell: Well, my training is in business administration, and I wanted to serve, and I wanted to get some leadership experience, so I did have intentional goals about moving into different types of leadership experiences, so I think that did shape some of the early activities. One of the things that I really believe strongly in is mentors, and I had some great mentors early, who, once I said “I want some experience in leadership”, began to help me think about what those might be. So, from early career to late career, mentors are a very important part of that activity. I think there are some other things that are important too; I really believe in reinvention, so, I tried not to, and this wasn't an intentional plan as much as it was an instinct, but after about five years, I started looking for a new job, not necessarily a new organization, but in some way a different job in that same organization. I have been very lucky; I have stayed at Tennessee Tech University for 27 years. But, I have tried to look for a new job every five or six or seven years, and basically that has been my career progression. I spent a bit longer at the Dean level, and that's just the way those circumstances worked. That actually was 10 years. But after about 7 years, I began to sense that the value adds that I had made were probably the best that I was going to make, so I think there is some real importance in beginning to think about the next job, and beginning to make certain that you have people working with you that can take your job. If you don't have a person who is qualified to take that position that you are currently occupying, the folks above you may say “well, I don't know what we'll do if we move him out”. You always need a person who can fill your job, so I think that was a very important part of my career was the reinvention and the moving. Another thing that I think is important to know that you are going to make mistakes, and you are going to run into a disaster, and some people stop them, and others learn from them, and actually build them into who they are, and make hopefully a better leader from those mistakes. But I've had opportunities to just walk away and say “well, that was fun, now let's just go stop all that and admit defeat”. I just don't think you ever want to do that. Winston Churchill once said “never, never, never give up”, and he said that was the main reason for Britain's success in World War II, they just wouldn't give up, and I think there is a real value to that.

I guess another thing I'd point out is that I don't remember many 40 hour weeks. You have to do more than the minimum, and you've got to enjoy doing more than the minimum. So, that may mean you are going above and beyond more frequently than others do. I think that is one of the essential elements in leadership that we do go above and beyond.

Another important element, at least looking back into some of the things that helped me become president, was that I always tried to have folks on the leadership team that I worked with that I really respected, and who for the most part I felt were more talented than I was. So I think you need to develop a great many people who are very good, and not be intimidated by their talent, but use it to leverage the organization. Then once you've got that team, you need to develop them you need to give them the opportunities to do things that are stretching beyond their job, and you need to have great expectations. I don't mean unattainable goals when I say great expectations, but you need to have things that let them see that we can achieve beyond normal expectations, and that we can celebrate when we do. So, having that team, and having those expectations is a very important part of that leadership experience.

I guess the other thing I would mention, I would come back again to the concept of mentors. I have mentors now, and I try to be a mentor for some other folks, but I really believe throughout a career, people need to have mentors: people they can go to that sometimes very silently are helping them and influencing them. In other cases, they are just there for advice, and for encouragement, but I would encourage people to have a set of mentors. And I encourage them to get a life. It can't all be work. So, it's vital that there is time, and there is time, even in weeks that are more than 40 hours, there is still a lot of time for working with children, for being with your family, for being active; in my case, in my church, in scouting and camping and hunting, and doing a lot of outdoor activities, and playing a mean game of tennis, which I can't do as much now. I could do that 20 years ago, but I still get out and enjoy playing tennis. So, there's got to be a life, and there's got to be a service component to the leader's job; it's really important that that leader be out in the community, that they be serving their state or their region, and that they are going beyond what they are doing in their own position.

That's nice from a service perspective, but it is probably also just as important from your career networking perspective. When I was nominated for this presidency, all of the sudden, the 25 years of work that I had done in scouting and with my church, and with working with the chamber of commerce, and with the city council, and with the county commission, all of the sudden, people began to come out and talk about how they wanted to help me in pursuing this new opportunity. So that service is important in and of itself, but it is also producing pretty powerful network for you and networking is a big part of any leader's job. So those are some of the things that I would encourage people to think about.

Dr. Timmerman: So the idea of continuous improvement seems to be a common theme, not only in the development of leaders, but also in the development of organizations.

Dr. Bell: I think it is, I think, you know, when we graduate students from college, we call that ceremony a commencement. It's not an ending, it's a beginning of a learning experience, and leaders have to learn and invent all the time too. The things that I studied in college, half of them are wrong today, it seems like. We really do have to continuously improve, and learn new things. That's a vital part of the leader's role.

Dr. Timmerman: Thank you for your time, we appreciate it.

Dr. Bell: Thank you.