Faculty 360 George Lehman
You teach exclusively in the master鈥檚 program, what is your favorite class?
Leadership and Management for the Common Good, the kick-off course for The Collaborative
MBA, is my favorite. The students meet for a whole week. In addition to their coursework,
they build a supportive learning community. I help them to see that the task is to
think carefully about what good leadership looked like in the past and what it looks
like today. Their answers are personal to them rather than ones that can easily be
found in a textbook. The week is exhausting but incredibly stimulating.
What is the best piece of management advice you ever received?
It was advice I did not like at first. While working in health care administration, I
was expected to collaborate with a person that I actively disliked. I told my boss
that the situation was intolerable. His advice: 鈥渓earn to work with him and you will
find that you鈥檒l learn to appreciate him.鈥 He was right. I did learn to work with
him and eventually came to appreciate him, though we certainly never became close
friends. Now, I know that my responsibility is to change my attitude rather than to
change someone else.
You have researched several fascinating topics while at Bluffton鈥攆rom the business practices
of chocolate giants to the impact of emotional intelligence. What topic intrigues
you the most?
My favorite lecture was about the business practices of Amish in and around my home
community of Berne, Ind. They make some quirky adjustments for modern technology such
as having non-Amish (referred to as 鈥淓nglish鈥) customers call English neighbors to
schedule appointments.
I was surprised that despite the close ties within the large Amish community, many Amish business people are rather independent and protective of their turf. They don鈥檛 quite trust that their Amish neighbors won鈥檛 take away their own business.
I was treated wonderfully by a small family group of adult Amish men with an inherited degenerative disease that left them all wheelchair bound who publish an Amish directory. Their task could be done more easily with a computer than using note cards, but as one man observed, 鈥渨e have plenty of time.鈥