Monthly Archives: July 2025

One of the great dangers of leadership is the fact that the more power you have (or are believed to have), the better people will treat you. This phenomenon may take multiple forms, including: Shutting up. One of the great … Continue reading →

Last fall I wrote a post in which I argued for the importance of defaulting to openness and transparency, citing three reasons for such a stance: People really do need to know more than you might think they do. Remember … Continue reading →

Most of us are familiar with the important distinction between necessary and sufficient. For example, air is necessary to human life: without it, you’ll quickly die. However, air is not sufficient to sustain human life: if all you have is air, you’ll also … Continue reading →

For this entry in my ongoing “Two and a Half Cheers” series of posts, I’d like to take a look at the apology. No one likes apologizing. When you do so, you’re acknowledging not only that you made a mistake, … Continue reading →

Hi, all — I’m on a combination of overseas business travel and family vacation during the week of 14 July, so Vision & Balance is taking a brief break. I’ll be back in your inboxes on 21 July. Stay cool … Continue reading →

A common critique of the scholarly humanities is that it’s a system under which a very small number of tenured and tenure-track faculty turn out a large number of new PhDs every year, thus creating a constantly growing number of … Continue reading →

First of all, thanks so much for being a part of this ongoing experiment. I started Vision & Balance last September, unsure whether there would be enough interest to sustain it and with a bit of trepidation as to whether … Continue reading →

At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly – a risk I take twice every week here at Vision & Balance – I want to warn all of us away from a common abdication of responsibility that masquerades as intellectual humility among … Continue reading →

In the latest installment of my ongoing discussion of important ideas and processes that are too often denigrated in our profession (and yet that do have downsides and complications – hence “two and a half” rather than “three” cheers), today … Continue reading →