Office Hours: Business Edition · Episode 6 · with Donde Plowman, Chancellor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

It’s the night before school, and I’m up late cramming.

Mere hours before I arrive on the campus of my alma mater, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, I have a startling realization. I’ll soon be interviewing Donde Plowman, the Chancellor of the university, for a new episode of “Office Hours: Business Edition.” But I’m not fully prepared. What’s dawned on me is that the Chancellor is almost sure to ask me about my Clifton Strengths. Her leverage of the Clifton Strengths is a hallmark of her leadership, one of her favorite tools for assessing and optimizing the strengths of her team.

There’s just one problem: I haven’t yet taken the assessment for myself.

Ultimately, I stay up late completing it. By the time I’m in the room with Plowman, I’m glad I did. Sure enough, she asks me about my Clifton Strengths… and thankfully, I have an answer.

Let this be a reminder: whether you’re going in for a business meeting or a job interview, it’s always important to do your homework.

The Power of Visibility

As anyone who spends time on UT’s flagship campus can tell you, proximity to Plowman isn’t especially rare. One of her defining characteristics as a leader is her visibility. In the two years that I’ve been a professor of practice with the Haslam College of Business, what’s continually struck me about the Chancellor is how she shows up to so many events, both big and small, often zipping around campus by way of a golf cart. She amazes me with her consistent presence.

Her high level of visibility is one way in which Plowman reminds me less of other academic leaders I’ve known (preferring the “ivory tower,” so to speak), and more of the CEOs I covered in my three decades at The Wall Street Journal. The CEOs of public companies must ensure they are accessible to their shareholders. In the same way, Plowman prioritizes accountability to her constituents.

I first met Plowman in the fall of 2024, at a reception for new faculty members. Plowman immediately struck me as someone who is driven, focused and in the moment. She saw right away that I brought a unique background and a specialized set of experiences to the university. Within seconds of our initial connection, she asked me, “How can your expertise in the corporate and media worlds benefit our campus?”

That question is Donde Plowman in a nutshell: she is constantly looking for ways to make the university better, and that competitive instinct another way in which she resembles the CEOs of public companies I’ve interviewed over the years.

Turbulent Times in Higher Ed

A big focus of my conversation with Plowman was on the state of academia itself, which in recent years has experienced significant upheaval and change.

“The state of higher education has come under criticism… some of it a bit deserved, to be honest with you,” she told me toward the start of our interview.

Dealing with that criticism is a big part of Plowman’s job. And even in a sector that’s evolving rapidly, she believes UT is living up to its mandate: “We know we’re doing something very unique in student success and student life.” Her willingness to acknowledge criticism while also expressing a fundamental belief in the university as an institution was a major theme of our interview.

“I don’t think, as an industry, we have focused enough on what students and families need and want,” she observes, particularly noting the need to connect graduates with good, meaningful jobs and to provide the surrounding state with research and innovations that create positive impacts.

Lessons in Leadership

Beyond her visibility, another trait of Plowman’s leadership is her ability to enter a room and immediately be “on.” But in a particularly revealing moment, she explained to me how she’s learned the hard way that being “on” during meetings and events isn’t sufficient, at least not for women in leadership roles. Instead, she has discovered how critical it is to arrive at everything early, assuming a seat at the table and making conversation with other attendees before business begins. For Plowman, this is an important way of asserting her confidence.

At one point, I asked Plowman directly what it was like to be a woman in an executive-level position. She deflected the question, preferring to keep the focus on her mission to create value at UT.

Increasingly, I find that women in top executive roles sidestep conversation about the challenges of being female in the business world. They’d rather focus on the work itself – and as higher education continues to evolve, Plowman has plenty of success to stand on.

About the Host

Monica Langley Haslam College of Business Professor of Practice, Former Wall Street Journal Reporter

Office Hours are in session with former Wall Street Journal reporter and corporate executive Monica Langley. In this leadership podcast, Monica sits down for unfiltered conversations with the sharpest minds in business – CEOs, founders, and innovators – at the intersection of today’s top business trends and current events. These executive interviews reveal defining moments and hard-won lessons that have shaped their way to the top. Monica brings relentless curiosity into intimate conversations in this business podcast that are only possible because of her tenure as a trusted confidant to and chronicler of leaders of the world’s largest companies. Discover full episodes at haslam.utk.edu/office-hours.