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Much like his leadership journaling, Gordon has begun\nhis leadership as commandant with a listening tour. \u201cFor the next few months,\nI\u2019m going to be doing a lot of active listening so I can get a feel for\nthings,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be a huge mistake for me to think that I\nknow what’s going on around here simply because I was a cadet 30 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As he conducts his listening tour, Gordon is hopeful\nabout the future. He sees the potential\nfor the college to emerge from the pandemic with newfound fortitude. \u201cWe’re\ngoing to work through the global pandemic. This will be a rebuilding year. We\nwill bring the Corps back better than ever. We will do it safely. We will do it\nresponsibly. We build in resiliency and, in turn, we will accomplish the\nmission.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the process, Gordon hopes to better integrate\ncharacter development and challenge cadets to reframe adversity as \u201can obstacle\nto overcome, not something to be afraid of or to avoid,\u201d a lesson he learned as\na cadet and the reason he believes graduates are successful. \u201cWe produce men\nand women of virtue and character, who have a higher degree of resiliency. They\nhave grit, they have fortitude, they have will,\u201d he said. \u201cMy personal\ndefinition of leadership is the ability to inspire others to find the will and\nthe way to accomplish the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To do that, he follows the Socratic method of\nteaching. \u201cIf I tell people what to do,\nthey will do just that,\u201d he said, \u201cbut if instead I present it to them as a\nquestion, nine times out of 10, they\u2019re going to have a better way of doing it\nthan I ever thought of.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With his characteristic humility and his artful\nquestions, Gordon will surely inspire and uncover new lessons in leadership in\nthe Corps of Cadets. \u201cWe all want the\nsame thing; we want what\u2019s best for The Citadel and what\u2019s best for the\ncadets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI don\u2019t want to say I dreamed of being commandant, but boy, does it feel like a dream. I am both humbled and honored to be here,\u201d said retired U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Gordon, \u201991, about two months after returning to his alma mater, where he now serves as commandant of cadets. A native […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military","category-pillars"],"yoast_head":"\n