18:83 Speaker Series: Frank White on leadership and legacy

Passion, altruism and inclusion are keys to leaving a lasting legacy as a leader, retired professor of sociology says

“Leadership isn’t about position, it’s not about status, it’s not about titles or even awards,” said Frank White, former professor of sociology, in his speech for the 18:83 Speaker Series on Sept. 5.

“Leadership is a verb. Leadership is about action. It’s what we do, and more specifically, it’s what we do for and with others.”

White taught in the Department of Sociology for 34 years until his retirement in 2022. During his time at UND, White built a legacy through both his teaching and his research on the opioid epidemic. While at UND, White was named UND Professor of the Year twice — in 1997 and 2019 — and won the North Dakota Spirit Faculty Achievement Award, among other honors.

During his 18:83 speech, he said he hoped to inspire others to leave legacies of their own.

To find inspiration, all one has to do is walk around campus, where the names of great leaders are etched into the University’s history, White said. He cited Tom Clifford and Bernard O’Kelly, whose names adorn campus buildings frequented by hundreds of students each day, as examples of such leaders. But one needn’t have a building named after himself or herself — a footprint White referred to as a “monument legacy” — to be a great leader. Instead, an even more important indicator is the impact leaders have on the people they interact with.

“The ‘life legacy’ is the people you touch, the people that you give value to, the people you help,” he said. “Those are the ones that are going to carry on your values, your interests, your ideas, your hopes and your dreams.”

As leaders embark on journeys to make their own legacies, White suggests they keep in mind the impressions their actions will make on generations to come.

“Leadership is about touching the future,” he concluded.

Other takeaways from White’s leadership lessons

• “Leadership has evolved, and leadership today requires inclusion — an invitation to become a part of something. We need to make the table longer, and we need to make that table a round table, so we have face to face interaction with as many people from as diverse a population as we can possibly find.”

• “If you want to see the power of passion — if you want to notice that in a leader — watch a leader when they don’t know they’re being watched.”

• “They (leaders) have the ability to see the potential in others before they see that in themselves. A leader, instead of sharing his or her own superpower, tells other people what their superpowers are.”

Watch White’s full speech below:

>> View upcoming speakers and watch past speeches on the 18:83 Speaker Series webpage.