Chancellor Emeritus John White Publishes Book on Leadership

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Chancellor Emeritus John White has published a new book on leadership titled Why It Matters: Reflections on Practical Leadership. 

The new book, which became available in October, draws on White’s wealth of expertise acquired across a six-decade career as a corporate leader, chancellor, dean, educator, engineer and consultant to create a thorough and thought-provoking treatise on leadership. 

Based in part on the course that he designed and taught, Leadership Practices and Principles, White’s new book weaves his personal story and observations on leadership philosophy from some of the nation’s most respected corporate, military, political and nonprofit leaders.

After stepping down as chancellor of the University of Arkansas, White was encouraged by colleagues to offer a course on leadership. Though he’d been an engineering educator for 45 years and had never taught a course that wasn’t based on equations, he was intrigued by the idea of sharing his leadership journey with students. 

For the next nine years, White taught Leadership Practices and Principles to seniors and graduate students from every discipline, introducing them to 15 guest leaders over the course of each semester and holding in-depth, frank, and often emotional conversations about the challenges, joys, heartbreaks and diversity of approaches to successful leadership. The class contributed to White being awarded the Charles and Nadine Baum Faculty Teaching Award in 2017.

While reflecting on his own leadership journey, White recounts dozens of these conversations in his book. Drawing on numerous challenging leadership experiences while at the U of A, serving on six boards of directors for publicly traded companies, Georgia Tech’s engineering college, National Science Foundation’s engineering directorate, and numerous professional associations, he provides practical guidance on navigating the leadership odyssey.

“I finished reading Why It Matters a couple of months ago, learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Kim Needy, dean of the College of Engineering. “My favorite part of the book was Chapter 14 on Final Reflections where Dr. White brings together lessons learned from his six-plus decade career. I am grateful for the generations of students, both young and old, that he has inspired, especially me.”

“One weekend, when I began reading this book, I had planned to read just a couple of chapters, but I kept going until I had read most of the book in a single day because I was enjoying it and learning important leadership lessons. Now this is one of my favorite books on leadership,” said Matthew Waller, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business. 

Ed Pohl, head of the Department of Industrial Engineering, said, “This book provides a great collection of practical leadership principles collected from a variety of leaders from industry, government and academia. A must read for all aspiring leaders.”.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.