A1. Organization Description and Objectives
Environ is a not-for-profit institute and the environmental research arm of the State
System of Higher Education. Environ conducts cutting-edge applied research in air, land and
life, and water quality across the Western United States and on every continent. Environ has
over 500 employees and two main campuses, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the state of
California and a smaller campus in Colorado. Environ generates over $30 million in total annual
revenue. Environ is led by Dr. Robert Ladd who is a world-renowned organic chemist. Dr.
Ladd is currently the Acting President of Environ.
Environ has over 160 Ph.D. level scientists whose specialties range from hydrology and
atmospheric sciences to earth and ecosciences. Environs faculty members are nontenured,
entrepreneurial and responsible for their own salaries from external grants, contracts and
corporate/private partnerships. This combination of academic rigor and private-sector business
application has earned Environ a reputation for delivering high quality environmental science in
a business-like fashion.
Environ excels in basic and applied research and the application of technologies to
improve people's lives throughout the world. By applying scientific understanding to the
effective management of natural resources, Environ creates and meets the worlds needs for
economic diversification and science-based educational opportunities. Environs goal is to
implement this mission by fostering scientific and engineering talent. Environ seeks to be the
world's scientific leader investigating the effects of natural and human-induced environmental
change and advancing environmental technologies aimed at assessing a changing planet.
A2. Three Leadership Practices of the Primary Leader
I have identified three leadership practices of Dr. Robert Ladd, Acting President of
Environ. The first leadership practice that Dr. Ladd performs on a regular basis is behavior
modeling. He is clear about his goals and his expectations of excellence from employees and
himself (Kouzes, et al., 2012). He follows through with promises and commitments he makes to
the organization. An example of this would be when he first started he said he committed to
raising $500,000 and rebuild the Development Department so Environ would have the ability to
fundraise. In his first four months as President, he raised $250,000 and put together three new
job descriptions for the Development Department. Environ is now in the process of starting
searches for the three positions. He committed to providing a solution to fundraising and
building the department and he did just that, he modeled the behavior and expectations that he
has of others.
Dr. Ladd regularly asks for feedback about the plans he has implemented and if they are
making an impact and if they are not making an impact, he will ask his employees how we can
improve....
