Interview: How James B. Milliken Leads With Strengths
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About the Leader
James B. Milliken Chancellor, The University of Texas System
- Intellection®
- Input®
- Strategic®
- Learner®
- Context®
James B. Milliken is chancellor of The University of Texas System, where he also holds the Lee Hage and Joseph D. Jamail Regents Chair in Higher Education Leadership.
Milliken is a national leader in public higher education with more than 30 years of experience. As chancellor, he oversees one of the largest public university systems in the United States, comprised of 14 academic and health institutions, including seven medical schools and five Carnegie R1 research universities. UT institutions enroll more than 256,000 students and employ more than 122,000 faculty, health care professionals, researchers, support staff and student workers. Total annual research expenditures across the UT institutions exceeds $4.3 billion, and the UT System ranks No. 1 in Texas and No. 2 in the nation in federal research expenditures among public higher education systems.
A voracious reader, Milliken consumes three newspapers each day along with books covering a wide variety of topics. While it's not always obvious how his eclectic reading material will ultimately influence his work, he has confidence it will, saying, "I don't think anything I read right now is a waste of time."
Milliken finds comfort and security in learning from people and circumstances of the past. Although history inspires him, he risks living an internal life fixated entirely on the past. However, the pressing and shifting demands of his role help Milliken focus on the present.
Driven by an urge to gather ideas and information, Milliken has created a personal library of thousands of books. He prefers accumulating over organizing and relies on his strong memory instead of a formal indexing method to catalogue his vast collection.
As chancellor, Milliken uses his deep-thinking talents to address issues that profoundly affect the students at his university. For instance, he regularly contemplates the role that higher education plays in connecting students' talent with opportunities.
Milliken habitually generates many ideas at the beginning of a strategic project or problem-solving process. He starts with as many inputs as possible, adds creativity, and then progressively applies critical thinking and discipline to reach a highly effective solution.