Professor of Chemistry and Optics,
Associate Dean of Research
and Innovation, CCIE,
University of Central Florida
Florencio Hernández is a Professor of Chemistry & Optics at the University of Central Florida (UCF), with interdisciplinary training in fundamental physical chemistry, nonlinear optics and chirality, and scholarship of teaching and learning. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from “Universidad Central de Venezuela (Venezuela)” in collaboration with “L’Université Franche Comté (France)” in 1996. Hernandez served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (1996-1998) (Venezuela) and as a Visiting Research Scientist at the College of Optics/CREOL (UCF) between 1998 and 2002. In 2002 he joined the Department of Chemistry/UCF as an Assistant Professor, where he went through the ranks up to Professor. In his career, Hernandez has published 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals, three US-patents, and has made contributions to more than 100 national and international conferences (35 invited). He has been awarded more than two million dollars in external funding from different federal agencies and the private sectors (NSF, DOE, DoD, Lockheed Martin, Kraft Food, and IAI) to support his research. He has also mentored 32 undergraduate students, 16 graduate students (10 Ph.D.), and two postdocs. Hernandez’s academic achievements in research and teaching at UCF have been recognized by his multiple Research Incentive Awards and Teaching Incentive Program Awards.
With more than 20 years of academic experience, interdisciplinary research training, integrated multicultural education, deep passion for teaching and learning, extended mentoring and advising experience at all levels, broad development of strategic management and leadership skills, the vocation of service, Hernández crossed the bridge between the hard sciences and the social sciences to provide a novel perspective to the College of Community Innovation and Education (CCIE) at UCF. As the Associate Dean of Research and Innovation of CCIE, he focuses on efforts to help faculty identify research opportunities, build synergy between disciplines, and procure the necessary resources to advance the quality and impact of their scholarship, and elevate their research productivity.
DL: How and when did you first see yourself as a leader? Who have been your leadership mentors?
Florencio: It was way back to my youth when I was learning martial arts. I attracted some people in the gym due to my skills and dedication. I saw a kid following me, looking for mentorship and guidance. It was a big pressure on me and I had to behave and set a good example. I started martial arts around the age of 15 and did it seriously for 20 years, representing my country at international competitions. My fans cheered for me during the competitions, celebrating my success and supporting me in my defeats. I went to France for my PhD and continued to train there. I was fortunate to have fellow martial experts from my country residing in France and I trained with them. We competed in the Central American Games, the Caribbean Games. and the Pan American Games.
As I reflect on my adult life, I could see situations where I behaved as a leader without knowing it. During my first years in college, I remember becoming very popular because I had an active role in university politics, represented my college in a sport discipline, excelled in all my courses, and was a friend with a large community of diverse students. I guess that my personality, convictions, values, and a strong desire to explore and discover had inspired others. When I was young, I was also determined to make a change in the world, eager to take risks, assuming new responsibilities, and daring to fail in order to succeed. I am not that young anymore, but my determination and desire to change the world are still very much alive and burning inside me. I believe that those features in my personality shaped me to lead without knowing it!
As a scientist, I had no time to think about leadership. When my students smiled at me during classes, I felt like I was leading my students. I had time only for writing proposals and conducting research. When I published a good paper, people invited me to give a special talk at conference and recognized my leadership role in my field. A few years ago, I made a conscious decision of becoming an academic leader. I embarked on a journey to develop leadership skills and made adjustments along the way on my leadership journey. It began in 2014, when I applied for full professorship. I realized the recognition coming from grants or articles was not adequate for my leadership development. In my association with the dean, I was impressed by her leadership style and she became my mentor unofficially. After receiving an email about a mentoring program, I decided to attend. At the same time, I interacted with the dean on a regular basis, learning from her how to navigate the leadership process. I was very inspired to be like her in the future. She invited me to more leadership training at the university and my leadership knowledge expanded.
I used to criticize some administrators in the past. I noticed that successful scientists were promoted to be academic leaders but they were not prepared for the leadership roles. It’s the Peter Principle where people are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. In other to change that for me, I enrolled in the MBA program, learning how to manage and how to lead. The management part came from the MBA program, and the leadership came from the mentoring programs and spending a year with the provost. Shadowing the provost was very impactful and I had a free pass to meet with anyone in the academic community. One of the amazing encounters was with Dr. Gordon Gee, who was then the president of Ohio State University, and later president of University of West Virginia. We met with him at his house. He introduced us to this leadership team and we spent two days with his team.
During my life, I have had many mentors. Perhaps among the three most important ones, my father, my Japanese karate instructor (sensei), and that college professor who inspired me to become the scientist and college professor I came to be. Throughout the past few years, in my conscious pursuit to become an academic leader, I have had many formal leadership mentors, such as my Associate Dean of Research in the College of Sciences, Dr. Young, and Provost Whittaker at UCF. Although I can identify some specific known and anonymous leadership mentors in my life and career, I believe mentorship is everywhere. In every interaction with other people, we have an opportunity to mentor and be mentored, as a leader.
DL: What is your biggest leadership lesson or “Aha” moment?
Florencio: During the past five years, I had some aha moments. At one time during a meeting, I proposed something and the group accepting it without questioning and just followed. I suddenly realized the power you could wield on others. It’s scary and I don’t want others to perceive me as a powerful person. It’s not good for you if they don’t question and accept it blindly. It’s important not to confuse power with influence. I don’t like to be powerful because I believe power could corrupt. I like to be influential. It has been the most striking leadership moment in the last few years for me about leadership by influence. Yet at the same time, I believe in encourage building trust relationships by being open, honest, and transparent. It is important for people who walk with me to have the trust to disagree with me.
Our background, personality, and experiences determine who we are as leaders. As a leader, I am a person of integrity who believes in the importance of trust and transparency, the power of listening attentively, and the value of building teams and delegating. Building trust and cultivating transparency opens remarkable communication channels, strengthens relationships, and helps build bridges for new collaborations. Asking open questions and being a good listener, gathering information, building empathy, and assessing the situation are important to making informed and thoughtful decisions. Finally, surrounding oneself with people who complement our skills enhances our strengths, fills the gap created by our weaknesses, produces synergy, and promotes unity. I also believe that delegating responsibilities increases the team’s efficiency and creates development opportunities for everybody.
DL: How has your leadership style evolved?
Florencio: It’s not evolved as much as I have discovered leadership. I was not able to recognize leadership patterns as I was looking for the magic answer. What is a perfect leader? As I relented pursuing it, the understanding of leadership began to emerge. During an interview with a top leader, the candidate was asked what her leadership style was. She said she had none. She elaborated that it would depend on the situation. That’s when I understood the situational leadership style. That’s me! I have the situational leadership style. I have used this leadership style to help my faculty and colleagues throughout my career.
I found the servant leadership proposed by Robert Greenleaf to be very helpful. In his small book he wrote about servant leaders who wanted to serve first and then made the conscious effort to lead. It’s my desire to help my colleagues, mentor them, and then lead them. While I can still be a situational leader, I am at heart a servant leader. My dean, Dr. Pamela Carroll, is a servant leader. Her kindness and care come through as the dean of the college of education. Every interaction with her has been consistently wonderful.
DL: Do you consider yourself a natural leader (NL) or serendipitous leader (SL) and how would you work with a NL and SL?
Florencio: I consider myself a mixed leader, one with a strong weight on SL and a drop of NL. In general, I like to listen attentively to people sharing their ideas and approaches, asking questions to better understand what they are trying to communicate, maintaining my principles always present, and finding value in our interaction. Whether they are leaders or not, NL or SL, I expect people to work with ethics, respect, honesty, and transparency because that is how I work with others. NLs in general are more competitive and aggressive. As an introverted scientist, I had extrapolated scientific skills into my leadership approach: observing, inquiring, listening, analyzing, inferring, and other appropriate skills for leadership. Sometime, silence is your best friend. FBI uses silence to get answer. If you stay quiet long enough, you can get answers, making people to move toward a point of negotiation. I once read a quote that says, “Let the Silence Do the Heavy Lifting.”
I believe that when you ask about natural leaders, you’re referring to charismatic leaders. I used to think that leadership was an innate personality trait sparked by charisma. I have found that charm can work as an enhancer of leadership skills but not a defining factor. Perhaps, natural leaders seem to be charismatic as they are usually extroverts. I wonder if non-charismatic leaders, who are likely introverts, are perceived as charismatic by those inspired by them. I have met many non-charismatic leaders in my life, and I can tell with certainty that their humility, quietness, authenticity, and thoughtfulness are captivating. Serendipitous leaders, on the other hand, may have or not have charismas. However, they are intuitive, audacious, enthusiastic, open-minded, and have that glow that irradiates in all directions attracting and inspiring people around them. These leaders are natural risk-takers with a 30,000 feet vision and a unique capacity to point others in the right direction. Of course, their optimism and excitement about new paths, transformation, and innovation can sometimes narrow their peripheral vision.
DL: Could you think of a question in your leadership journey that is still perplexing or inexplicable? Why has it been perplexing?
Florencio: When I see a group of seabirds flying over the sea in a perfect V-formation, I am perplexed about how nature handles leadership without workshops, training, or mentorship; it just happens! Watching the beauty of the event, the harmony and smoothness of the flight, the order of the formation, and the rotation of leadership position as the group moves forward are like watching a Tango dance over the crystalline waters of the ocean. Interestingly, all the birds recognize the direction pointed by their leader and move along in that path, maintaining the precise speed to keep the distance with the other birds in the formation. Sometimes the shape opens and closes; other times, it moves in a wavy fashion following the surf’s contour, but it never breaks apart. Sometimes a bird seems to stop randomly to catch a fish or two and resume its flight following the leader.
Many other species in nature show leadership, e.g., wolf packs, ants’ colonies, fish schools, to name a few. I wonder how these leaders develop a vision and a mission, communicate with their followers, influence their actions, inspire their behaviors, promote teamwork, and resolve conflict. Is this behavior instinctive, learned, or both? I am not sure what is the correct answer to my questions. Still, I believe that there is much to learn about leadership by observing nature showing off its talents in real-time.
DL: Final thought: what’s ahead in your leadership journey?
Florencio: I’m looking forward to finding a better way to exert influence and to help others to communicate well with each other. As an educator, I want others to discover the beauty of nature that the world is a beautiful place. Observing nature is important as I see nature exerting leadership in different but natural ways.
Serendipitous Leaders 