Inspiring Growth, Transforming Lives and Making a Difference Around the World: Honoring Highlands Consultant Dr. RT Good

It’s rare to find a person who is as unassuming and humble as he is driven, accomplished and esteemed.

Meet Highlands Certified Consultant, Dr. RT Good, Dean and Professor for the College of Business and Management at Lynn University in Boca Raton Florida, Professor Emeritus at Shenandoah University and Partner with Ideas for Action, LLC, a management consulting practice servicing colleges and universities, professional associations, government, communities, and other non-profit organizations.

Able to transcend convention to blaze new paths and to guide others in doing the same,

Dr. Good — or RT, as he invites his students and faculty to call him — is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives. Through academia, coaching and consulting, his work has touched thousands of lives across the world — in 74 countries and counting.

Clients and colleagues appreciate his ability to listen deeply, to facilitate intentional introspection for identifying strengths, to integrate disparate perspectives and functions as well as to leverage real-world capacity to make an impact.

Education: A Pathway to Possibilities

Raised in the Shenandoah Valley along the Blue Ridge Mountains in Front Royal, Virginia, RT grew up in a family — and community — with limited means. He was the first generation in his family to graduate high school, the first to graduate college. But from an early age, he expressed a natural inquisitiveness that would ultimately drive his academic and professional journey.

RT remembers asking who lived in “that big house on the hill” he could see from his yard. When he learned it was a professor from a local college, his curiosity was piqued. What is a professor? What do they do?

The intrigue further fueled his interest in and thirst for education, which he recognized as a pathway to something different — not necessarily better, not a “way out,” he emphasizes, reiterating his pride in and continued identification with his Appalachian background. He knew, even back then, that he would, someday, become a professor.

“Education provided me with access to resources I wouldn’t have had if I had stayed in a small-town community,” he says. “It became a pathway to possibilities for me — and I knew it could also be a pathway for others. If someone wants to experience a difference in life, education is a vehicle through which they can begin to do that.”

Upon earning his bachelor’s degree, RT began his career in land development and hospitality, fulfilling various roles in the industry while working on his master’s degree, and eventually, his doctorate. His early exposure to franchise systems for building hotels led him into hotel management. Working as a night auditor, RT reconciled the hotel’s financials, giving him a sense of its overall business operations. While others were still sleeping, he used any extra time he had to study.

This arrangement allowed RT to work, earn a living and pay for his graduate education. It also set a precedent for working hard and working long hours. “When there’s economic vulnerability in your formative years, a strong work ethic becomes paramount to your success.”

It’s also critical to stay current and relevant, a belief that RT said likely drove him to earn multiple graduate degrees and to advance his education to the post-doctorate level.

While RT had many opportunities to develop his career in the for-profit corporate world that would have been far more lucrative, he was and continues to be motivated by helping reveal possibilities for others through education.

Fostering Global Connections

As Dean for Global Education at Shenandoah University for over 25 years prior to joining Lynn University, RT cultivated connections through teaching abroad, leading study abroad programs and guest lecture opportunities around the world, a mission he remains committed to at Lynn.

At Shenandoah University, he was instrumental in creating a graduated system of global education for getting students abroad. “We recognized that we had a large population of first-generation college students, just like myself, for whom going from a community background to a college campus is already a cultural shift in and of itself,” he recalls. For these students especially, it is oftentimes too big a leap to think about going somewhere else for a semester to study somewhere else in the world.

“In the first phase of the graduated process, 10 students who were selected from across disciplines at the University, along with a staff member who had never been abroad and a faculty leader who was either from that country or who had spent a significant amount of time there would travel abroad as a group over spring break. By including a staff member, we were already changing the culture of the organization.”

This phase started with helping the participants with the mechanics of international travel such as getting a passport and applying for a visa, processes that are completely new to first-generation travelers.

The entire experience, which included a number of pre-sessions to provide a thematic framework for the visit, was paid for by the University. In light of its success, the program has been repeated every year since over multiple locations, rotating between five or six countries, and always adding new ones to the mix.

The second phase was to build a structure for students to travel abroad for a longer period of time (two to six weeks) — still as a group with a faculty leader and daily meetings, but with the addition of individual placements in internships, observation opportunities, shadowing programs, etc.

This phase was designed to give students an opportunity to venture out on their own, but also come back to the group to process their experiences.

The third phase, then, was to offer a more traditional study aboard program, where students would travel to another country for a semester or a full year.

“We found this type of graduated programming to be an effective way for students to comfortably make the transition into becoming more global citizens.”

RT is replicating these systems at Lynn University now.

“I love every country I visit … I love the cultural connections we build,” RT says. To date, he has traveled to 74 countries.

“It’s always important for me to establish a relationship with an academic institution abroad to promote interaction among our students and theirs.”

“These peer-to-peer conversations broaden an understanding of both cultures and can lead to lasting friendships, as I’ve also found in my experience with other academics. Despite a different cultural setting, we have a professional culture that gives us a common ground.”

RT recalls the first study abroad program he led. The year was 2000; the destination Russia. Because their flight arrived at night — and in the dead of winter — RT and the group of students headed straight to their hotel, which was located next to Red Square.

As the snow fell, RT was struck by the scene, taking in the iconic places before his eyes like Saint Basil’s Cathedral. As the weeks unfolded, he discovered that the people who lived in this vastly different place shared many of the same human experiences, concerns, hopes and dreams.

This experience was transformative, and it whet his appetite for everything he did from that point forward.

A Practitioner’s Perspective

In his current role as dean, RT ensures the quality of education for students enrolled in Lynn University’s College of Business Management, with a focus on growth, not only for the school, but also for its students and professors.

In addition to his administrative role, RT teaches at least one class a year, and he encourages other administrators to do the same to stay tapped into the student perspective. “I think every administrator in higher education should teach a class at least once a year to facilitate a better understanding of our students,” he says. “It’s important for all faculty to understand our student’s needs — especially in light of constant change.”

RT is also an executive coach, supporting students in the MBA program as well as members of the business community. The commitment to coaching outside the walls of academia is not an arbitrary one. “Coaching is the piece of the puzzle that keeps me connected to what’s happening in the broader world, particularly with professionals in career transitions,” he says.

The Highlands Ability as an Instructive Tool

RT took the Highlands Ability Battery at a point in his career when he was searching for “a better fit.” Having already earned his doctorate and established his career in academia, he wasn’t interested in a full career reboot; however, he found the results of the assessment instrumental in identifying how to pursue the career he chose in ways that fed his soul.

Harnessing the instructive value of the process, RT was eager to share it with others. He became a Highlands Certified Consultant in 2013.

He uses the Highlands Ability Battery in his executive coaching as well as with MBA students interested in using it to help plan their careers. “For students lacking career clarity, the process helps crystalize things they already knew about themselves and puts that information into a language or framework they can utilize in their career decision-making.”

In many cases, working through the HAB process helps clients adapt to their current work environment in ways that are more meaningful to them.

Fulfilling a Calling, Leaving a Legacy

One of RT’s greatest sources of pride is leaving behind a strong system of global education for students that didn’t exist previously at Shenandoah University. And he’s on a mission to do the same at Lynn University.

Highlands Consultant Dr. RT Good, SPHR, GPHR, SHRM-SCPDean – Professor Emeritus – Executive Coach – Strategic Partner

Dr. Good holds a post-doctorate in international business and entrepreneurship from the University of Florida; a doctorate in education with specialization in higher education and concentration in human resources from Nova Southeastern University; an MBA from the University of Mary Washington; and a bachelor’s in arts management with a minor in dance from Virginia Commonwealth University. He holds the Advanced Certified Personal & Executive Coach (ACPEC) credential from the College of Executive Coaching. Dr. Good is an internationally recognized leader in the areas of human resources, organizational development, design/entrepreneurial thinking and strategy.

A published scholar in academic journals and edited texts, Dr. Good has also been a featured speaker in local, national and international professional forums. Further, he was a Fellow Member for the Institute of Coaching at the Harvard Medical School. With a particular affinity for international business education, Dr. Good has taught in or led study programs to 74 countries. He has consulted on and led assessment/ accreditation projects for the U.S. Departments of State, Defense, Education as well as Health and Human Services. Dr. Good has been recognized nationally for outstanding projects in diversity and inclusion by the National Association for Campus Activities, locally as a top influencer in business by the greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce in Florida, and professionally having been granted professor emeritus status with Shenandoah University.