A Conversation with Bill Lowery, Regional Head, North America at GEDU Global Education
What does great leadership look like? My conversation with Bill explores his leadership philosophy, values, and approach to leading with self-awareness, clarity, and accountability. This post—full video interview included at the end—unfolds his leadership journey and the insights he has so generously shared to set other leaders up for success, exemplifying what great leadership looks like.
Always knowing he would somehow end up in education, Bill currently has the privilege of serving as the first Regional Head for North America at GEDU Global Education, a UK-based education company that owns fourteen educational institutions operating across sixteen countries. GEDU also helps top-tier U.S. and UK universities identify, build, and operate campuses and international learning hubs, including Gift City in India and Knowledge Park in Dubai.
Grateful for those who gave him an opportunity to move into higher education in 2012, Bill built on his passion for education and for increasing access to high-quality, workforce-relevant learning. “I knew for the rest of my career, this is really the industry I wanted to work in.”
Bill found himself in leadership roles starting back in high school and has since led teams across various roles for the past thirty-five years. He believes continuous learning is essential to leading well. “Along the way, you make a lot of mistakes, but you learn from those mistakes,” he says. “I see myself as an imperfect leader, but someone who believes in continuous improvement.”
Continuous learning is essential
to leading well.
The most impactful work Bill has done to increase self-awareness has come through StrengthsFinder, where he learned to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. “That’s really been the most impactful,” he shares. “I’m really leaning into those areas of strength, and then I’m understanding the areas of weakness and trying to surround myself with other people that complement those areas of weakness.”
Bill believes leadership is ultimately about impact through people, and that he is at his best when he’s focused on making a positive impact through others.
Leadership is making a positive impact through others.
Values that have guided Bill throughout his career are service before self, strengths over shortcomings, and clarity and accountability.
The greatest leaders Bill has worked for, and the type of leader he aspires to be, are servant leaders who listen, empathize, and empower. He learned this early in his career. “It’s not really a question of, you know, how others can serve me, but how I can help others, how I can help them grow, flourish, succeed.” While Bill values results and enjoys measuring success, he believes outcomes are achieved through the growth and well-being of the people you lead.
Another core value for Bill is strengths over shortcomings. He believes excellence lives in amplifying strengths, not weaknesses. “I had to unlearn a lot of youth sports coaching and popular culture doctrine,” he says. “We were taught that you first understand your weaknesses, and you attack those. You tirelessly work to overcome those.”
Instead, Bill has learned to focus on what people naturally do best, build teams around those strengths, and understand his own weaknesses so he can surround himself with the right people.
Excellence lives in amplifying strengths.
He has successfully built teams this way by deeply listening to those he leads and leveraging tools such as StrengthsFinder and the People Analyzer from Wickman’s Entrepreneurial Operating System. “When you do those exercises, you very quickly find out what people’s strengths are, but then you’re also ensuring that you’re getting people into the right roles,” he explains. For Bill, there’s nothing more satisfying than identifying someone who isn’t quite performing, helping reposition them into a role they love, and watching them flourish.
He believes this approach is a win for the individual, the leader, and the organization, and drives meaningful results.
Bill also places high value on clarity and accountability. He believes most people don’t intend to underperform; rather, they lack clarity around expectations or accountability.
“To get the best from people requires a leader to be clear about expectations and have meaningful and honest conversations that help the individual understand how they are accountable.”
When people have clarity, are in the right seat, and understand what success looks like, Bill believes they enjoy their work, and that’s when organizations truly take off and experience exponential growth.
Bill feels blessed to have worked with dozens of exceptional leaders throughout his career. He reflects often on what he learned from the late Oregon State Senator Brady Adams, whom he worked for as a legislative intern while still a senior in college. Bill knew Brady as a successful businessperson, an outstanding community leader, and someone who managed his time intentionally to excel in both business and family.
He also reflects on the deep influence Ron Klausner had on his leadership style during his time at Academic Partnerships. Bill says both Brady and Ron embodied what he believes great leaders must know: people follow purpose, not position, and leadership is earned through trust, not titles. He says both leaders were exceptional at helping people understand the why and at inviting perspectives that shaped decisions while still owning the responsibility to decide and lead forward.
“They both lived out their principles, innately understanding that the way they behaved in their own role would be the best way to help drive results.”
They also demonstrated that culture is shaped by daily behaviors and modeled values, not posters on a wall. “They didn’t really have to preach the values of humility, integrity, and excellence, because they did such an amazing job just living those things out.”
One practice Bill adopted from Ron is tracking his activities. This practice has helped him better understand himself, gain clarity on how he spends his time, and hold himself accountable. “If you really want to get to know yourself, track your activities,” he says. “You’ll see where you’re spending your time is where your priorities are.”
Through regular reflection, Bill asks himself whether he’s living up to his values, whether he’s being the leader he wants to be, and where course corrections are needed. He believes these weekly reflections help leaders stay aligned with long-term, sustainable results, especially when short-term pressures tempt faster but less aligned paths.
“Self-awareness is the foundation of sustainable and great leadership.”
He looks back at what he believed leadership was coming out of college compared to how he sees it today. “Coming out of college, I felt like I needed to be the leader that, you know, was in the textbooks,” Bill continues, “You’re young, and you’re excited. You don’t really care about what your blind spots are. You’re not necessarily as open to, let’s say, feedback and being teachable, and, you know, adjusting without ego, and I think some of that comes with time.”
Great leaders adjust without ego.
He admits that if he were giving this talk to his younger self, he probably wouldn’t have listened. But after years of mistakes and course corrections, he believes great leaders know themselves and are in constant reflection on their strengths, blind spots, and emotional triggers, bringing clarity and accountability to how they lead. He regularly asks himself: Where did I spend my time? What did I work on? What meetings did I attend? What was my posture in those meetings? How did I interact with my teams?
Bill believes that when leaders are honest with themselves and disciplined in tracking these patterns, they gain clarity around their true priorities and hold themselves accountable to them. He says this practice has made him a more effective and happier leader with less anxiety, more peace, and a greater ability to course correct. Still imperfect. Still a work in progress. But more confident, organized, and grounded in how he leads.
Bill’s advice to the next generation of leaders is to be open to feedback, know your strengths, don’t dwell excessively on weaknesses, and seek to understand your blind spots.
“Take feedback, be teachable, and adjust without ego, and that will go a long way.”
He also encourages leaders to take an extra moment to explain the why behind tough decisions and invite team input. “Even when you think you have the answers, which you probably do, collecting information from a lot of really smart people, you may get a bit of information you didn’t have that maybe wasn’t presented before.”
Bill believes sharing context reduces second-guessing, builds trust, and strengthens alignment.
He adds that having a sense of humor humanizes tough situations and that it’s important to bring teams together to celebrate, that you can have fun and still lead a productive team.
To remember that people follow purpose, not position, that leadership is earned through trust, not titles, that culture is achieved through the sum of your daily behaviors, and that self-awareness is the foundation of sustainable leadership.
“I wasn’t leading others well until I really knew myself.”
Even when it doesn’t come naturally, Bill says to remain a continuous learner who is willing to grow.
His final message for the next generation of leaders is one he has in his office and reflects on daily, that the purpose of leadership is to lift others to their highest potential in pursuit of a shared vision.
For Bill, this encapsulates what great leadership is all about.
The purpose of leadership is to lift others
to their highest potential in pursuit of a shared vision.