After seven years as a department chair, I still proudly identify as a servant leader. But I have also learned the hard way that the label itself isn’t enough.
Leadership is the art of navigating constant complexity, where every decision balances people, purpose, and an ever-changing landscape. Colleges and universities operate through shared governance, professional autonomy, and firmly rooted academic cultures, requiring leaders to exert influence through relationships and credibility rather than authority alone (Birnbaum, 1988; Harris et al.,
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that a factory line uses to track throughput. Under pressure from boards, legislators, and public skepticism, we have often treated student
Over the past several years, faculty across the country have watched the rise of so-called anti-woke legislation restricting what professors may say in the classroom, especially in regard to topics on race and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These statutes have presented an unsettling challenge to whether academic freedom, long
When I interviewed Olivia during the summer of 2024, I was collecting stories from higher education administrators about leadership and burnout. Olivia is a senior leader in academic affairs whose
Each spring, university campuses are spruced up: Lawns are mowed and stages assembled, and rows of chairs fill the arena. Graduation is a time-honored tradition, celebrating students’ hard work and
Higher education leaders agree that recruiting, retaining, and engaging professional staff continues to be a top challenge at many colleges and universities. This article focuses on how leaders can develop
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