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Whether you are aspiring to a new leadership role or navigating your current leadership position, we are here to support you. Explore our curated list of articles that offer insight into leadership searches, what it means to lead well, and both the challenges and privileges that come with leading today.
Searching for Leadership Positions
Building Your Reference List for Higher Education Leadership Roles
Even the most experienced leaders can struggle to maintain a reliable list of references that’s ready when needed. Consider these do’s and don’ts as you build and nurture your list.
Why Values Are Central to Career Decisions
When describing your desired career path, are you focusing solely on titles? Annmarie Caño, author of “Leading Toward Liberation,” shares why it’s important to first focus on your values and the kind of impact you want to make in your career.
It’s a Fantastic Job, but Is It Right for You?
A seasoned academic leader offers guidance on navigating your next career move — highlighting the importance of self-reflection, assessing whether your skills truly match the role, and ensuring alignment with an institution’s goals.
Leading Well
Lessons in Leadership: Reflections from a Long Career in Higher Education
Written as a reflective look back at a long career in higher ed, this piece contrasts effective and ineffective leadership through real moments involving communication, conflict, change, performance management, and overall trust.
How To Be the Leader Everyone Actually Wants To Work For
A vice president for university communications and marketing shows what “Heart First” leadership looks like in practice. Using the LASER method — Listen, Acknowledge, Share, Empower, and Return — this piece advises leaders on how to show their employees more empathy and support, so they can ease burnout and build the kind of teams people want to be part of.
Why Effective Leaders Are Both Transformational and Transactional
The term “transformational leader” is trending on job descriptions and resumes alike. While being transformational has its benefits, effective leaders must balance both transformational and transactional qualities.
Navigating Leadership Challenges
The Kindest Thing You Can Do Is Have That Hard Conversation
Managers and leaders often confuse avoiding conflict with kindness. In reality, avoidance hurts everyone: the struggling employee, their colleagues, students, and the mission you’re all trying to serve.
Examining Turnover in Higher Ed and Specific Strategies for Mitigating It
Is your institution struggling with voluntary turnover? Here’s a look at some possible strategies to improve your retention of faculty and staff.
Fostering Mutual Respect Between Staff and Faculty
Faculty and staff often share the same mission but experience different pressures and expectations. This reflection explores how misunderstandings about status, workload, and respect can strain collaboration — and how empathy and dialogue can help bridge the divide. By encouraging leaders to foster healthier dynamics, it reminds readers that strong campus communities depend on mutual understanding, not hierarchy.
Leading When in the Minority
What It’s Like To Lead as a Latina
Latina leaders remain underrepresented in higher education leadership, and those who do reach the presidency usually do so as the first at their institution. Based on a recent ACE and TIAA Institute report focused on Latina community college presidents, this article explores the realities of leading while navigating the pressure to assimilate and challenges institutions and governing boards to move beyond representation to actively recruit and support Latina leaders.
Success as a Female Leader: Perspectives from a College President
In a Careers and Coffee conversation, we explored insights from Dr. Tomikia LeGrande, president of Prairie View A&M University, on what it takes to succeed as a female leader in academia.
Growing as a Leader
Academic Leadership Development: Sorting Hype from Help
How can you sort what’s “hypeful” from what’s truly helpful at this stage of your leadership development? Here are some things to consider.
How Affinity Groups Can Support Your Leadership Journey
When done right, affinity groups can energize participants and enhance their professional experiences. Learn more about the benefits of these groups for leaders and how to build and maintain one.
Lead Thoughtfully, Listen Deeply: Presidential Wisdom for the First 100 Days
This article captures key lessons from college presidents on how to begin a leadership role with purpose. From building trust and learning institutional culture to facing financial challenges with transparency, it offers a roadmap for starting strong in any senior position.
Emerging Conversations
From Transactional to Transformational: It is Time To Rebrand the Financial Aid Office
Written from the perspective of a vice president of student financial aid services, this article challenges outdated perceptions of financial aid offices. It argues that the work is far more relational and student-centered than the name suggests and shows how language, culture, and communication can reshape access and student success.
Between Caution and Curiosity: How Faculty Are Navigating AI
In a recent episode of the HigherEdJobs Podcast, Dr. Jose Antonio Bowen and Dr. C. Edward Watson joined the show to explore how higher education can integrate AI into teaching, rethink integrity, adapt curriculum, and help faculty and students partner with technology responsibly.
