The seven traits higher education leaders need to drive change

What happens when there are more university spaces than students willing to fill them? In the United States, excess teaching capacity is now equivalent to 8.5 million full-time slots, according to research – equal to the total enrolment of all US colleges and universities with fewer than 10,000 students. The passionate national belief in education that built one of the world’s greatest centres of higher education and research has led to overbuilding, and now it seems massive consolidation of the sector is unavoidable.

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As the sector begins to consolidate, either through an increasing number of closures, or better still, through mergers, the stress placed on leadership only increases. Mergers between two or more institutions of higher education, along with closures, major strategic partnerships and other major institutional restructuring, are what has been referred to as “Big Scary Change” – change that has greater impact and is faster and more radical than is usually seen in higher education. Change this big and this scary invariably provokes university staff into opposition, often resulting in personal attacks and strong condemnation of all leaders involved.   

We have been studying the leadership attributes, skills and behaviours required to undertake Big Scary Change in higher education. In a prior study, we assessed the key elements determining merger success and found that the two top factors were: a) a committed and understanding governing body, and b) the right leadership. But, importantly, the leaders that undertook Big Scary Change had traits not usually found in higher education leadership.

In studying these specific leadership traits, we identified seven qualities they possessed that differed from other academic leaders who weren’t undertaking major institutional restructuring. 

Be comfortable with change

The first was that leaders that undertake Big Scary Change must have experience and be comfortable with managing significant change, uncertainty and risk. Institutions are generally resistant to significant change. Success builds complacency, and in a sector that can justifiably tout its powerful and positive impact on a global scale, resistance to change is even more ingrained in the cultural logic. But change we must, as our environment and our demographics are changing rapidly. As former General Motors CEO Jack Welch reminded us, “If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”

Since most higher education leaders have risen through the academic hierarchy, they are also often resistant to change. More importantly, they are very unfamiliar and uncomfortable driving and managing change. Big Scary Change is big and scary for a reason. A leader’s prior experience facing and managing significant institutional restructuring, particularly in the academic arena, helped to ensure the success of these initiatives.    

Envision how it will work

Leaders of Big Scary Change must be able to provide all-inclusive operational envisioning. While all leaders are supposed to provide a vision of the future, it is important to distinguish “operational envisioning” from “providing a vision”. It’s rare that a vision statement about being the “best” or “strongest” also spells out how to get there in detail. 

Operational envisioning requires articulating a vision statement that speaks to how those goals will be achieved and will operate. A good example is the founding fathers of the United States, who described, codified and operationalised a democracy that neither they nor anyone else at the time had ever seen or operated in. For those leading Big Scary Change to success, their vision of the future must speak to how it will work and, most importantly, how will it affect individual stakeholders. 

Put yourself in the driving seat

Leaders undertaking Big Scary Change must be able to sense and drive the pace of change. Normally in higher education, change occurs incrementally and slowly, after much reflection, thought and debate. However, implementing major changes requires a much faster pace to meet regulatory deadlines. Stay ahead of the resistance, because we can be sure there will always be resistance. 

The pace of these initiatives is rapid and often sequential, with changes happening in matters of days or weeks, rather than years or decades. Leaders should drive the pace of these undertakings, in essence setting the drumbeat for it. They need to ensure that the necessary tasks are completed on time and on schedule, and not allow significant delays to derail the entire process. 

Communication is key

Leaders of Big Scary Change must prioritise and drive communication. Create urgency without creating fear, all while selling the vision. All leaders, not just in higher education, are much more comfortable providing good news and celebrating small and big wins. However, leading Big Scary Change requires leaders to ensure the campus and its many stakeholders clearly understand the stresses of the environment and the institutional challenges ahead.

These leaders must strike a balance between expressing a significant level of urgency for change in their community, with the acknowledgement that there are many effective ways of addressing the challenges. Yet, they also recognise their significant cost and effort.

Understand how to build teams and delegate

Most leaders naturally gravitate to creating executive teams of individuals whose loyalty they can count on. But not all “loyal” team members will have the skills or inclination necessary to manage a major restructuring event. Creating high-functioning, big change-oriented teams means being as objective and rigorous as possible in the selection and retention of team members. Leaders also need to develop systems to ensure delegated work is completed on time and in the right sequence. 

Lead from the front

Normally (and wisely), most leaders will lead from the side or behind, staying out of the limelight – and the line of fire – as much as possible, and this is even more common when undertaking controversial initiatives. 

However, when Big Scary Change is afoot, the topmost leaders, including the governing board, must be seen to be supportive of the undertaking and its direction. These leaders must be willing to visibly and directly engage with the initiative and their communities – no wavering is allowed. 

Have courage

A willingness to undertake Big Scary Change to benefit the institution and its students, at the expense of one’s own comfort, tenure and, possibly, career, requires significant courage. Leaders of these initiatives must be prepared to take on personal and professional risk to drive forward a scheme that may not succeed, or even be completed – but is rooted in the belief that it is the best thing for the future of the institution and its students.

The seven skills we’ve outlined here don’t need to be inherent to higher education leaders undertaking Big Scary Change, as most of them can be learned. But we should recognise that there are two qualities that are more difficult to gain through study: a) experience and comfort managing significant change, uncertainty and risk, and b) courage. 

You can learn the former, to some extent, through deliberate training and employment opportunities. Courage is harder to instil, but governing boards can encourage its expression by providing leaders with a degree of protection – a safety net to help them take the leap. 

Higher education across the globe faces a challenging and rapidly changing future. There will be an increasing need for leaders who are willing and able to face and manage the difficult decisions and major institutional restructuring – Big Scary Change. Some may be able to learn the necessary skills, others may arise from non-traditional pathways to leadership, and still others may decide that undertaking Big Scary Change is not for them. The future of higher education and that of our students deserves it. 

Ricardo Azziz is director of the Center for Higher Education Mergers & Acquisitions (CHEMA) at the Foundation for Research and Education Excellence, principal at the SPH Consulting Group, and founding president of Georgia Regents University, now Augusta University; Lloyd Jacobs is president emeritus at the University of Toledo and senior consultant at SPH Consulting Group; Richard Katzman is senior fellow at CHEMA and senior consultant at SPH Consulting Group; Bonita Jacobs is senior fellow at CHEMA, senior consultant at SPH Consulting Group, and president emerita at the University of North Georgia.

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