Five years ago, higher education leaders everywhere were navigating the personal implications of a newly-minted global pandemic while also working overtime to support their teams, constituents, and communities through a fundamental destabilization of not only the higher ed sector but every aspect of our daily lives. We all emerged from that year never wanting to hear the word “unprecedented” again. But what higher education is facing at this moment is, once more, unprecedented, representing a significant degree of challenge to foundational assumptions about our sector.
So, what does it take for college and university leaders to sustain themselves and the communities in their care through these dramatic changes? By leading with the following five intentions, we hope you find yourself more able to ground your daily leadership with focus and purpose.
Lead With Humanity
More than ever, faculty and staff need to feel seen and valued as unique individuals. Higher ed leaders can build interpersonal and organizational trust during uncertain times by sharing information about decisions that impact people, demonstrating the capability to lead through challenges, showing up consistently and with integrity, and recognizing the unique contributions of all members of the campus community. The more individuals in your environment can see that they matter, the more they will trust that the organization has their best interest at heart.
Lead With Humility
In 2020, leaders everywhere had to make rapid decisions with limited information. 2025 is proving to be much the same. It is not the job of a leader to know everything; it is the job of a leader to carefully and efficiently assess the information at hand and then make the best decision for the moment.
In crises, leaders must enter every situation with the humility of constant learners, engage diverse voices in the decision-making process, and acknowledge that tomorrow’s next best decision may represent a change in course as new information becomes available.
Lead With Perspective
The good created through the work of education is real and lasting. There are millions and millions of learners in our country who, if higher education is their path, can and will be transformed through their college education in the years to come. What we have ahead is a marathon, not a sprint. It is the future we can offer the next generation of students to which we must hold fast.
Lead With Self-Care
You can only be as good to those around you as you are to yourself. Leading with self-care may mean modeling transparent wellbeing practices like taking time for exercise or setting times with your team when you will be away from your devices. It might mean prioritizing time with family and supporting the efforts of your team members to do the same. Most of all, it should mean fostering a culture where wellbeing is normalized as both a value in and of itself as well as an asset toward the impact your institution is trying to make.
Lead With Hope
Reacting to the next news cycle, and the one after that, is not a strategy for success, and hope for the future can be so easily lost when we become myopic. Leaders bear responsibility for keeping the aperture open to consider and shape a strategic future toward which we can plan, even when the path seems unclear.
How do we want to be living out our mission and purpose three, five, or fifteen years from now? We can create additional certainty toward that future with every day that passes and each decision we make, if we keep our eyes on that point in the distance and speak into it consistently. We all need hope for the future, and in times of crisis, we look to leaders to help us find it.
Set Your Leadership Intentions for 2025 and Beyond
These external challenges can feel overwhelming and will not be solved by good leaders alone. But without good leaders at the table, none of them will be addressed effectively. It stands to reason that the higher education sector needs campus leaders to be connected, engaged, and steadfast—serving campuses, teams, and students through these ever-evolving issues.
Credo offers a suite of services and programs designed to build up and support strong leaders of all kinds. Reach out and start a conversation to learn more!