This article was originally published in 2025 and has been updated to reflect ongoing conversations around navigating change, building trust, and sustaining leadership in higher education.
Higher education leaders are once again navigating a period of deep uncertainty. Changing student needs, demographic shifts, regulatory instability, global disruption, and the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence are all reshaping the expectations placed on colleges and universities.
In moments like this, leadership is not only about making the right strategic decisions. It is also about building trust, sustaining people, and helping campus communities move forward with clarity and care.
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 recent years, leaders everywhere have had to make rapid decisions with limited information. Today’s environment demands 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 well-being 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 the Road Ahead
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.
The higher education sector needs campus leaders who are connected, engaged, and steadfast — serving campuses, teams, and students through issues that continue to evolve. By leading with humanity, humility, perspective, self-care, and hope, leaders can help their communities navigate change with greater trust and purpose.
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Why is trust important in higher education leadership during times of change?
Trust helps campus leaders navigate uncertainty, strengthen communication, and maintain alignment across faculty, staff, and students. During periods of disruption, transparent and people-centered leadership can help institutions remain focused on their mission while supporting community wellbeing.
What are the five leadership intentions discussed in this article?
The article highlights five leadership intentions for higher education leaders:
- Lead with humanity
- Lead with humility
- Lead with perspective
- Lead with self-care
- Lead with hope
Together, these approaches help leaders build trust, sustain teams, and guide institutions through change.
How can higher education leaders lead with humanity?
Leaders can lead with humanity by communicating openly, recognizing individual contributions, showing consistency and integrity, and ensuring faculty and staff feel seen and valued. Human-centered leadership strengthens interpersonal and organizational trust.
Why is humility important for college and university leaders?
Humility allows leaders to make thoughtful decisions even when information is incomplete. In rapidly changing environments, effective leaders listen to diverse perspectives, remain adaptable, and acknowledge when strategies or decisions need to evolve.
What does it mean to lead with perspective in higher education?
Leading with perspective means staying focused on the long-term impact of education, even during periods of uncertainty. It encourages leaders to remember the transformational value of higher education and remain committed to serving future generations of learners.
How can leaders prioritize self-care while supporting their teams?
Leaders can model healthy workplace behaviors by setting boundaries, prioritizing wellbeing, taking time away from devices, and encouraging work-life balance for their teams. Supporting wellbeing helps create healthier and more sustainable campus cultures.
Why is hope an essential leadership quality during times of uncertainty?
Hope helps institutions remain future-focused instead of reacting only to immediate challenges. Leaders who communicate a clear long-term vision can inspire confidence, encourage resilience, and help campus communities navigate change with purpose.
How can colleges and universities build stronger leadership cultures?
Institutions can strengthen leadership cultures by investing in leadership development, fostering transparent communication, encouraging collaboration, and prioritizing trust and wellbeing across campus communities.
What challenges are currently shaping higher education leadership?
Higher education leaders are navigating challenges such as demographic shifts, changing student expectations, regulatory uncertainty, global disruption, and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.
