During times of transformation emerging leaders need to be inside the leadership tent

These are difficult times to lead in higher education. Financial pressure, global conflict, regulatory demands, changing student needs and fast-moving technology mean institutions are making difficult decisions, often at pace.

Much of the work of turning those decisions into practice falls to heads of school, faculty leaders and directors of professional services – the leaders in the middle of our higher education institutions. During times of transformation and change, the role of these ”mid-level” leaders is pivotal in making sure that change agendas are understood, executed, and have the intended impact. They are also the people who will be running our institutions in ten years’ time – they are, in that sense, also “emerging” leaders.

In our latest joint research with Wonkhe, we wanted to understand not just what these emerging leaders need to do their jobs well now, but what their experience of change is teaching them about leadership. Over the summer we brought together 35 emerging leaders and 21 members of executive teams to explore those questions. The full report: Developing mid-level leadership to build capacity for strategic change is now available for download.

What came through clearly is that the sector has a great deal of talent in these emerging leader roles – and we have not always invested in it as we might. Nor have we consistently built the institutional capacity for change that would let that talent flourish. The result is that capable people can sometimes feel adrift, and that change is something done to, rather than with, them. Change agendas can feel incoherent, and the politics of change mysterious.

None of this is chronic, there is good practice to learn from and there is much that can be done to address the gap in ways that will bring results both today and in a decade’s time. But that requires more than individual development. Emerging leaders need direct support and training in leadership but even more than that, they need to operate in an environment that allows them to grow as leaders.

Confident leaders, ready to contribute

Emerging leaders told us they are confident in their own abilities. In our pre-session survey, 86 per cent felt confident fostering psychological safety in their teams, and 82 per cent felt confident translating strategy for their own area. They know what good change looks like, and they want to be part of it.

They were less sure about the institutional machinery around them. Almost all (96 per cent) said managing the impact of change – prioritising, sequencing, balancing pace and capacity – was important, but only 14 per cent thought their institution did this well. It is a relatively small, self-selecting group, but the message from the discussions was consistent. What emerging leaders want is a clearer sense of how change is designed and delivered. As one senior leader put it, they want to be “critical by design” – architects of difficult decisions, not just the people who cascade or implement them.

Leadership in the middle of a university has always relied on influence rather than command, and many emerging leaders find real satisfaction in it. But in a period of hard choices, they can find themselves accountable for decisions made elsewhere, without the budgets or authority to shape them, and fielding pressure from above and below. Senior leaders recognised this as a question of how roles have been designed, not a shortcoming in the people doing them. One observed that leaders judged ineffective in one setting proved “magnificent” once the constraints were lifted. The leadership capacity is there, but it requires a degree of culture change to unlock it.

A shared leadership culture

The strongest theme of all was trust, and here the findings point to a positive way forward. “Trust is the currency of change,” one senior leader told us. It is built through consistency, honesty and follow-through: saying what you will do, doing it, then reporting back on how it went and what was learned. Conscious efforts to talk about and learn from change can challenge deeply-held beliefs about whether or not institutions are “good at change” – some have more success stories than they realise. Similarly, where change has not worked, being honest about why and learning from the experience, builds confidence for the next change.

When change is continuous, leaders need to be constantly managing it – it’s not something that shows up for a period and then everyone goes back to their real jobs. Senior and emerging leaders alike saw a shared leadership culture as being critical, both in sustaining and managing change and in developing the leaders who can make it stick now and keep it going into the future. Where leaders at different levels coach one another, test ideas, talk honestly about success and failure, and share responsibility for decisions, emerging leaders feel supported to take considered risks. This is the thinking behind Advance HE’s Framework for Leading in Higher Education, which sees leadership as a collective, relational practice exercised across an institution, not confined to formal roles.

There are also some practical steps arising from the research. Building in infrastructure for change means designing processes, bringing in expertise, and defining the governance of change, but it also means strategically deploying leadership. Institutions can involve those who will deliver change in its design; give emerging leaders clear success criteria and permission to stop doing things; connect leadership development to real strategic priorities; and convene extended leadership networks that cross academic and professional services boundaries to create a common understanding of the challenge. Widening who gets selected for leadership will bring a richer range of leadership styles to the table.

Across the sector, we can share what works in developing the next generation – this should not be a competitive space. The emerging leaders we spoke to have a sophisticated grasp of what makes change work and a genuine appetite to do it well. Bringing them into the leadership tent is the right thing to do for the sector’s future. It is also one of the surest ways to grow our capacity for change right now.

This article is published as part of a partnership with Advance HE. The full report, Developing mid-level leadership to build capacity for strategic change, is available from Advance HE.