The Successful President of Tomorrow

The 5 Skills Future Leaders Will Need: Learn the skills presidents and senior administrators need to know to lead their colleges and universities to success in today’s difficult environment.

College leaders are under a barrage of challenges: Enrollment is suffering; public funding is stagnant; tuition revenue is softening; and demographics are shifting, driving institutions to adjust to a student body that is often older, more racially diverse, and lower income. That barrage means presidents, their cabinets, deans, and those that aspire to such positions need to be better prepared.

This Chronicle issue brief outlines the challenges, but it does more than identify the troubling trends in higher ed. It examines how the leadership role has changed (it’s no longer a steward but a change maker), and then breaks down the five skills that leaders must have to be successful. It includes advice from presidents at top institutions and a section that analyzes the new pathways to the presidency (tip: the provost’s role isn’t the springboard it used to be).

Purchase the issue brief for insight into these five essential skills: 

• Analyzing the business: You need to focus on college finances to revitalize an institution, while staying true to its core mission.
• Innovating: You must develop the capacity and mindset to operate like a start-up while maintaining the day-to-day large-scale operations of a college.
• Building relationships: To fulfill an agenda for change, you need to foster positive relationships with a diverse and often competing set of constituents.
• Careful communication: Today’s social and political environment mean you will be called on repeatedly to comment about pressing issues. Pick your words – and when to comment – carefully.  
• Managing a crisis: A campus emergency is almost inevitable. How do you prepare ahead of time and what should be your priorities in the moment?

Date: May 2019
Pages: 40
Digital File Size: 3.98 MB 

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