Author: NCFDD
Faculty leadership roles often come with an unusual expectation: learn the job once you have it.
A faculty member may spend years building expertise as a researcher, teacher, mentor, and colleague. Then they become a department chair, program director, center director, associate dean, or another academic leader.
Almost overnight, the work changes.
They may now be managing conflict, setting priorities, communicating decisions, supporting colleagues, and navigating institutional policies. They may also need to balance individual needs with the needs of a department or program.
Yet institutions often offer leadership development only after faculty step into the role. By then, the transition is already underway.
Faculty need opportunities to build leadership skills earlier.
Earlier preparation does not mean creating a pipeline in which every faculty member is expected to move into administration. It means recognizing that leadership is a set of skills that can be developed over time and that faculty benefit from space to build those skills before a formal role begins.
The transition into faculty leadership is bigger than a change in title
Moving into an academic leadership position is not simply an expansion of a faculty member’s existing responsibilities.
It often changes how they work and how they relate to colleagues.
For example, a new department chair may suddenly be responsible for conversations about workload, performance, resources, hiring, and interpersonal conflict. Someone who was recently a peer may now need to make decisions that affect colleagues they have worked alongside for years.
Expertise in a discipline does not automatically prepare someone for those situations.
Academic leaders need skills that many faculty have had little reason to develop formally. They may need to navigate difficult conversations, set expectations, delegate, manage competing priorities, and make decisions that affect other people.
Those skills take time to build.
When institutions wait until someone assumes a leadership role, they are asking that person to develop new skills while also learning the position itself.
Leadership development gives faculty room to practice
Earlier faculty leadership development creates space to learn before every decision carries high stakes.
Conflict management is one example.
A new chair who encounters a serious disagreement within a department may have little time to think through different approaches. They need to respond while also considering relationships, policy requirements, and the practical consequences of the situation.
Faculty who have already practiced difficult conversations enter that moment with more options. They may have frameworks they can draw on or examples from other academic leaders to consider.
The same is true for other leadership responsibilities.
Faculty can learn how to establish boundaries before their calendars are dominated by other people’s priorities. They can practice delegation before they become responsible for a team. They can think more intentionally about decision-making before they are regularly making decisions on behalf of a department.
Preparation will not remove the learning curve that comes with a new role. It can give faculty a stronger foundation when those challenges arise.
Faculty are already leading before they hold formal leadership roles
Formal titles are only one form of leadership in higher education.
Faculty lead research teams and labs. They coordinate programs and committees. They mentor students and colleagues. They shape curriculum and organize collaborative projects.
Those responsibilities often require many of the same skills used in formal leadership positions.
That means leadership development has value even for faculty who never become chairs, directors, or deans.
A faculty member may benefit from learning how to facilitate a difficult conversation or clarify expectations within a research team. Another may need stronger skills for managing a collaborative project or working across differences on a committee.
These are leadership skills, even when no formal title is attached.
Faculty leadership development should not be framed only as preparation for administration. It can also help faculty become more effective in the leadership work they are already doing.
Earlier development can help faculty make more informed choices
Faculty are sometimes asked whether they are interested in leadership without having much opportunity to understand what the work actually involves.
A committee chairship or program director role may provide some exposure. Still, many aspects of academic leadership remain invisible until someone enters the position.
Leadership development can make those responsibilities more visible.
Faculty can learn more about what it means to manage competing priorities, supervise others, make difficult decisions, and remain accountable for work beyond their own.
That knowledge can help them decide whether a leadership role fits their interests and goals.
One faculty member may discover that they enjoy facilitating groups and supporting colleagues but have little interest in personnel responsibilities. Another may realize that leadership work aligns closely with the parts of their current role they find most meaningful.
Either conclusion is useful.
Leadership development should help faculty understand the work well enough to decide whether and how they want leadership to fit into their careers.
Institutions should look beyond the first year in the role
Many institutions already provide onboarding, orientation, or leadership programs for new chairs and other academic leaders.
That support matters. New leaders will always encounter questions they could not have anticipated.
But institutions can also create opportunities before someone is appointed to a formal role.
They can make leadership development available to faculty who are interested in building those skills. They can create opportunities to learn from current academic leaders. They can also give faculty structured ways to practice communication, conflict navigation, priority setting, and delegation.
Institutions can also be more transparent about what leadership roles involve.
Faculty considering a chairship or administrative position should have access to more than a job description. They should understand how the role may affect their time, relationships, decision-making, and other professional goals.
Faculty will still encounter situations they have never handled before. Earlier preparation gives them skills and frameworks to draw on when they do.
Prepare faculty for leadership before asking them to lead
Academic leadership will always involve learning on the job.
Institutions change. Departments differ. No leadership development opportunity can replicate every situation a faculty member will face.
But faculty should not have to start from scratch.
Those who have already built skills in communication, conflict management, decision-making, and priority setting can enter leadership roles with more confidence in how to approach the work.
Faculty leadership development can begin before the title does.
For institutions thinking about how to support future academic leaders, that is a useful place to start.
