For many faculty, stepping into a department chair role can feel like a detour—an administrative obligation that pulls time and energy away from research, teaching, and personal goals. But the chair position doesn’t have to be a pause in your career. When approached with intention, it can be a strategic opportunity for growth, visibility, and long-term leadership development.
Here are five ways department chairs can take ownership of their leadership journey and turn the role into a meaningful step forward.
1. Clarify Your Leadership Vision Early
Before your calendar fills with meetings and requests, take time to reflect on the kind of leader you want to be. What do you want to be known for in this role? What does a thriving department look like to you? How do you want faculty to experience your leadership?
Having a clear leadership vision gives you a foundation to return to when decisions get complicated or priorities begin to compete. It doesn’t have to be formal or elaborate—just a few guiding principles that reflect your values, your goals for the department, and your aspirations for your own growth. The earlier you articulate it, the easier it becomes to lead with consistency and purpose.
2. Build Skills That Go Beyond the Chair Role
The chair role is one of the few faculty positions that offers real-time training in leadership. You’re learning how to navigate conflict, communicate across power structures, manage budgets, support faculty development, and align departmental needs with institutional priorities all while balancing your own workload.
Rather than treating these as one-off tasks, look at them as skills you’re building. The ability to run effective meetings, coach others through challenges, and lead change with empathy are competencies that extend far beyond the chair’s office. Investing in your leadership development—through peer support, resources, coaching, or intentional practice—can serve you well in future roles, whether you remain in academia or transition to another path.
3. Focus on Influence, Not Just Authority
The title of department chair comes with formal authority, but that’s rarely enough to move a department forward. Chairs who succeed in creating real impact focus on building influence—earned through trust, credibility, and shared purpose.
Start by listening. Understand the concerns, needs, and aspirations of the people you’re leading. Be transparent in your decision-making and follow through on your commitments. Invite feedback, even when it’s uncomfortable. Influence grows when faculty know they can trust you to be fair, consistent, and open.
When you cultivate influence, you’re not just managing processes—you’re shaping the culture of your department in ways that can last long after your term ends.
4. Make Space for Your Own Career
It’s easy for chairs to lose sight of their own professional goals. Department needs are constant, and it can feel like there’s always something more urgent than your writing, research, or personal development. But deprioritizing your own growth isn’t sustainable, and it isn’t necessary.
Protecting your time doesn’t require dramatic changes. It might look like blocking out two hours a week for research, identifying one goal to advance each semester, or building in time for leadership development. Delegating tasks, setting boundaries around email, and using staff and faculty committees strategically can also help free up bandwidth.
Staying connected to your own work and aspirations keeps you grounded, and reminds you that this role is one chapter in a longer professional journey.
5. See the Role as a Strategic Opportunity
As chair, you gain insight into how your institution functions—how decisions get made, where influence resides, and what kinds of leadership are most effective in your context. You meet people across campus you may never have otherwise engaged, and you get to help shape the direction of your department.
This vantage point is valuable. Whether you envision staying in academic leadership or returning to a faculty role, the skills and relationships you build as chair can expand what’s possible next. Think of this role not as a holding pattern, but as a chance to sharpen your perspective, grow your network, and clarify what kind of impact you want to make going forward.
Final Thoughts
The department chair role is challenging, but it also opens the door to meaningful growth. When approached with intention, it can become more than a service requirement—it can be a turning point in your academic journey.
In our work with department chairs, we’ve seen how powerful it can be to have space for reflection, structured support, and a network of peers facing similar challenges. When chairs are given the tools to lead well and grow professionally, the role becomes not just manageable, but transformative.
If you’re looking for that kind of support, the Department Chair Success Program (CSP) might be a good fit. Learn more about CSP here.