What makes a leader in higher education effective?
Leaders must be comfortable engaging with a wide range of people; both in and outside the campus and in both public and private settings. And Intellectual Curiosity – This is another very important quality required to be successful for a Leader in the Higher Education. According to recent studies, great leaders tend to exhibit the following four traits: people-centrism, purpose-centrism, learning-centrism, and versatility. Here is a summary of these characteristics as well as some ideas on how you can make mindset shifts to apply them to improve your own leadership abilities. Clearly, the purpose of higher education can encompass a wide variety of elements: labor market success; public service to society; and the development of students’ social skills, critical thinking skills, empathy, and commitment to civic engagement, to name a few. My training and experiences in the Army provided valuable insights into the principles and guidance into the makings of a true leader, none more impressive than the three Cs: competence, commitment and character. It may seem self-evident, but leaders must be competent — that’s a non-negotiable.