In a labor market characterized by high executive turnover and shortened leadership tenure, many organizations are recognizing the value of internal promotions. Internal CEO appointments reached an all-time high in 2023, making internal hiring at all levels increasingly important for strengthening organizational culture and succession planning.
If you are a newly promoted member of our higher education senior leadership team, we would like to congratulate you and offer you some advice. Even if you take the first step, don't rush to take advantage of the newness that usually comes to appointed people. Coming from outside.
What does this mean for newly promoted leaders? Growing within an institution has many benefits. You are familiar with the company's history, goals, and challenges. You know administrative systems and processes. But relying too heavily on familiarity can come with risks and rob you of valuable opportunities. If your university does not provide mentoring or coaching to newly promoted leaders, consider creating your own onboarding, using the following examples as a guide.
Reinvest in your relationships. Considering your previous interactions with senior team members or their representatives, it may be tempting to assume that you have already established a sufficient working relationship with them. But your new role is a rare and valuable opportunity to get to know them and their work more diversely and deeply, and vice versa.
Ask questions through regular informal meetings with colleagues. Talk openly about what aspects of your senior team's work may be new to you, such as board relations or organization-wide budgeting. Don't feel like asking for get-to-know-you time from a busy manager is a burden. For most, it is a welcome opportunity to reflect on the greater purpose of our daily work and insights gained from our leadership journey. Moreover, the better you know each other, the easier it will be for you to cooperate and provide mutual support.
Look with fresh eyes. You may not be new to the institution, but the opportunity for advancement asks you to look at the institution in a new, clear, and broad way. In the Zen tradition, this practice can be defined as “beginner’s mind.” That mindset will benefit you and This is especially true if you join the senior team that sets the direction and strategy of the institution. One famous Zen teacher said: “In the mind of a novice there are many possibilities, but in the mind of an expert there are few possibilities.” One of the gifts of newness is the freedom to ask “Why?” and “Why not?” There is little risk of punishment or embarrassment. Start a new role where there is potential and promise to return to it often.
Reframe your wins and losses. Serving at a senior leadership level is more about charting the course than leading the work. The mindset needed is not “Are you getting the job done?” and more “Are we doing the right thing?” As a leader at this level, you are called to take a broad look at the overall picture of opportunities and threats, needs and constraints across the institution. In this context, the way we think about winning and losing probably needs to change. You yourself may not have “successed” the budget increase requested for your department, but as a member of the leadership team, you have helped allocate agency resources strategically to advance the agency’s work and secure its future.
Contributes to collective intelligence. In effective organizations, only the most challenging issues come to the leadership table. (If it weren't so tricky, it would have been resolved at a lower level). At the senior team level, problems are rarely simple or one-dimensional. It’s about how to expand diversity, equity, and inclusion. communication through crisis; Alternatively, developing an institutional strategy for AI requires the collective intelligence of a team. The strengths of you and your colleagues enhance the cognitive and strategic capabilities of the entire team.
It's easy to think that since Thorny Topic Not true. You are part of a senior team with more than just knowledge of the field. We are no longer free to say “that’s not true.” Take the time to understand the problem and its context, then bring your best thinking to the table.
Almost every notable action an agency takes, whether it's a policy change, investment or divestment, or program launch or termination, has ripple effects in other areas. When you join the senior leadership team, you are called to care deeply and care deeply for the entire institution. The buck stops at the high table. You and your colleagues, collectively the “administration,” grow and fall together. It is important to engage thoughtfully in new relationships and new ways of thinking. Doing so adds value because not only do you know the place and its past, but you are prepared to ask new questions to shape its future.