Embarking on a new leadership position
Embarking upon a new leadership position is a challenging step in an academic STEMM career. Here are some tips for getting your ‘ducks are lined up in a row’.
By Patricia A. Maurice and Janet G. Hering
1 October 2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13843020
Finding, interviewing for, and negotiating for a new leadership position can all be grueling tasks, especially if you need to move your home, office, and laboratory. From our experience, we realized that it’s worth taking the time to think through your readiness for your new position so that you can be as effective as possible right from the start.
How and why do you want this position?
Even before you accept an offer, ask yourself why you are interested in moving into a leadership position, particularly your specific position, and what you want to accomplish. Realize that if you are perceived as too ambitious, it can raise a red flag to others who might be concerned about your motives. In some instances, you may feel obliged to take on a position such as a department chairpersonship because you are simply the only qualified faculty member at a given time. If you have good reason for not wanting to take on a role, think outside the box; you might identify an alternative, creative solution. If you can’t summon at least some level of enthusiasm, just say ‘no’ – it’s hard to do a job well if you hate it. On the other hand, if it's a position you feel you will enjoy and excel in, then don’t be afraid to ‘go for it.’
No matter what, be sure to negotiate effectively [1]. This will help ensure not just your personal success but the success of the organization. (Stay tuned for a future post focusing on negotiation.)
Once you have accepted a position, remind yourself of why you decided to embark on the new adventure and what positive experiences and new challenges you anticipate.
Are ‘all your ducks lined up’ for success?
Before you decide to pursue a leadership position, consider your level of preparedness and whether you have developed the traits needed to be an effective leader (which we discussed in a previous post [2]). If you’ve already accepted a position, work fast to be ready before your starting date.
Here are points to consider so that you will have ‘all your ducks lined up’; they echo the “Eight Questions for Women Embarking on Academic Leadership” that Janet asked in a 2022 post [3].
The right position, time, and place. Taking on a leadership position pre-tenure or, in some cases, as an associate professor, can severely impede your ability to build your research and teaching programs. Are you being asked to serve as an associate dean for teaching when your main focus is on research, or vice versa? Do you have a young family and/or aging parents without a good support network? Are you being recruited to serve where you do not share the core values of the institution and/or the local community? Are you fluent in the local language(s) and do you fit into the culture? Is the institution ready for a female leader? Hopefully, you fully evaluated these points before you accepted a position. But if not, give it some thought because you may need to tread carefully if the position, time, and place aren’t the best fit.
Institutional knowledge. Determining whether a position is right for you requires that you understand how the institution functions. This is especially important if you will be moving to a new institution, but it can also apply if you are moving up within your own institution. Read the mission statement and other formal documents such as the faculty handbook. Be aware, however, that every institution has some informal power structures and practices that cannot be discerned from formal documents [3]. Ask detailed questions about the budget. Does the institution have a history of (un)successful women leaders?
Strong résumé and name recognition. Even if you were deemed qualified for a position, realize that the strength of your résumé and how well you are known (inter)nationally will affect whether your colleagues will respect you and your long-term success. Do not fall victim to ‘imposter syndrome’ but keep working on strengthening your résumé as you proceed. As we wrote in a previous post, awards and honors, both external and within your organization, can help to increase your visibility and credibility [4].
Support network. Do you have a good support network at home and work? If you have a partner, do you have an equitable division of work in the home and caregiving? Will you need (and be able to) hire outside help? Do you have friends, allies, and mentors whom you can rely on? Will you have an excellent executive assistant and reliable leadership team members? If you are moving to a new institution, how much latitude will you have to select your own team? Will you have resources to hire new team members? Will you have staff members with long-term institutional knowledge and possibly friends in offices of purchasing, development, etc.? If you do not have a strong support network, it is essential to put this in place as quickly as possible.
Leadership training. Have you had formal leadership training? If not, there are various options available such as the HERS Institute for higher education development (mentioned in Dean Camesano’s post [5]). It’s a good idea to ask women in your support network for their recommendations and also to look through the resources we posted previously [6].
Health and wellbeing. Do you have good mental and physical health and healthy habits? Leadership positions can be grueling, so you need to take particularly good care of your health.
Some additional considerations and recommendations
The points mentioned above will apply in most, if not all, cases. Other important considerations are more specific to an institutional setting or more personal.
In some leadership positions (particularly at the top executive level), leaders are not expected to continue their research programs. Even in those situations, a leader may wish to do so, either from her own intellectual and professional interest or to be able to move back into a regular faculty position if things do not pan out (especially within the first few years). In many leadership positions, the leader will be expected to maintain her activities as faculty member (though teaching duties are usually reduced). If a leader intends to maintain her research program it must have sufficient momentum (and resources) to be self-sustaining at least in the short term. Resources for this can be part of negotiations for a leadership position.
Leadership positions can also vary in their expected duration. In some cases, a leader might reasonably expect to retire from her leadership position. This depends, of course, on the age at which a leader takes on her position. But it is worth keeping in mind that the tenure of top executive positions has been decreasing [7], reflecting increasing pressure on leaders. Leaders need to be aware of when and how they will be evaluated, particularly if this involves a formal re-appointment process. It is always a good idea to keep oneself marketable and to have a concept for self-evaluation, which may include soliciting input from trusted colleagues and one’s support network.
A key aspect of leadership positions in the increased scrutiny that leaders receive. Controversial statements on social media or past ethical lapses may re-surface when least convenient. A leader needs to be prepared in advance to address any potential ‘skeletons in the closet’. If a new leader is active on social media, she may need to rethink her strategy, possibly with the support of the communications experts in her organization.
On a personal level, leadership positions are often taken on by women who are advanced in their careers. This means that the implications for retirement need to be considered carefully, especially if the leader is moving to a new institution or country. Some retirement planning (possibly including rebalancing one’s retirement portfolio) is likely necessary; don’t wait too long to start formal planning.
A few words from our own experience
Both of us made major moves in taking on our leadership positions. Patricia moved from a unionized public university to a non-union private Catholic university. Janet moved from a private university in the USA to a publicly funded, federal research institute in Switzerland. We both had to deal with substantial differences in formal regulations and processes (e.g., labor law) as well as in norms and expectations within our institutions. Our experiences made us realize the importance of having ‘all our ducks lined up’ (even if some of that happened on the job).
We also realized the importance of taking time to get to know our new colleagues and environment and not making snap judgments. First impressions are important, but the initial impression that some people and groups make as being helpful and reliable may not be borne out over time. A new leader may feel pressure to move quickly to chalk up some major accomplishments. But it can be treacherous to act precipitously before fully understanding the people and organization. That said, a new leader should not be afraid to act when a major problem or opportunity arises that needs to be addressed quickly and authoritatively.
As we have written in a previous post [8], both of us found our leadership positions to be very rewarding. We are proud of how our institutions developed under our leadership. We were able to provide supportive working environments for the members of our organizations and to contribute to the success of our organizations and its members. We hope that this post and other in our Epistimi blog series will encourage other women to take on leadership roles and support them in those endeavors.
Questions for further thought and discussion
· If you are in a leadership position, how did your expectations differ from your actual experiences?
· When starting your leadership position, do you feel that you had the information and resources that you needed? If not, what improvements would you recommend for newly hired or promoted leaders within your organization?
· Even if you did not have ‘all your ducks lined up’ when you started your leadership position, have you been able to improve this over time? In particular, are you taking care of your physical and mental health and retirement planning?
Notes and references
[1] Bowles, H.R. (2023) “How Women Can Negotiate for the Academic Career They Truly Want”, Harvard Business Publishing: Education, https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/how-women-can-negotiate-for-the-academic-career-they-truly-want
[3] Hering, J.G. (2022) “Eight Questions for Women Embarking on Academic Leadership”, 500 Women Scientists Bern-Fribourg blog, https://www.500womenscientistsfribourgbern.ch/post/eight-questions-for-women-embarking-on-academic-leadership
[4] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/nominating-women-in-stemm-for-awards
[6] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/not-reinventing-the-wheel-recommended-websites
[7] Bowman, K.D. (2017) “The Erosion of Presidential Tenure”, Public Purpose, https://aascu.org/wp-content/uploads/public-purpose/17summer_p6_ErosionPresidentialTenure.pdf
[8] https://www.epistimi.org/blog/the-joys-of-being-a-senior-woman-leader