Foreword  xvii

of their journey: in becoming an HE leader, being a leader, and then leav-

ing an effective leadership legacy as they hand on the baton to their suc-
cessor. Moreover, as someone who has spent the last 15 years trying to build
practical, workplace-focused leadership development approaches in both HE
and City businesses, I am particularly pleased to see this volume take an
approach of offering practical guidance from peers and colleagues across the
world. ‘Learning by doing’ stories – including examples from outside the HE
sector – add immense value and can provide leaders with rich new learning
from colleagues who may have experienced similar challenges, experimented
with new approaches, and learned much in the process. This volume weaves
a wonderfully rich tapestry of such stories stitched together from leaders with
experiences from worlds as diverse as the HE, corporate, sporting, and mili-
tary spheres and, geographically, from those who have held leadership roles in
Europe, Australia, the US or war-torn Syria.
The structure of the book is also helpful, considering leadership from
three different perspectives along the career path: the ‘Pathway towards’
(‘Becoming’), the ‘Pathway within’ (‘Being’) and the ‘Pathway beyond’
(‘Leaving’). All stages present challenges, and the authors discuss important
issues from all these stages along the journey.
For example, there are the structural challenges of the career path ‘towards’,
if one is to become an HE leader. Given the increasing shift from longer-term
tenure to short-term contracts, how can we effectively build pathways in our
own institutions towards leadership, to retain and grow the next generation?
The book considers ‘developing from within’, critical to building the culture
of an institution. But how is it possible to do this effectively if it is still hard
to create a next career step beyond postdoctoral roles, enabling a viable talent
pool ready to become your next deans and vice-chancellors? Again, compari-
son from outside the sector can be valuable, because the corporate world is
also struggling with the pathways and retention of early/mid-career profession-
als, even if the drivers may be different. In those sectors, business models are
rapidly reshaping with the advent of increasing technology and automation,
and career roles and the traditional pathways are also evolving rapidly and
fracturing. With the additional issue of the next generation seeking different
things from work, the challenge of retaining diverse talent pools is great, and
cross-sector learning is always instructive and helpful.
Looking beyond these structural challenges, the volume emphasises cor-
rectly that there are then the needs to identify potential leaders across your
institution, and to give them early exposure to opportunities to learn leader-
ship by doing leadership. But what type of leadership might that be? It might be
leadership of the institution’s global partnership strategy, or of building profile
in a specific area of research (to take just two very different examples). And
xviii  Foreword
how does one prepare future leaders for such varied roles, especially when such
positions are often new and no pre-existing ‘template’ exists?
The volume helps on this last question, I feel, in two important ways. First,
it looks beyond the world of HE to see how organisations in other sectors are
trying to develop leaders able to deal with similar (and increasing) levels of
ambiguity in senior roles. Second, it allows leaders to learn from leaders, with
the personal stories in the book giving specific, varied examples of how people
learned to lead, what the different nature of their leadership role was – and
also, looking back, what they might do differently if they had their time again.
Such vignettes helpfully allow readers to draw out principles and approaches
which have been tried and tested in different situations, and then to apply key
learnings to their own leadership context.
As a final thought, along one’s leadership journey there is often an impor-
tant consideration of identity, again touched on in the volume. Senior leaders
from many walks of life often report that, looking back, one of the aspects
they found most hard as their careers progressed was to constantly reframe
who they were at each step: recalibrating the skill-sets required to succeed in
each new role, their networks and relationships, and – above all – establishing
a discipline of truly ‘letting go’ of their previous identities through each tran-
sition. These deeply personal mindset shifts need regular attention, together
with effective mentoring and coaching at the moments of change. Giving
greater attention to this area of HE leadership practice will, I feel, help all
generations: senior mentors will build a legacy of smoother leadership transi-
tions by sharing with junior colleagues how they might effectively become or
be a leader; and for the senior leaders themselves in their leaving phase, it will
enable them to look forward beyond their current role, thinking about who
they could be, and building a rewarding life beyond the institution they have
led as they pass the baton on to a trusted successor.
Professor Nigel Spencer
School of Law, Queen Mary University of London
August 2020
 Introduction
Stephen Newton and Kendall Jarrett

This book is about the practice of leadership in higher education (HE). As

authors and co-editors, to paraphrase Baran’s (2002) comments on agenda-
setting, our intention is not to tell readers what to think about leadership, more
so what to think about as a leader in higher education (HE). For us this distinc-
tion is important as it helps maintain a nuanced focus to discussion while at
the same time allowing the exploration of the usefulness of knowledge about
leadership from a range of contexts and sources. As such, the book explores
and celebrates leadership experiences and knowledge from both ‘inside’ and
‘outside’ the sector. In doing so, the book directs readers at all stages of leader-
ship in HE – becoming a leader, being a leader, or leaving leadership – to consider
what they may be able to learn from a range of colleagues and contexts to
inform their leadership practice.
Included in the book are perspectives on leadership in HE from academ-
ics across the globe, thus providing readers with a range of voices and con-
texts to help shape practice. As leaders ourselves with multi-sector leadership
experience (e.g. within the military, corporate, tertiary, charity, and volunteer
sectors), we have found that despite significant differences in context, the
similarities of leadership are far greater than the differences; hence the learn-
ing opportunities are considerable. However, it is not only our own beliefs
about the utility of leadership experience between sectors that has driven us
and colleagues to write this book; it is also informed by wider comment about
how to improve leadership in universities. As Alison Johns (2016) remarked
when proposing five ways to improve leadership in universities:

[A] third of governors believe leadership within the sector could be

improved by increasing the number of leaders with diverse experience
and expertise.

xix
xx  Stephen Newton and Kendall Jarrett
Thus, we decided to write this book because we felt that, while there is a con-
siderable amount of academic literature available on the topic of leadership
overall and some on leadership within HE, there is insufficient current litera-
ture on the practicalities of leadership in HE, internationally. We also felt that
the pace of change in the field of HE is such that a practical handbook, into
which readers could dip in at need, was timely.
Writing within the book acknowledges the relatively recent shift, for an
increasing number of academics and other staff of higher education institu-
tions, from long-term security of tenure in their role to short-term contracts.
That of course affects the way in which leadership functions, which often
means that hierarchies become inherently less stable. That in turn indicates
an increased need for those in leadership roles to exercise influence rather
than relying on organisational structure to achieve their aims. It also empha-
sises the need for willing collaboration between colleagues.
There is often a tendency by leaders to over-complicate both the results
they seek and the process by which they choose to achieve those results. As
such, the writing of this book was guided by our desire to keep the book simple
without it becoming simplistic. Yet discussion within the book does not shy
away from the complex or nuanced elements of leadership in HE, and we have
sought to examine such issues accordingly. Indeed, while we acknowledge that
leaders in HE must necessarily become comfortable with uncertainty (and
hence flexibility of approach to delivery), we see no greater vice for a leader
than the tolerance of ambiguity – whether in terms of their own self-leader-
ship or in terms of the results they seek to deliver.
To negate the presence of such ambiguity and the typically resultant limi-
tations of leadership practice, chapters within this book fall into three prac-
tice-oriented parts: Part 1: Realities of leadership in higher education in a
changing world; Part 2: Leadership insights; and Part 3: Stories of leadership
in higher education. Regardless of the nature of leadership role a reader may
have (e.g. research leader, pedagogical leader, department leader, or any other
formal or informal position of influence), our hope is that what is read encour-
ages learning about leadership by doing leadership. As such we expect readers
to dip into the book at need rather than to read it cover to cover. Chapters to
dip into are as follows:

Part 1: Realities of leadership in higher education in a changing world

In Chapter 1, ‘Defining leadership in HE’, we discuss the complexities of lead-
ership in HE in a changing world. Initially, a broad discussion of leadership
is presented and informed by questions such as: What is leadership? What
are the characteristics of effective leadership? What is the value of effective
 Introduction  xxi
leadership in a changing world? HE-specific discussion of leadership is included
with commentary responding to issues around the influence on leadership of
changing workforce trends in academia and how academics can recognise
and/or conceive of leadership opportunities in HE.
Chapter 2, ‘Developing leaders from within’, reports on current research in
HE that focuses on how leaders are developed ‘from within’ the institution.
Internally resourced leadership development frameworks and programmes
currently used across the sector will be discussed, with the many myths and
realities that influence leadership development and effectiveness in HE also
considered.
The realities of learning to be a leader and the means through which indi-
viduals become a leader (e.g. being ‘tapped on the shoulder’, groomed for a
position of responsibility, or actively ‘stepping in’ to avoid uncertainty) are dis-
cussed in Chapter 3, ‘Learning to be a leader’. Key questions explored include:
What is important when ‘learning how to lead’? And, how can leadership
roles be ‘prepared for’?

Part 2: Leadership insights

The second part of the book contains two sub-sections. The first sub-section
of chapters relates to perspectives from within the sector.
Chapter 4 utilises personal narrative to highlight a range of issues relating
to the influence of experience and culture on leadership. Key issues discussed
include the emergence of leadership inclination, leadership mobility between
institutions and countries, learning to lead within academic contexts, and
learning from the leadership of others.
Chapter 5 explores how educators in HE can lead learning and build on
values and teaching expertise to effect change. This chapter investigates core
components of a framework of leadership for student development. Three
main spheres of development for emerging HE leaders to focus on are dis-
cussed: themselves, their knowledge of learning and teaching, and organisa-
tional conditions that facilitate movement toward improvement.
Leading complex educational systems is the focus of discussion in Chapter 6.
The chapter includes discussion of some of the unique challenges and oppor-
tunities of multi-site and multi-institution system leadership, including hero
leadership and the transition from the project champion to the sustainer,
finding the balance between creativity and conformity, and responding to
failure. Commentary from current leaders of complex educational organisa-
tions showcases a diverse understanding of the role of a system leader and the
non-negotiable leadership practices that come with it.
xxii  Stephen Newton and Kendall Jarrett
What happens when you are stripped of your professional identity, your
citizenship, your state? Chapter 7 was originally intended to uncover the
leadership challenges of being an academic in exile. Leadership insights from
academics directly affected by the Syrian conflict were to be the focus of this
chapter, along with the processes required to ‘re-become a leader’ in HE.
However, the current realities of the Syrian conflict have meant a ghost chap-
ter is presented in its place.
Chapter 8 will explore a range of topics associated with creating a leader-
ship legacy in HE, including transitioning from the ‘big role’ to making the
most of retirement careers. Guidance on developing the legacy you want to
create and dealing with intentions vs. reality is framed within personal per-
spectives on academic leadership and what it is like to leave a senior role in
higher education.
The second sub-section includes chapters relating to perspectives from out-
side the sector.
What lessons can we learn in HE from the failings of corporate leadership?
Chapter 9 explores a range of concepts relating to failed corporate leader-
ship and the situations to avoid in the ever-changing world of HE. Discussion
includes consideration of how leaders in HE can balance the competing ele-
ments of conflict vs. resolution and the requirements for developing an agile
leadership mindset.
Chapter 10 outlines lessons that can be learned from military leadership
and how such learning might be used to inform leadership decision-making
in academia. Requirements of military leadership such as after-action report-
ing and the devolution of responsibility are discussed, along with guidance on
how to maintain effective leadership under stress.
Chapter 11 makes use of anecdotes from the sporting field to frame dis-
cussion around the synergies between leadership in sport and leadership in
HE settings. The different contexts of leadership in sport are discussed (e.g.
on-field, off-field) with commentary on the characteristics of effective sport
leaders complemented by leadership stories from a range of sporting contexts
around the world.
Leadership in the public and third sectors is the focus of discussion in
Chapter 12. At a time when the influence of government on academia is gain-
ing more media attention than ever before, this chapter explores the synergies
between leadership in HE, leadership in public office, and leadership in the
third sector. Through the sharing of micro-stories from charity and church
leaders and public officials, the leadership practices of five leaders are surveyed
with particular consideration given to key communication practices required
when the majority of those being led remain ‘unknown’ to the leader.
 Introduction  xxiii
Part 3: Stories of leadership in higher education
Case studies of academics’ leadership practices provide us with authentic per-
sonal insights into discipline-specific leadership experiences from around the
world. These stories of leadership in HE are presented to help inform col-
leagues’ decision-making in relation to personal leadership aspirations, devel-
opment, and legacy planning.
Chapter 13 includes colleagues’ reflections on becoming a leader, with
common threads of discussion intimating: a desire to understand followed by a
commitment to be understood; an appreciation of the contexts within which
leadership operates; acknowledgement of the benefits of other-sector leader-
ship experience; the importance of building relationships, collaboration, and
knowing thyself; and seizing the opportunity to take more responsibility.
Chapter 14 focuses on colleagues’ experiences of being a leader. Attention
across reflections is given to: effectively separating work from home; a desire
to invest in more strategic leadership CPD earlier in career; the broadening
of experience to inform leadership growth; asking oneself ‘Do I have enough
information?’; and giving colleagues space for blue-sky thinking.
Chapter 15 provides readers with insights into leaving leadership. Within
colleagues’ reflections a range of leadership experiences are shared inviting
readers to consider the importance of: expectation that others contribute;
not being surrounded by like-minded people; the balance of work/life/lead-
ership commitments; the nexus between policy, practice, research; trusting
others; the practice of humility; and being aware of external factors before
they become acute.
Included within each chapter are prominent questions pertinent to the
context of information being discussed which have been designed to engage
the reader to think about their own leadership experiences to date and leader-
ship development needs. We hope these questions, along with the manner in
which chapters have been written, stimulate and challenge readers’ to think
about a range of contemporary, sector-diverse leadership contexts to ultimately
inform their practice as leaders in HE.

References
Baran, S. J. 2002. Introduction to mass communication: Media literacy and culture,
Second Edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill Books Company.
Johns, A. (27 Jan 2016) article Five ways to improve leadership in universities. Accessed
at www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2016/jan/27/five-ways-to-
improve-leadership-in-universities