I define academic leadership as the practice of inspiring others to make changes toward a positive vision within an institution or structure. I am often asked about what it means to have a leadership vision and why it matters.

Your leadership vision is a concise description of the future of the institution just over the horizon of change. It should feel familiar enough that members of the community can locate themselves within it, but different enough that it generates excitement and a sense of forward motion. It’s not a specific goal, although goals will emerge from it. It’s not a strategic plan, although it should shape your strategy.

A good vision paints a dynamic picture. It can be expressed in words but it also conjures up images, concepts, maybe even a song. It should give you a shiver of excitement when you think about it. Importantly, a vision should feel valuable. Instrumental goals such as achieving R1 status, rising in the rankings, or even balancing the budget aren’t inherently inspiring. They are more effective when tied to a more meaningful vision of success such as becoming the destination of choice for ambitious students or preparing young people to tackle the world’s problems. 

If your sphere of direct leadership influence is smaller than the institution, you should still craft a vision for success. Maybe it’s, “our office will become the difference maker for students at risk of dropping out” or “our department will become known as the one that deeply inspires both majors and non-majors to write well.” It’s the vision that moves you beyond managing, beyond responding to the day’s quotidian problems, and into the work of leading.

Visions are forward-looking, but they don’t require you to prophesize or predict. As author Walter Gibson famously noted, “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.” In other words, you may find clues to your most inspiring vision by noticing the areas where you are already approaching it. Seeking out who and what your organization is on its best day—on its ideal day—might stimulate your visioning process in productive ways.

My vision for CIC, by the way, is that we become the place leaders of independent colleges and universities turn to for insight, inspiration, and practical solutions to their most pressing problems. This vision is my north star as I work with our team and our board to set priorities, evaluate our success, and invest our resources.

Questions for reflection: Have you already formed a vision for the next phase of your organization or is this work to be done now? If you have a vision, how are you conveying it in words and actions? If you are in the process of crafting a vision, where can you find inspiration? What does your organization feel like on its best day? What would it feel like if it could be just a bit better than even that?

Summers are busy at CIC, and we are looking ahead to upcoming programs. These include our annual workshops for department and division chairs, our selective programs for leadership development, such as the Executive Leadership Academy, the Senior Leadership Academy, Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission, and Presidential Renewal Program; as well as grant-funded faculty development seminars in areas such as teaching interfaith understanding, ancient medicine, improving science pedagogy, and program and proposal development for computer scientists.

New this summer will be a convening of a group of “pioneering” presidents and their board chairs. For this program's purpose, CIC defines a pioneer as the first of their identity to serve in the role. Among this cohort we have presidents who are the first of their race, their gender, their sexual orientation, as well as the first lay president at a Catholic College and a few other kinds of firsts as well. Our goal is to have a frank conversation about ways boards and campuses can contribute to the success of these pioneering leaders and respond effectively to the inevitable resistance that arises in response to change. The insights we gather from this convening will form the basis of a CIC toolkit we will make available to all pioneering leaders and to the campuses that support them.

Having been a pioneer myself as the first woman and the first Jewish person to serve as president of Austin College and Rhodes College, this is a project close to my heart. Many thanks to the Mellon Foundation for supporting this work.

A Spark of Inspiration

We formed a writing group at CIC last year. It’s open to anyone on staff who has a writing project. It turns out we have poets, scholars, essayists, bloggers, and technical writers among us. The group meets weekly for 30 to 60 minutes during which we take turns describing what we accomplished with our writing during the past week and what we plan to accomplish in the coming week. It is a supportive, no judgment environment. We listen, only provide advice if asked, cheer on success, and empathize with setbacks. Occasionally someone will share a piece of writing with the group, but the focus is on accountability and not on critique.

This is the third group of this type of which I have been a part. I learned this style of writing support from Dr. Randi Tanglen (then a member of the Austin College English faculty and director of the Robert and Joyce Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching, and currently serving as the vice provost for faculty affairs at University of North Dakota). 

This style of group encourages productivity and persistence. It also normalizes writing as a challenging and valued activity. Reporting to others is motivating even during busy weeks when writing might get pushed to the side. Hearing about the progress and problems faced by other writers is inspirational for less experienced writers and still useful to more experienced ones. Having to put progress (or delay) into words and publicly claim a plan for the coming week pushes participants to think more objectively about their project and their writing practice.

If this inspires you to launch a writing group of your own, the good news is that this type is easy to manage. The leader must reserve the weekly space, call on each participant in turn, and gently remind them about the ground rules. Participants only must show up and speak honestly about where they are in their project and what they are planning for the next week.

I am deeply grateful to the members of each of the three groups of which I have been a part, and now consider this kind of support essential to my own writing and an exciting way of supporting the writing of colleagues.

Beautyland: A Novel

by Marie-Helene Bertino

You will laugh out loud even as you well up with tears as you read the insights of a character who may or may not be an alien sent to interpret the human condition. Two weeks after completing it, I am still mulling over the things it reveals about coping with existential loneliness, enjoying the absurdity of modern life, and finding an imperfect but comforting sense of belonging. Marie-Helene Bertino is an award-winning American novelist and short story writer. Beautyland is her newest book, published in January 2024.

Men in Dark Times

by Hannah Arendt

I’ve been re-reading this collection of essays devoted to individuals (women as well as men) that Arendt believes offer a spark of illumination within a historical era made dark by lack of thought and retreat from meaningful political engagement. Arendt is attentive to the writing and thought of these subjects—but what she really wants to reveal is the courageous and idiosyncratic choices they made about “how they lived their lives, how they moved in the world, and how they were affected by historical time.” Given the darkness of our own times, there is much here on which to reflect.

The Man Who Mistook His Job for His Life: How to Thrive at Work by Leaving Your Emotional Baggage Behind

by Naomi Shragai

Shragai is a psychotherapist specializing in workplace conflict and symptoms. She brings an in-depth psychology perspective to this very readable book about the ways our unconscious emotions shape our workplace interactions. Covering familiar terrain (e.g., workaholism, imposter syndrome, bullying) as well as important but often neglected workplaces issues (e.g., envy, idealization, and paranoia), she helps the reader see their own patterns, the patterns of colleagues, and the ways we can learn to move beyond these patterns into a freer relationship with our workplace and our working self.

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