Preparing the Next Generation of Institutional Leaders Strategic Supports for Mid-Career Faculty

Abstract

Calls for leadership development and associated supports for faculty members are growing in prominence in higher education. Yet, traditional leadership development efforts in higher education fail to account for both individual and institutional needs as critical to fostering a leadership pipeline with multiple entry points. This manuscript offers succession management and onboarding as important and necessary steps to facilitating a more deliberate, strategic approach to supporting the next generation of institutional leaders – mid-career faculty members.

Transforming departmental culture: Empowering a department through appreciative inquiry

“…The literature on faculty development is robust with successful strategies for guiding faculty in development throughout their academic career. There are programs and initiatives designed to help faculty address challenges, whether they are early career (e.g., Milo, & Schuldiner, 2009;Willingham-McLain et al, 2019), mid-career (Baker & Manning, 2021), or experienced faculty (Huston & Weaver, 2008). Though faculty development is often implemented as an individual endeavor (Nelson & Cates, 2017), the faculty development process can provide a collaborative opportunity that simultaneously develops individual faculty members and enhances the strengths of the collective faculty as a whole.…”