“Where’s the playbook?” A leadership love letter to those just getting started in higher education…

I left graduate school a number of years ago feeling hopeful about the impact I could have, clear about the goals and purpose of higher education, and most importantly, prepared for the world of work I was entering into in higher education. I was confident…maybe a little too confident!

23 years into my career, I find myself still having moments of incredible impact and hopefulness…in fact, I have witnessed 18-22 year olds on a small, liberal arts campus with both an incredibly large Jewish population and budding Middle Eastern, Palestinian, and Muslim populations, wrap their minds and hearts around one of the greatest world challenges they have known in their lifetimes, in ways that adults…my peers, their parents and world leaders have not been able to do in productive ways.

I also remain clear about the goals and purpose of higher education…albeit, after more than two decades, I recognize the rose-colored glasses I once wore. As a senior executive, I see the real challenges of balancing the unbridled pursuit of knowledge and a decades-old business operating model that is in need of deep repair. I see the stressful tensions that tenure, academic freedom, student health and safety, an enrollment cliff, a pandemic’s aftermath, a social justice reckoning, and a demand from the labor market for stronger student outcomes all have on the very existence and success of our institutions. But our purpose is still clear amidst those challenges - educate the future leaders of our world, teach them to think critically, care deeply, use technology wisely, and consider the condition of the human experience and how they might leave the world a bit better than they found it. It remains a noble purpose.

And yet…

I sit in my office thinking to myself rather frequently, “No one taught me what to do in this moment.”, “No one prepared me for sharing the news I am about to deliver to a student.”, “No one explained to me that there would be enduring problems for which humanity has yet to solve and for which my students will look at me longingly to try to help them understand.”

In a feeble attempt to answer some of these questions, I reflected on what my career in higher education has taught me and I wrote my younger, eager, wide-eyed self this letter about leadership.

Dear Allison (yes, you - the one wearing the very rose-colored glasses!)…