The Balancing Acts of Academic Leadership

Book excerpt: Are you an academic leader or considering taking on a leadership position in the academy? Then this book is for you, even in an era of crisis in the highly-complex higher education sector. A one-size-fits-all leadership philosophy can not meet all the challenges and opportunities facing academic leaders. Rather, successful leaders require a range of approaches and an ample supply of tools to maximize their effectiveness. This volume takes you through a series of balancing acts, each of which helps you to tailor your leadership choices to the issue at hand.It helps leaders to identify your current strengths and comfort zone in a series of dimensions and then encourages you to move beyond those comfort zones and to develop an ever-expanding array of leadership tools and skills. The result will be greater effectiveness in your decision-making, relationships, and management.