Strategies for Transitioning Leaders

• Prioritizing listening and cultural immersion before acting helps incoming leaders identify which approaches will resonate in a new environment.
• Leaders who understand what makes their institution distinctive are better positioned to leverage personal strengths in ways that amplify rather than disrupt existing culture.
• Humility, persistent curiosity, and a strong professional network are indispensable assets for leaders stepping into any new role.

Transcript

Barbara Ritter: [00:15] When you are moving to a new place, the first thing you should do is listen, learn, and understand the culture. And then, you can try to understand what things you might have done in the past that will work in this particular context and what might not.

[00:28]  Strategies, for example, that may be best practices like listening, shared governance, and being very democratic in your leadership style—as well as empowering people—would be something that would transfer to many different types of settings.

[00:46] You want a good understanding of what’s been done, what needs to be done, and how you can get there. But certainly, you can parlay things that have been successful in the past, once you can understand the current context in which you’re working.

[01:01] I think it’s important to understand your strengths, to really be able to self-reflect, and [to understand] what is good about your past leadership habits and what maybe didn’t work as well.

[01:14] So, as you transition in and learn the culture of the new institution, you can think: what have I done before that is a good fit for this new culture and institution? And what have I done before that is absolutely a poor fit?

Your relationships are clear strengths and resources that you should be able to use as you’re trying to figure out a new situation.

[01:26] I need to understand the strengths of this institution, my own strengths, and I need to be able to put these things together so I can really capitalize on what is strong in the culture of the institution. But then capitalize on what you do well while you learn where your own opportunities lie, and you can get better as you develop as a leader.

[01:50] The resources that I’ve leaned on in my new role as a leader in a new institution, I think that there’s a number of resources clearly through AACSB and clearly through your relationships, through your networking, your mentorships, colleagues that you’ve met along the way that will be very useful and helpful to you as you’re trying to test out new options and understand where the opportunities are.

[02:13] Your relationships are clear strengths and resources that you should be able to use as you’re trying to figure out a new situation.

[02:21] In terms of the actual context in which you work, obviously, there’s a whole internet of things available to you out there. You need to understand the norms at your current institution, where you want to go, and how quickly you can move. These are all considerations that you should think about as you’re trying to make a positive change in a new institution.

[02:45] The record keepers who keep the historical knowledge, you will learn who those people are eventually, and hopefully, you will figure that out pretty quickly. They can tell you, why are we doing it this way? Why is it like this? They hold the organizational knowledge, which is really quite important to understand.

The importance of being humble and persistent speaks to the leadership characteristics you want to keep, even when you change institutions.

[03:04] But then you can overlay the strategic direction you want to move in on top of that. As you think about where you want to go and combine that with where the institution is and why it’s there, you can really put together your strategy for the best ways to move forward.

[03:21] Other resources I think will be and should be, as you quickly consider who will be on your leadership team. Some of them may be the historical record keepers of the institution’s history. Some of them may be people who will push the strategic change you want to see, and ultimately, they should be your strongest resource as you build a strong leadership team.

[03:44] Things I’ve learned from my previous roles: I think the importance of being humble and persistent speaks to the leadership characteristics you want to keep, even when you change institutions. Never think that you know everything.

[03:59] And that speaks right back to the importance of listening, right? Listening in your new context, understanding the norms, not thinking I’m bringing in all the new practices and will change everything we do here full scale, but really thinking: why is it important to this institution that we work this way?

[04:18] As you envision the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the particular context, you can also see where the opportunities are.