Level up: Taking the next step in your leadership journey

Last week, I had the opportunity to meet and reconnect with hundreds of digital professionals across higher ed at the HighEdWeb 2024 Annual Conference in Albuquerque. We laughed, listened, and learned, and on the first day of the conference, I was privileged to share my latest presentation called "Level up: Taking the next step in your leadership journey."

This presentation was inspired by conversations I've had with experienced leaders in multiple universities and divisions (e.g., communications and marketing, IT, admissions). These were typically individuals with 3 to 10 years of managerial experience looking to take on a director role or lead a department.

While there is a lot of great advice out there already, I created this presentation to share strategies that were meaningful to me that could be helpful for folks at that stage of their leadership journey.

With help from famous Disney films, my presentation focused on these five strategies:

• Build partnerships across campus.
• Get to know your leadership.
• Focus on the big picture.
• Be your team's biggest advocate.
• And invest in your own development.

Building partnerships across campus means building community with internal stakeholders and taking control of our story.

Like Shane Baglini and I recently discussed on his Breaking Silos podcast , building relationships with other units is meaningful and welcome. People appreciate being seen, heard, and valued. It's the human thing to do, but it also helps us work more efficiently as an organization, gives us a broader view of what's happening across campus, and helps us find allies who can support big initiatives.

The other layer to this is controlling our story -- the narrative of who we are, what our team does, how we advance the organization, and how we work with other units. If we're not proactive about this, we let misunderstandings and assumptions define our team and our value to the organization, and that's not a healthy place to be for any team.

And I get it -- there's never enough time. There's always something that grabs our attention. But we can't let perfect be the enemy of progress. Those partnerships can help us tell better stories about our amazing students. They can help us identify friction in the application process for new students. And so much more if we make the time. My colleague Susan Todd does this so well, and I admire her and her team's work highlighting the student experience at Rutgers Business School.

It's easy to be reactionary and get bogged down with task management, but as a leader, I provide more value to the organization through relationship building and strategic campus communication than I do if I get stuck in a cycle of projects and requests.

So my recommendation for folks, especially leaders ready to transition, is to always think about your work in the context of the organization and not just your division.

Getting to know your leadership is an extension of building partnerships across campus.

Every institution is different, and every executive is different, but for folks looking to advance, it helps to understand how to work with campus leadership (whether VPs, deans, chancellors, etc.) before you have to do that more regularly.

In the presentation, we talked about getting to know all of your campus leadership group (and not just the person your division reports to), taking time to understand what's important to each leader (because it's likely going to be different), and finding opportunities to be visible and engage with those leaders where it made sense.

Folks in mid-level managerial roles who don't normally have access to leadership should be open with their direct supervisor about this subject and ask for ideas and ways to be included in conversations with leadership related to their work.

To be clear, no one should be going rogue.

Some of the simple tactics I like to use are CC'ing staff on relevant leadership emails and publicly thanking specific team members on projects so that leadership knows who they are and what they have accomplished. It's a slow process, but it helps invite future direct outreach with leadership once the person, the business function, and the relevancy are defined.

This may be rare, but another option is working with your supervisor to find leadership meetings you can join as a subject matter expert, depending on the meeting topic.

But again, for folks looking to transition, this is about working with your supervisor on strategic exposure to leadership and getting comfortable:

• Recognizing what campus leaders prioritize.
• Recognizing how and when to communicate with leadership.
• Learning how to be concise and not overshare.
• And being prepared for the culture shift that comes with senior roles and more visibility.

Focusing on the big picture is something I wrote about earlier this year .

It means staying high-level in our day-to-day work as a team leader. Asking things like:

• What are we trying to accomplish? And why?
• What outcomes are we looking for?
• How does this bring us closer to our strategic goals?
• Etc.

And staying out of the weeds. Once we're responsible for people (and a large group of people) instead of tasks, we need to shift our mindset to focus more on the what and why and less on microscopic details of how stuff gets done. Cultivate collaboration but don't control.

It doesn't mean we can't provide guardrails, feedback, or support as needed. It doesn't mean we can't offer our perspective when staff ask for a second opinion.

But part of our role in training the next generation of leaders is learning how to delegate and empowering staff to make their own decisions,?even when they choose a different path than we would.

In larger teams with multiple levels of management, the goal remains the same: staying high-level and focusing on outcomes. Essentially, we're defining the vision, standards, and parameters in which the team operates (and explaining why) while giving managers the flexibility and support to feel confident. To feel trusted.

Having managers on our team does not mean "co-managing" their staff.

Focusing on the big picture helps us think globally and minimize micromanagement. And focusing on outcomes has the added benefit of shifting the conversation away from creative differences in execution and gives our team the space to lead, be creative, and grow.

Being your team's biggest advocate is the easiest lesson I've learned.

I'm inspired every day by my team.

We have fun. We are silly. We are serious when we need to be serious. We're on the same page when we work with campus partners. And we're open and honest with each other.

And even if we didn't have a great working relationship, I would still 100% go to bat for them.

Because leadership is a privilege, not a right.

The decisions we make every day can impact someone's financial situation, their career development, their mental health, and more. So I take my obligation to do right by my people seriously.

In the presentation, we talked about following through with our words and actions so that we can build trust with our teams. We also talked about creating an environment where staff feel comfortable sharing their honest thoughts and concerns, which means being open and supportive year-round and not just when something goes wrong.

We also talked about investing in our team's professional growth. Being actively involved in helping our team find professional development opportunities. Building space in their workload to spend part of every semester enhancing their skills and learning something new.

Also, hot take: I would rather see a team member find an exciting new job opportunity than see them waste their potential in a role they've clearly outgrown.

It's on us as leaders to provide career paths and new challenges. I strongly believe that investing in people is good business and never a waste of time, regardless of what their future holds.

So no matter how far we go in our leadership journey, being kind, setting people up for success, and recognizing their humanity never stops being important.

And finally, investing in your own development.

Professional development clicked for me when I started going to conferences and doing similar activities in 2016. Those experiences helped highlight how limited our perspectives were at that time.

Because, like a race, if we're not moving forward, we're falling behind.

Higher ed may be more "stable," but that's no excuse to rest on our laurels as digital professionals. Our student journeys are changing. Marketing technology is changing. The world is changing.

So, for folks preparing for new opportunities, never stop learning. Invest in yourself. Do the work. Surround yourself with people that will support you but keep you honest.

Step outside of your comfort zone by speaking at conferences, exploring podcast opportunities, networking, and volunteering to help deepen and expand your skill set. (HighEdWeb has a variety of volunteer opportunities available .)

And if I can share one more piece of advice for people who may be in a challenging work environment or struggling to find what's next:

Don't let people define you by where you've been.

Because where you've been is not a reflection of all you can be.

Like Kevin M. Renton and I discussed on Volt's QuickFire podcast last year, your current job title is not your whole experience.

If you are not yet in your ideal leadership role, it's not because you are not interested. It's not because you are not qualified. Be patient, continue to lead with grace every day, and continue to showcase your expertise.

Some of the most rewarding conversations are the 1-on-1s after a presentation, so if you are someone who wants to talk about your goals or situation, I'm happy to be a sounding board.

Special thanks to: Tiffany Beker , Kendra Clarke, MBA , James A. Foley , Robert Heyser , Shevon Jackson , Lorri Carroll Layton , Beth Miller , Michael O'Neill , Abigail Sheehan , Susan Todd , Elvira Tolen , Joel Vertin , Nicolle Williams Restrepo , and Jessica Jernigan.

Conference presentations will be added to the HighEdWeb Professional Development Library in November.