The Balancing Acts of Academic Leadership: A Guide for Department Chairs and Deans

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.

Jeanne A.K. Hey is associate provost, professor of political science, and dean emerita at the University of New England. She writes and speaks on leadership in the higher education.