Read Time:
June isn’t just a calendar gap. It’s a capacity question.
Here’s a pattern we see regularly at Academic Impressions: higher education leaders who manage the academic year with extraordinary drive and discipline, who then spend June doing the same thing, just with different tasks. The calendar clears, but the pace doesn’t.
We understand the pull. Planning feels responsible, while rest feels indulgent. And in a sector that has been navigating sustained institutional pressure, compressing your recovery window might even feel like the right call.
But it isn’t. And the reason isn’t primarily about your well-being (though it matters). It’s about your capacity to lead in September.
The quality of your leadership in the first weeks of the academic year will largely be determined by decisions you make this month about how you’re using your time. Leaders who arrive in August running on accumulated stress tend to lead reactively. They fill calendars, avoid ambiguity, and default to control. Leaders who’ve actually recovered tend to be more present, more willing to delegate, and more capable of holding the longer view when things get complicated.
This isn’t an argument for disengaging from summer planning. It’s an argument for building recovery into your planning deliberately, because if you don’t schedule it, it won’t happen.
Members must be logged in to view this content.