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Leadership Insights
Leadership development isn’t invisible. Its absence is felt by everyone on campus.
Our 2025 data bears this out: Only 6% of employees say that their institution is very effective at developing leaders. Thirty percent say their institution is outright ineffective. When faculty and staff lack access to leadership training, they’re less equipped to navigate complex challenges or to guide their teams through change. And because this plays out in real meetings, real decisions, and real interactions, people notice.
The upside is equally visible. When development is working, you can see it in behavior. A leader who used to avoid difficult conversations starts addressing issues directly. A department head who struggled with delegation begins developing others without being asked. These shifts ripple outward, building the kind of trust and confidence that hold a team together under pressure.
Shifting the Feedback Loop
Our 2025 survey revealed something else worth paying attention to: that a significant gap exists between how leaders view themselves and how their employees view them. Leaders, according to the responses, tend to rate their own effectiveness higher than their teams do.
Part of this gap comes from a lack of leadership training. But part of it also comes from the discomfort many people feel giving feedback upward. There’s an assumption, often unspoken, that people in senior roles already know what’s not working. However, the reality is that they often don’t—because no one has told them.
Understanding how your leadership is landing requires feedback from the people closest to the work. And if you’re in a position to give that feedback to someone above you, know that it’s one of the more valuable things you can offer.
If you need to raise a concern about how leadership development is being handled, framing matters. Try anchoring the feedback in shared outcomes rather than in individual performance:
- Instead of: “Our leadership isn’t handling this change well.”
- Try: “I’ve noticed a recurring challenge in how we navigate these transitions. If we addressed them with some targeted coaching on strategic decision-making, it could keep us better aligned on our mission.”
Managing up can feel risky, but it’s worth doing anyway. Feedback in both directions is what makes leadership—and institutions—stronger.
Pause & Reflect
When did you last receive honest feedback about your leadership from someone who works closely with you? If you can’t remember, that’s worth paying attention to. What’s one question you could ask this week to open that door? If you need help brainstorming that question, reach out to our AI leadership coach, Sophia.