The Assumption Feels Reasonable. The Data Says Otherwise. 

Nearly two-thirds of current supervisors in higher ed have held their roles five years or less. The assumption that credibility has to come before care has never been more expensive.

You’re newer to the role. Maybe a year in, maybe two. You’ve inherited a team, a set of expectations, and a quiet internal calculus that goes something like this: Get results first, build credibility second, and invest in your people’s development once you’ve earned the standing to do so.

It feels like the responsible sequence. And in higher ed, where positional credibility is built over years of scholarship, service, and shared governance, it often feels like the only sequence.

In our most recent Professional Development Survey of higher education employees, we found something that challenges that sequence directly.

Leader experience, measured in their years in the role, had no relationship to whether employees perceived their leader as supportive of their professional development. None. And leader support for professional development was one of the strongest predictors of employee satisfaction and retention in the data.

The behaviors that matter most to your team aren’t gated by tenure. Something else is getting in the way.

What that something else usually is: It’s the belief that visible competence has to come before visible investment. That a newer leader who champions their team’s growth before establishing their own track record will seem presumptuous, or distracted, or not serious about results. That credibility is a prerequisite for care.

This finding lands differently when you consider how many leaders are carrying this belief right now. Nearly two-thirds of current supervisors in higher ed have been in their roles for five years or less. This isn’t a pipeline anomaly, it’s the structural reality of the sector, shaped by years of turnover and a leadership development infrastructure that hasn’t kept pace. Most institutions are being led, at every level, by people who are still relatively new to the work.

However, the data doesn’t support that belief. Your team is watching how you lead right now, in the first years of your role. And what they’re watching for, more than your results, is whether you take their development seriously.

That watching happens whether you’re intending it to or not.