The Successful President of Tomorrow

The 5 Skills Future Leaders Will Need: Learn the skills presidents and senior administrators need to know to lead their colleges and universities to success in today’s difficult environment. College leaders are under a barrage of challenges: Enrollment is suffering; public funding is stagnant; tuition revenue is softening; and demographics are shifting, driving institutions to adjust to a student body that is often older, more racially diverse, and lower income. That barrage means presidents, their cabinets, deans, and those that aspire to such positions need to be better prepared. This Chronicle issue brief outlines the challenges, but it does more than identify the troubling trends in higher ed. It examines how the leadership role has changed (it’s no longer a steward but a change maker), and then breaks down the five skills that leaders must have to be successful. It includes advice from presidents at top institutions and a section that analyzes the new pathways to the presidency (