Building The Senior Team After A Presidential Transition

Higher education is facing a wave of presidential transitions. While the transition of a president can be a monumental and celebrated occasion for a college or university, it is often accompanied by work disruptions, job uncertainty, and turnover of senior administrators. University presidents can face numerous challenges as they try to adapt to a new culture, team, and work processes; at no time during their career are leaders more susceptible to failure than when they are in transition. Therefore, the development of the senior leadership team comes at a time critical for the new president's success. It is vital for mid-level administrators who have ambitions to serve on the senior leadership team to understand the leadership transition and how university presidents develop their teams. This understanding is equally important for senior leadership team members who are a part of the inherited leadership team and will likely face a presidential transition. This narrative study examined how university presidents and senior team members understand their experiences and decision-making processes while building a senior leadership team after the presidential transition. Five university presidents and six senior leadership team members were interviewed for this study. The senior leaders interviewed were vice presidents and individuals who reported directly to the university president. When making decisions about the makeup of their team, significant influences on the presidents included institutional practices, governing bodies, diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, effective communication, collaboration, expertise, and trustworthiness were vital attributes that influenced the new university presidents' decision-making. Findings show how the senior leaders interviewed understood their path to a senior leadership team and experienced the presidential transition. Finally, the findings suggest that senior leadership team members have had an overall positive experience as a member of the senior leadership team during the presidential transition and that they were able to navigate challenges with the support and resources provided to them by their university presidents.