As my colleagues Todd, DeeAnne, and I began to ponder what we should write about this year, we decided that focusing on common challenges leaders face might present a thought-provoking and interesting framework.
So with that in mind, we surveyed several groups of leaders within the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to ask them what challenges they were facing. Here is a short list of challenges that we gleaned from survey respondents:
- Managing heavy workloads
- Creating transparency/building trust
- Holding people accountable; managing performance
- Managing tightening finances/budget
- Working collaboratively
- Building relationships
- Communicating effectively
- Developing authentic leaders
- Changing student populations
- Managing diversity/increasing access
- Building an effective team
- Balancing work and life demands
This list is by no means complete and we need your help. Please post your response below to the following question: What is the most critical leadership challenge you are facing right now? We look forward to hearing from you!
Since many people engage in New Year’s resolutions during this time of year, we thought it might be timely to focus our January blogs on the challenge of balancing work and life demands.
Happy New Year to you and your colleagues! Here’s to meeting leadership challenges in 2015!
Anita Rios
Higher EDge 