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New or interim administrators often step into a trial by fire

If you’re a new leader, it can feel like you are being set up to fail. You are expected to intuitively understand how to lead — and those who don’t quickly flare out. Spend even a brief amount of time in the research on higher-education leadership and you’re bound to encounter a common critique: Colleges don’t adequately prepare people to be campus administrators. Studies that assess the state of formal leadership preparation in higher ed use rosy descriptors like “absent,” “minimal,” and “haphazard.”

In desperation, some new managers turn for help to the flourishing leadership-coaching industry, which can provide outstanding guidance but isn’t available at scale and can be pricey. The good news is that awareness of this problem is spreading, and colleges are expressing greater interest in starting, expanding, or revamping their own leadership-development programs. Which raises a crucial question: If colleges are going to invest more in preparing people for administrative roles, how should they do it?

Continue reading: “Higher Ed’s Paltry Investment in Training Its Own Leaders,” by Kevin R. McClure

Send questions or comments to Denise Magner, an editor at The Chronicle, at denise.magner@chronicle.com.

What we’re reading

Here’s more on career issues and trends from around the web. See something we should include? Let me know.

• Advice in the Work Friend column of The New York Times on how to answer that awkward interview question: “So, why’d you leave that job?”
• In The Wall Street Journal, a look at the “eight-hour vacation” — flying out in the morning and back home that evening — for what some travelers call an “extreme day trip.”
• A report in Forbes on how more companies are offering their employees paid sabbaticals “to combat burnout.”