Managing Leadership Change: A Working Group on Navigating Leadership Transitions in Higher Education

Managing Leadership Change: A Working Group on Navigating Leadership Transitions in Higher Education

Leadership transitions-whether a new president, provost, or cabinet member-are on the rise. For example, the average college/university had been on the job 8.5 years in 2006 and that declined to 5.9 years in 2022. These leadership changes can bring both opportunity and uncertainty to an institution.

For planners and other professionals who support institutional strategy, these moments often raise complex questions: How do we orient new leaders while maintaining continuity? What should be re-evaluated, refreshed, or left untouched? How can you balance tradition and innovation? How can we communicate the value of planning in the midst of change?

This working group provides a space to explore those questions through peer dialogue, data, best-practices, guided facilitation, and real-world examples. The three meetings will be organized to touch on a key theme in each session to provide structure while allowing flexibility to raise and respond to topics from participants.

Session 1: Onboarding. How can you best onboard and orient new leaders to what has come before and what the plans are for the future? Similarly, how can you efficiently learn about the experiences, perspective, and priorities that a new leader will bring.

Session 2: Assessing and Updating. How can you assess your prior plans from new leadership perspectives and external changes? How can you best determine what to keep, what to change, what to remove, and what to add?

Session 3: Communication. How can you effectively communicate throughout a leadership transition? How can you best establish the audiences, messages, channels, and cadence?

Participants will share experiences, examine approaches to leadership transition, hear valuable insights from guest speakers, and build strategies for communicating effectively, managing expectations, and sustaining momentum during periods of change.

Who Is This For?

This working group is designed for higher education professionals involved in budgeting, financial planning, or aligning resources with institutional goals. You’ll find it especially valuable if you:

• Institutional planners and strategists.
• Academic and administrative leaders navigating leadership transitions.
• Staff supporting planning, assessment, or strategic initiatives.
• Anyone seeking to maintain alignment and continuity through leadership change.

Benefits

• Gain insight into how peers have successfully navigated leadership transitions.
• Explore strategies for balancing continuity and innovation during change.
• Build confidence in communicating the value of planning to new leadership.
• Develop a network of colleagues facing similar institutional challenges.

Facilitator

Elliot Felix

Higher Ed Advisory Practice LeadBuro Happold

Registration

Note: This conversation will not be recorded.

Deadlines

You will receive an email, including meeting links, approximately one week prior to the beginning of the first session.

Registration will close on January 30, 2026 at 12:00 PM Eastern.

*Cancellations must be made in writing and may be submitted by email to your registration team registration@scup.org by 1/9/2026. Refunds are subject to a processing fee – 10% of the total purchase. No-shows are not eligible for a refund, and funds committed by purchase order must be paid in full by the first day of the event. Refunds will be issued within 30 days of received written notification.

Please contact the Josh Humbel at josh.humbel@scup.org with any questions.