Today we have our LExA jury member Dr. Jeffrey Buller, who is a former Director of Leadership and Professional Development at Florida Atlantic University, expert, author and trainer on Academic Leadership and Senior Partner at ATLAS Leadership Training. His full statement on the importance of leadership in academia:

“Developing leaders in higher education is vital for two primary reasons. First, universities are changing at a rapid pace. The recent pandemic illustrated the need for institutions to adapt rapidly (almost instantaneously) to meet sudden needs, and further crises are likely to occur in the future. An academic leader who is creative, flexible, and able to help others become creative and flexible will be essential for the world’s increasing need for higher education. Second, the organizational culture of higher education is different from that found in the corporate world, the military world, and government. It is far less hierarchical than many other types institutions, requiring that skills such as consensus-building, negotiation, and collegiality be developed to a high degree. Furthermore, academic leaders interact with the broadest possible range of constituencies, everyone from faculty members (each of whom is an expert in his or her own field) to government officials, students and their parents to members of governing boards, corporate leaders to members of the community who never attended university. The ability to communicate effectively with such a diverse set of stakeholders, to listen carefully as well as to speak persuasively, requires genuine leadership skills of a type not commonly discussed in mass-market books on leadership.”

Nominations are open until June 30, 2023.
Further information on our website: https://cc.lbg.ac.at/lexa/