University presidents are under extreme pressure; their role is changing, campus dynamics are changing and competition is changing. Today, they need more than a plan—they need a strategy. But to create a successful strategy, they need to answer three critical questions first. Here’s the last.
3. Are You Winging It?
There’s a saying that if you want something important to fail, make it someone’s part-time job. Many presidents don’t see strategy as a full-time endeavor. Therefore, they either delegate the job to someone who already has a full-time role, or they make it someone’s part-time job. But strategy is too important to be a side hustle.
Strategies often fail because they are led by well-intentioned, hard-working novices—but keep in mind that your strategy is being developed and deployed in a competitive context. So, it’s your team versus their team, your plan versus their plan, and your execution versus their execution. But if your strategy is not being led by a professional strategist, then you’re really just winging it, and you should expect to get crushed by the competition.
To avoid this result, here are three takeaways. First, make sure you treat strategy like you would admissions, marketing and advancement, and have a full-time professional lead this important function. Second, be obsessed with your students and design your strategy around helping them make meaningful progress toward their most important goals. Third, be the kind of leader that doesn’t let politics get in the way of progress. Students will be paying interest on the debt of your decisions, so make sure your strategy produces a return on their investment.
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