Every year, Christian campuses all over the US are confronted with the challenging task of hiring a new president. Boards go hunting for the person who can save the school, but with a very high pressure to fill the role ASAP. At the same time, prospective presidents are on the hunt for a job. Recently, in a conversation with the longest serving president in the CCCU, Dr. Roger Parrot, I was reminded that many times boards are tasked with making a presidential hire and candidates are looking to get a presidential position, but often neither party is thinking enough about the actual jobs to be done by the president once the position is filled. This results in some level of shock on both sides when it is time to start doing the actual job. Both parties, the board and the candidate, feel like they just got their “job” done, but the job hasn’t even started yet!
So, how do Christian universities focus less on the “job” of filling an important role and more on the task of getting the strategic work of the university accomplished? Colleges need clarity on the answer to two questions BEFORE they hire a new president: 1) Who are they as an institution and 2) Where are they as an institution? If you don’t know who you are, then you don’t know who to hire. And if you don’t know where you are as an organization, you don’t know what kind of leader you need. Here’s the key, the previous two questions assume that hiring a president starts with strategic thinking.
The strategy of the university should come first. Then hire the right president for the job.
Why, you ask? Because not all leaders are built the same way. Colleges and universities absolutely must have the right leader in order to properly execute their strategy. Execution of strategy is a difficult job (how many 5 year plans are sitting on a shelf somewhere gathering dust) and presidents need to have the gifts needed for the type of strategy execution that the university requires. Leaders come with all different gifts and styles in the workplace. University strategies and market positions are also unique. If we are not all trying to execute the same strategy, we all will need different types of leaders. Before starting a presidential (or any senior leadership) search, organizations need to realize that they fall into one of these three overarching situations:
- We need to build.
- We need to fix.
- We need to optimize.
Leaders can also be classified as the following:
- Builders
- Fixers
- Optimizers
Colleges and universities need pieces of all three of these leadership styles at the same time, but one of them is primary. The problem we face in Christian higher ed. is that universities often do not hire the right man or woman for the job. A college might be in a massive fixing stage but they hire a builder. A university needs to optimize and they bring in a fixer.
You may think, “What’s so bad about hiring a leader that doesn’t match the exact situation that we are in? They seem like a gifted leader to me. They speak well, share our faith convictions and they have a vision for the future of our university. So, what’s the problem?”
The problem boils down to the fact that builder leaders, when left to do as they will, tend to build things. It seems obvious right? Building things is what gets them excited. Building things is what they want to talk about and spend their leadership energy on. Fixers tend to find things to fix (whether or not there is a problem to fix.) And optimizers spend their time on incremental change and tend to shy away from big building projects or big fixer projects.
It is worth mentioning that leaders of one style can function as a different style for a period of time, but it is often unpleasant for everyone involved. Presidents that have low energy around their biggest problems can be difficult to work for. In the end, the university mission suffers. Every university needs a leader that is passionate about the situation that their university is in today, not in 5 years from now.
Universities need presidents with all three of these leadership styles over their lifespan, but is anyone even asking what is truly needed at your university right now? Be careful, if you get this wrong, it could set your university back years of progress. You must answer the question, “Are we building, fixing or optimizing?” Christian colleges and universities that are having success in the current marketplace have the right type of leader executing the right strategy for their institution.
Which comes first, the president or the strategy? The strategy. Then you go hire the right leader.
-Nick Willis is a partner at TG Three
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