Previous attendees from Advance HE’s Top Management Programme (TMP) offer their management and leadership advice.
1. Keep your eyes to the horizon
instructs Professor Simon Guy, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University. There’s never been a more important time to keep abreast of global issues affecting higher education.
2. There is learning in every experience
adds Simon. He would pass this advice onto his younger self.
3. You are your diary
says Professor James Crabbe, an emeritus profession of Biochemistry, a supernumerary fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford University and honorary professor at Changchun University of Science and Technology, China. This tip was given to him as part of the ‘Leading Change and Organisational Renewal’ Executive Education Program at Harvard Business School he attended in 2012 after Advance HE’s Top Management Programme. Where you are and what you are doing is crucial to your staff – your PA is a key player in this.
4. Knowing is not doing
is advice James passes on from James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank, when considering how to facilitate culture change in an organisation. On a similar note, James adds: “culture eats strategy for breakfast”, a quote attributed to Peter Drucker.
5. Appoint people better than yourself
is the guidance James would give his younger self. “I was fortunate in that early on I had some outstanding research students who then made great careers for themselves. I learned a lot from them. This advice applies equally to leadership and management appointments.”
6. Aim for a leadership legacy that’s impactful on the institution
Dr Jane Rand, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at York St John says the best objective is to create a significant legacy that is not easily undone.
7. Be bolder, think bigger, be braver
adds Jane.
8. Don’t worry too much: just fake it until you make it
recommends Eric Neumayer, professor of environment and development at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Advance HE's Top Management Programme
Advance HE’s Top Management Programme has an established track record in developing strategic leaders in higher education.
Over 60 of the current UK Vice Chancellors/Principals are TMP alumni, with many of the other past participants of TMP holding some of the most senior posts throughout higher education.