I've been thinking about what we mean when we talk about leadership development. Not the frameworks, not the competency matrices, though those have their place, but the more human, sometimes uncomfortable reality of what it feels like to grow into a senior role.
A recent conversation with two leaders who have been through our Strategic Leadership Programme reminded me of this sharply. What struck me wasn't what they'd learned in a formal sense. It was the honesty with which they spoke about the bits that leadership books tend to gloss over: the imposter syndrome sitting quietly at the back of a room full of senior peers; the moment you realise you've been solving everyone else's priority at the expense of your own; the strange weight of being the person others look to for answers while privately questioning whether you're quite the right person to be giving them.
These aren't marginal experiences. They are the defining experiences of senior leadership.
The strategic-operational tightrope
One theme that consistently comes up among associate deans and faculty leaders is the tension between operating strategically and being pulled into operational details. Managing that tension is genuinely difficult, and the answer isn't really about time management. It's about developing the discipline to ask: is this something I should solve, or something I should enable someone else to solve? That sounds straightforward. In practice, especially in a sector moving at the pace higher education currently is, it takes real intention – and often, a structured space in which to develop it.
On imposter syndrome – and why we should talk about it more
Imposter syndrome is remarkably widespread among senior leaders in higher education. Very capable, experienced people regularly sit with their peers and feel quietly certain that everyone else belongs there more confidently than they do.
What the leaders I've spoken with have consistently found is that the antidote isn't reassurance but a sense of connection. There is something genuinely powerful about being in a space with peers from other institutions navigating similar pressures and realising that the uncertainty you feel isn't a personal failing but a rational response to the complexity of the role. We see this time and again across our leadership development programmes, from those starting on their leadership journey through to our Top Management Programme (TMP) for VCs and soon-to-be VCs.
The value of peer networks
Some of the most valuable learning in leadership development doesn't happen in sessions. It happens in the conversations around them, the informal debrief, the moment when someone from a completely different context says something that reframes your own situation entirely.
The peer networks that form through sustained, immersive development have a quality that's hard to replicate elsewhere. They provide the kind of external perspective, people outside your institution you can think aloud with, test ideas against, and be genuinely candid with, that most senior leaders lack in their day-to-day working lives.
Leadership in a sector under pressure
Higher education is under sustained pressure – financially, reputationally, and in its relationship with governments and societies. Across our member institutions in the UK and internationally, across MENA, Australasia, and multiple other national contexts, the question of what universities are for and what they're worth is being asked with increasing insistence.
What the sector needs from its leaders above all else right now is courage. The courage to speak out clearly about what universities do and why it matters. The courage to be authentically present in the public conversation about the sector's future. That's not a comfortable ask, but it has become a non-negotiable part of what good leadership looks like in this moment.
What the sector needs to do next
Higher education should invest more broadly in leadership development. The sector is already seeing leaders whose careers span academic and professional services roles, bringing the breadth of institutional understanding that modern universities require. Our frameworks need to reflect that reality.
Beyond that, we need to give leaders more time to think – not as a luxury, but as a strategic necessity. The reactive mode many leaders currently operate in is not sustainable. Creating protected space for genuine development, combining structured frameworks with peer dialogue, coaching, and honest conversation, is one of the most significant investments an institution can make.
The journey into senior leadership is as much an inner journey as a professional one. The frameworks matter. The theory matters. But so does the space to reflect, to connect with others on the same road, and to recognise that the uncertainty you feel isn't a weakness. It's part of what makes you pay attention.
Dr Charles Knight is Director of Educational Excellence and Student Success Advance HE