Academic leadership is often conceived in terms of strategic oversight, policy development and institutional vision. From the offices of deans and provosts to the boardrooms where presidents chart institutional direction, academic leaders are expected to distinguish meaningful signals from operational noise while providing clear direction for their communities.
Yet most academic leaders began their careers in the classroom, a space of nuance, negotiation and transformative learning. My co-author Heather Smith, a professor of global and international studies, also at the University of Northern British Columbia, and I suggested returning to these pedagogical roots in our 2009 paper “Remembering our teaching heart in the midst of all the noise”, and this advice is still pertinent today. Teaching continues to offer insights for leading institutions and supporting the communities within them.
The art of adaptability
A critical lesson transferable from teaching to leadership is adaptability. Effective instructors approach each classroom with flexibility, understanding that every group of students requires different strategies. This becomes clear when teaching across required and interest-based courses. When I teach psycholinguistics, for example, I bring enthusiasm and intellectual exploration. When teaching statistics to initially reluctant undergraduate psychology students, I must shift focus from disciplinary depth to emotional attunement, from exploration to scaffolding, from passion-driven enquiry to relevance and support.
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Academic leadership demands the same adaptability. Sometimes we lead in comfortable areas such as research initiatives or strategic planning. Other times we navigate unfamiliar territory: student grievances, budget crises or labour negotiations. The leader who rigidly applies the same approach regardless of context risks ineffectiveness or harm. The adaptive leader, like the adaptive teacher, builds trust by reading each situation and responding with intentionality.
Centring others in leadership
The classroom also teaches us about the fundamental importance of student-centredness. Effective teaching is not about demonstrating the instructor’s knowledge; it is about facilitating student learning. This requires humility, empathy and the willingness to prioritise process over performance.
Academic leaders, too, are most effective when they apply this principle, centring on the learning and well-being of others: our faculty, staff and especially students.
When the lived experiences of those we serve guide decision-making, rather than abstract institutional goals alone, the resulting policies are more likely to foster genuine engagement, retention and equity. This student-centred approach transforms leadership from a demonstration of authority into a facilitation of growth and success.
The power of reflection and iteration
Good teaching is inherently iterative: we plan, deliver, receive formal and informal feedback, then revise and improve. This cyclical process of reflection and adjustment mirrors the strategic cycles essential to post-secondary institutions. The ability to hear criticism constructively, reflect honestly on outcomes and adjust direction accordingly is as crucial for a provost overseeing academic planning as it is for a new instructor revising a syllabus.
Too often in leadership, reflection is sacrificed for speed or image management. However, returning to the reflective habits of thoughtful educators – pausing, assessing, truly listening – can significantly elevate both the quality and sustainability of administrative decisions. Donald Schön and fellow educational theorists proposed that reflection can occur before (for action), during (in action), after (on action), or ideally at all three stages. This iterative approach acknowledges that leadership, like teaching, is a practice that improves through conscious attention and adjustment.
The transformative power of presence
In the classroom, presence extends far beyond physical attendance; it represents a quality of attentiveness and investment in the moment. Students recognise when an instructor is genuinely present and engaged versus when they are distracted or disengaged.
This same sensitivity exists in leadership contexts. A leader who consistently demonstrates presence, not merely in meetings but in conversations, crises and celebrations, communicates powerful messages of care and commitment.
Maintaining this quality of presence amid substantial administrative demands is challenging, but our faculty instincts remind us that relationships matter more than tasks. People, not processes, form the backbone of both excellent teaching and effective leadership.
Embracing the long view
Perhaps most profoundly, the classroom reminds us of the transformative potential inherent in our work. Every semester, faculty witness students wrestling with complex ideas, taking intellectual risks and developing into more confident, capable thinkers. This transformation is often slow and sometimes invisible, but it remains deeply rewarding and fundamentally important.
Leadership in post-secondary institutions operates on similar principles. While external attention focuses on budgets, enrolment figures and rankings, the daily work of academic leaders quietly shapes environments where others can flourish. Drawing from our teaching experience helps us maintain this longer view, recognising that meaningful change often happens gradually and that our role is to create conditions for others’ success. An example of this would be in the development of a pan-institutional strategic academic plan that takes shape after months of conversations, consultations, revisions to final senate and board approvals and adoption.
Bringing the classroom to the boardroom
Remembering the classroom is not a sentimental exercise for academic leaders; it is practical and strategic. The skills that make us effective teachers – adaptability, empathy, presence, reflection and an others-centred ethos – are precisely those that make us effective leaders. As we transition from the classroom to offices and boardrooms, we serve our institutions best when we carry pedagogical wisdom with us, not merely as memory but as an active model for transformative leadership.
The classroom taught us that learning is relational, that growth requires both challenge and support, and that our primary role is to facilitate others’ success. These lessons, applied to academic leadership, can help us create institutions that truly serve their educational missions while supporting the flourishing of all community members.
William J. Owen is the interim vice-president (academic) and provost of the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada.
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