Early-Career Playbook: 3 Power Skills for Emerging Leaders

Higher education is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation, and for early-career professionals, that's good news. Institutions are navigating the various pressures of rapid technological change and a wave of leadership transitions, opening the door for emerging professionals to shape what comes next.

With artificial intelligence accelerating change, digital transformation reshaping every corner of campus, and collaboration across roles becoming essential, the skills that define success are evolving rapidly. In the Early-Career Playbook series, I'll share insights from EDUCAUSE research on the skills and mindsets that distinguish standout leaders in higher education—including business acumen, data fluency, and the ability to lead change—so early-career professionals like you can begin building your professional brand and distinguishing yourself in the job market.^Footnote1

Your Professional Path

EDUCAUSE has mapped out early-career paths for higher education professionals in five key community areas—Information Security, Information Technology, Innovation, Data, and Teaching and Learning—to guide your professional growth. The Pathways, along with extensive research involving over six hundred early-career higher education professionals, identify the most critical leadership and management competencies. The sections below outline the areas in which professionals most frequently report a need for development, highlight essential skills for effective leadership and management, and offer practical, actionable strategies to close these gaps and advance your career. Are you curious about how your project management skills stack up? Take the free EDUCAUSE Early Level Professionals Competency Self-Assessment to get personalized insights and identify growth opportunities.

Power Skill #1: Change Leadership

Change management—the structured approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state—isn't just a soft skill—it's a high-impact, strategic competency that every early-career professional should deliberately plan to develop. When done well, change leadership can reduce project delays, lower resistance, save money, minimize employee turnover, and accelerate the adoption of new initiatives. According to Prosci change management research, organizations with excellent change management are seven times more likely to meet or exceed project objectives than those with poor change management.^Footnote2 The ability to lead change effectively is a game-changer for your institution and your career.

Change leadership involves more than cheering on a new idea. It involves planning for the human side of change, aligning stakeholders around a shared vision, communicating clearly through uncertainty, and helping individuals transition successfully from the current state to the desired future state. For example, the ADKAR® Model—which focuses on building Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement—provides a structured approach to managing those transitions.

Early-career professionals should begin building this skill in the following practical ways:

• Volunteer to support or lead a small change initiative in their department.
• Study and become familiar with change frameworks like ADKAR or Kotter's 8 Steps.
• Develop emotional intelligence and listening skills to better understand resistance.
• Practice framing change efforts in terms of shared goals and benefits.
• Review the Change Management section in Skills for Success under the early-level pathways.

You don't need a formal title to be a change leader—just curiosity, empathy, and the initiative to help others navigate uncertainty. Developing this skill early in your career can significantly improve the outcomes of your current projects and position you as someone who brings clarity, direction, and stability in times of transition. One essential component of effective change leadership is communication—knowing how to articulate vision, manage expectations, and build trust. It's such a vital part of the process that I'll explore it in greater depth later in this series.

Power Skill #2: Data-Informed Decision-Making

One of the most critical—and consistently underdeveloped—competencies among early-career professionals is the ability to leverage data for various purposes. Far more than just interpreting numbers, the ability to use data strategically is what separates routine contributors from influential leaders. It's the key to making sound decisions, building credibility, effectively influencing others, and driving change across your institution.

At its core, data-informed decision-making means knowing how to ask the right questions, spot meaningful patterns, and translate data into clear, actionable insights. Strengthening this competency isn't just about technical ability—it's about learning to frame data in ways that align with strategic goals and resonate with diverse stakeholders. Leaders who are effective consumers of data know how to use it to support proposals, anticipate challenges, measure progress, and guide smarter, more confident decision-making.

For early-career professionals, developing data fluency creates a strong foundation for leadership. It enables you to bring evidence to the table, challenge assumptions with confidence, and contribute meaningfully to conversations that shape institutional priorities. Whether you're analyzing student success trends, making the case for a new technology investment, or managing a project with measurable outcomes, your ability to engage with data persuasively will significantly impact your influence and advancement.

Here are a few ways to begin building this skill:

• Ask purposeful questions before analyzing data to clarify the decision or the challenge the data is meant to address.
• Explore real institutional data and reports by requesting access to non-sensitive datasets to build familiarity and confidence.
• Build basic data tool proficiency using Excel, Tableau, or free tutorials to visualize and interpret data effectively.
• Practice interpretation and data storytelling in a small data set (e.g., survey results or help-desk tickets) by summarizing insights, explaining their significance, and recommending actions.
• Learn from institutional data professionals through mentorship, collaboration, or shadowing institutional research, business intelligence, or analytics staff to observe how data informs strategy.
• Develop your data literacy skills, such as extracting insights from data and visualizing it.

Power Skill #3: Business Acumen

One of the most consistently underdeveloped yet career-defining competencies among early-career professionals is business and finance acumen. EDUCAUSE research confirms that most emerging leaders recognize this as a major growth area—and for good reason. The ability to make sound decisions and influence others doesn't rely on technical expertise alone; it hinges on a clear understanding of how your institution functions as a business.

Business acumen enables you to connect your daily work to the broader strategic goals of your institution. When you understand how revenue is generated, how budgets are allocated, and how priorities are set, you become a more credible voice at the table. You're better positioned to propose solutions, advocate for resources, and align your efforts with institutional needs.

Higher education institutions increasingly need professionals who understand the fundamentals of organizational operations, finance, strategic planning, and resource allocation. This requirement goes beyond balancing a budget—it's about understanding the institution's business model, anticipating the downstream impact of decisions, and evaluating trade-offs strategically.

Early-career professionals can begin building this skill in the following ways:

• Learn the basics of how your department's budget works and your funding sources. Ask how decisions about staffing, technology purchases, or program investments are made.
• Review your institution's strategic plan and consider how your work or your team's work supports its key initiatives.
• Seek mentors in administrative or financial roles and ask them to help you interpret budget reports or funding models.
• Take a course on higher education finance or budgeting basics.
• Collaborate with your finance colleagues, budget manager, or mentor to understand the basics of budgeting, return on investment (ROI), and financial decision-making processes.

In the coming weeks, I'll take a deeper dive into each of these critical skill areas—what they look like in practice, how they connect to career advancement, and why they matter for institutional success. I'll also show you how to benchmark your current competencies, create a personalized development plan, and identify career paths, roles, and opportunities that align with your goals. By focusing intentionally on these areas, you can position yourself as a credible, strategic leader who excels in your current role while actively contributing to the future of higher education.

Notes

1. OpenAI, ChatGPT (GPT-4), accessed July 1, 2025. Used to generate initial insights from the dataset. Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.↩
2. Scott Anderson,"The Correlation Between Change Management and Project Success,"Change Management (blog), Prosci, updated July 17, 2025.Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.↩

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Veronica Diaz is Senior Director, Professional Learning and Development at EDUCAUSE.