Leadership & Professional Learning - EDUCAUSE Review

Leaders Are Readers Q1 2026

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series offer inspiration and ideas for becoming a more present, peaceful, and purposeful leader in 2026.

Creating Self-Aware Teams: Worth the Effort?

The three Ts of IT provide a practical framework for shifting organizations from siloed management to a capacity-building approach that results in high-functioning, collaborative teams.

The Penn Instructional Design Working Group: Professional Learning and Growth for ID Professionals

At the University of Pennsylvania, the Instructional Design Working Group is blending professional growth and peer connection to transform how instructional designers learn, lead, and support one another. Its success offers a practical model that other higher education institutions can adapt to strengthen their own instructional design communities.

Smart Spending: Inexpensive Strategies for IT Professional Development in Higher Education

By adopting practical, cost-effective strategies, higher education IT leaders can support continuous learning and career development for staff, even during budget-constrained times.

Leaders Are Readers Q4 2025

The recommended readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series focus on four essential practices for becoming a better leader. These include living in integrity, maintaining an open perspective, fighting resistance to new ideas and practices, and recognizing change fatigue.

Leadership Practices for Cultivating Value and Belonging in the Workplace

Cultivating a sense of value and belonging is critical for retaining talented staff and driving organizational success. Effective leaders foster a supportive culture by promoting adaptability, supporting professional growth, maintaining accountability, encouraging open communication, and celebrating both individual and team achievements.

The CISO-to-CIO Pipeline: Leadership Skills that Scale

CISOs have evolved into campus-wide strategic leaders. Their skills and experience make them ideally suited to step into CIO and other executive roles in higher education.

Identifying Change Fatigue in Teams: Insights from the Energy-Commitment Model

As change fatigue becomes more widespread in higher education, leaders need better ways to recognize when their teams are depleted so they can respond effectively. The Energy-Commitment Model offers a framework for guiding timely interventions that restore capacity and sustain change efforts.

Leading Change Management: A Conversation with CIOs and Finance Leaders

Managing change during a major technology implementation requires a clear vision, strong communication, thoughtful process review, effective training, teamwork, stakeholder buy-in, and executive-level support.

Building Trust and Rigor in Microcredentials: Synthesizing Standards, Taxonomy, and Frameworks

By integrating rigorous standards, a unified taxonomy, and an established and trusted framework, microcredentials can be designed and implemented as credible, transparent, and valuable indicators of learners' skills and competencies across various sectors.

Early-Career Playbook: Strengthening Relationships and Agility to Lead Through Change

Leadership never happens in isolation—it grows out of the relationships people nurture and their capacity to adapt when challenges arise.

Will I Still Matter When I'm 66?

What challenges will the next decade pose for CIOs? What kind of leadership is needed to sustain higher education institutions and prepare them for disruption and reinvention?

Early-Career Playbook: Mastering Cost Management

Financial acumen is a career-defining competency for emerging leaders in higher education. Early-career professionals who want to influence decisions that matter should develop an understanding of revenue models, budget allocations, and funding prioritization.

Early-Career Playbook: 3 Power Skills for Emerging Leaders

The "Early-Career Playbook" series will highlight 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.

Early-Career Playbook: You Can't Lead What You Can't Manage

Project management is a leadership multiplier. As early-career professionals in higher education build foundational project management skills, they create meaningful opportunities for continued growth and development of their leadership skills.

Early-Career Playbook: Communication Is the Skill That Drives Everything

Communication isn't just a soft skill—it's a differentiator. Cultivating effective communication skills can help early-career professionals amplify their impact, forge stronger relationships, and accelerate their journey to leadership.

Leaders Are Readers Q2 2025

The recommended readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series focus on putting people first. They provide insights into mindset shifts and practices that cultivate greater happiness for leaders and those they lead.

The Deliverable Deadlock: How to Create Collaborative Consulting Engagements

Higher education institutions and consultants can get stuck in a "deliverable deadlock" of rigid, transactional engagements that impede lasting transformation. Breaking the cycle requires deep, intentional collaboration and strong internal structures to harness the value consultants create.

Putting People First: Human-Centered Approaches to Large-Scale Digital Transformations

When leading large-scale digital transformation efforts at higher education institutions, prioritizing people alongside technology efforts can lead to more successful outcomes.

Leaders Are Readers: Q1 2025 Reading List

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series offer insights about leading teams, acts of appreciation, and the ethical use of artificial intelligence in higher education.

Beyond Infrastructure: Why Higher Education IT Needs Trauma-Informed Leadership Now

Burnout among higher education IT professionals has reached an alarming level. Trauma-informed leadership, which prioritizes psychological safety, trust, and empathy, offers a transformative solution.

Redefining Partnership: Lessons Learned from the First EDUCAUSE Partner Summit

By adopting a more intentional approach to partnerships and working together strategically, higher education institutions and industry partners can unlock new possibilities and shape a brighter future for education.

Leaders Are Readers: Q4 2024 Reading List

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series offer inspiration and ideas for becoming a better and more productive leader in 2025.

Navigating Change Fatigue: The Energy-Commitment Model for Organizational Change

Change fatigue causes staff to disengage and negatively affects higher education institutions, and the trend shows no signs of abating. Understanding the issue and then finding and implementing solutions will help college and university leaders continue to move their institutions forward.

Fostering Brave Space: Reflections on Brené Brown's Dare to Lead

In this episode, the discussion centers around leadership insights from Brene Brown’s book Dare to Lead, exploring themes like authenticity, vulnerability, and building trust in the workplace. Hosts Wes Johnson and Sarah J. Buszka also share tips for making the most of your EDUCAUSE 2024 Conference experience.

Leveraging Partnerships: The Value of Consulting Firms

Consulting firms can be invaluable partners for higher education leaders. This article presents specific recommendations to help leaders maximize the value of these partnerships.

Leaders Are Readers: Q3 2024 Reading List

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series encourage leaders to deepen their perspective, embrace surprises, and upend the status quo.

Embracing Online Data Training for Staff

To address meaningful and sustainable data-centric training, the Office of the University Registrar at Duke University developed two online training courses for its internal staff and others in the campus community.

Unconventional Paths to IT Careers

The higher education technology profession has become increasingly interdisciplinary, and many young professionals are entering technology roles from nontraditional backgrounds. In this episode, we discuss how nontechnical strengths contribute to a better technical organization.

Hiring Resilience

Comparatively low salaries, poorly expressed value packages for existing and prospective staff, and rigid workplace policies are impeding hiring managers from filling open positions. In this episode, we discuss strategies, challenges, and opportunities for higher education hiring and retention with guests Nicole Muscanell, Marshall White, and Brittany Denis. You'll learn about approaches for Driving staff belonging and fulfillment, using creative methods for filling open positions, "managing up" to set expectations for stakeholders at institutions, and how to do less with less while combatting burnout.

Fostering a Data-Oriented Culture

At the University of California, Irvine, a data-driven transformation is fostering a collaborative environment for informed decision-making. With high adoption rates and a collaborative spirit, the Compass Initiative leverages millions of data points to guide students toward success.

Strategies for Navigating the EDUCAUSE Top 10

Hosts Wes and Sarah speak to Susan Grajek from EDUCAUSE and Joseph Caudle from the University of Notre Dame about how young professionals can leverage the insights from the annual EDUCAUSE Top 10 to address institutional challenges and shape the future of higher education.

Leaders Are Readers: Q2 2024 Reading List

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series encourage leaders to value diverse perspectives, remember lessons from the past as they lead through change, explore strategies for turning a stressful mindset into a productive one, and create culturally aware AI policies and practices.

EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Leadership Transitions

Any leadership transition can be hard for an institution, but CFO/CBO transitions appear to be especially challenging for technology teams. Early and frequent communication with new leaders, as well as strategic alignment, can help.

The Leadership Role: Considerations

To successfully prepare for and step into leadership roles as you move along your career path, you should consider several specific areas to improve your leadership toolkit and be prepared for that next opportunity.

Trailblazing a Modern Path to CIO

Finding a path to a leadership role can be daunting. In this episode, hosts Sarah and Wes speak with two young professionals who have forged a path to the CIO position and discuss how they got there.

Lockpicking Lessons for Leaders

Lockpicking has a lot to teach technology leaders about much of the work we do on a day-to-day basis.

Finding Flow: Harmonizing Life and Career

Balancing work and life can be particularly challenging for higher education professionals now that many are working from home or in a hybrid environment. This podcast episode explores a variety of approaches and philosophies for improving work-life balance.

Leaders Are Readers: Q1 2024 Reading List

The suggested readings in this installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series challenge traditional notions of productivity. They also underscore the importance of resilience and belonging and explore the relationship between leading well and writing well. Finally, they remind us that the most important leadership lessons often come from students.

Leveraging Displaced Talent to Address Growing IT Workforce Needs

In the face of unprecedented workforce challenges, higher education institutions can advance inclusivity and innovation by embracing displaced talent.

Why Higher Education Employees Are Leaving and What Managers Can Do About It

The CUPA-HR 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey was conducted to understand the factors driving the retention crisis after COVID-19. In this video, a CUPA-HR executive discusses some of those factors and what leaders can do to retain staff. You can view all of CUPA-HR's finding by visiting the CUPA-HR 2023 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey.

Young Professionals’ Perspectives on Career Development

John O'Brien talks with two former members of the EDUCAUSE Young Professionals Advisory Committee about their perspectives on building a career in higher education technology.

How Senior Leaders Support Young Professionals

Two former members of the EDUCAUSE Young Professionals Advisory Committee discuss how senior leadership is supporting younger staff in the higher ed tech industry.

Inclusive Hiring: 5 Tips for Employers

Karen Catlin, author of Better Allies: Everyday Actions to Create Inclusive, Engaging Workplaces, shares tips for making the hiring process more inclusive and welcoming for a variety of candidates.

Getting Started with Data Governance

Four experts share their thoughts on successfully building data governance and overcoming resistance in higher education.

Questions to Ask before Taking an Interim Role

Before agreeing to accept an offer of an internal interim position at your college or university, you should ask your boss and yourself several questions that can help determine both your suitability for the assignment and the assignment's suitability for you.

The CREATIVE Leaders We Need: A Perspective from Women in IT

To successfully navigate today's ever-changing environment while attracting and retaining the best employees, higher education leaders must be curious, resilient, empathetic, authentic, thoughtful, inclusive, vulnerable, and emotionally intelligent.

The Holiday Recharge

Hosts Sarah and Wes discuss how to disengage from work concerns when it's time for a long break and how to avoid vacation whiplash on your return.

Leaders Are Readers: Q4 Reading List

The suggested readings—and one podcast—in the fourth installment of the "Leaders Are Readers" series challenge leaders to shift their perspectives through reflection and learning.

Celeste Schwartz on the Evolution of Higher Ed IT

Hosts Cynthia and Jack talk with Celeste Schwartz, vice president for information technology and chief digital officer for Montgomery County Community College. She talks about her long career and the changes she has observed in higher education technology strategies over the years.