One of the most damaging mistakes higher ed leaders can make during times of uncertainty is to focus solely on output while neglecting the human experience of change. Leaders can recalibrate policies, redirect structures, accelerate strategic plans, and shift budgets. What leaders cannot afford to ignore is how instability affects employees' connection to their work, their sense of worth, and their engagement with the institution’s mission.
Dr. Frederick L. Hunter Jr.
A faculty member closes the door to their office after another meeting on institutional restructuring. A director sits down with shifting priorities that seem to change each month. A dean internalizes new expectations and works to calm an anxious team. An exhausted staff member quietly asks themselves if their work still matters.
Despite differences in titles and day-to-day responsibilities, many employees in higher education find themselves wondering the same thing:
Does what I bring still matter here?
This reflection comes at a time when many institutions are navigating presidential transitions, leadership restructuring, and shifting institutional strategic priorities. With new presidents often come new expectations, leadership transitions, and renewed institutional direction. While change can create opportunity, it can also generate uncertainty. On too many campuses, employees quietly ask questions they may never voice aloud: What will change? Where do I fit? Does what I bring still matter here?
The human cost of instability
When an institution is in flux, that question circulates more frequently than many leaders appreciate. Higher education is in the midst of a turbulent moment: enrollment pressures, organizational restructuring, leadership changes, financial uncertainty, shifting expectations, and heightened expectations for speed and accountability are just some of the factors pushing institutions to change faster than ever. But all of that pressure can make leaders forget one critical fact:
