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:
Change does not just impact systems. It impacts people.
Faculty and staff feel uncertainty personally. Employees question whether their work is still valued. Directors and staff grapple with evolving priorities while helping students feel grounded. Deans and academic leaders juggle institutional pressure while shielding their teams from turbulence. In moments of uncertainty, even high-commitment faculty and staff members can begin to question where they belong in an organization that seems to be shifting around them.
The leadership mistake
One of the most damaging mistakes 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. When employees no longer feel valued or become uncertain about how their work connects to institutional priorities, disengagement can quietly emerge.
When that happens, institutions don't just risk frustration with change. They risk disengagement.
Leaders understand the pressure they are under. Institutions are being asked to do more with less: improve retention and completion, stabilize enrollment, respond to changing student needs, and demonstrate institutional value in an era where students and families are increasingly scrutinizing the return on investment of higher education. And many leaders are being asked to respond to that pressure almost overnight, with little visibility into what the future holds.
It can be human nature to focus on execution. But execution without acknowledgment of people's lived experiences is called something else in organizational research: motivated blindness. Faced with so many priorities that demand their attention, it's easy for leaders to hone in on systems, metrics, deadlines, and accomplishments. But in doing so, they may overlook the impact that upheaval has on the people working alongside them. Urgency should not justify that absence.
Leaders during times of uncertainty have to balance output with acknowledgment.
Acknowledging worth matters
Acknowledging people's value is not the same as praising someone for doing their job. Acknowledging people's value is not giving insincere compliments to ensure your employees "feel good." Acknowledging people's value is the quiet, ongoing assurance that your employees know they are seen, that what they do matters, and that their work is still tied to the institution's mission.
Your faculty members need to know that shifting priorities will not minimize the value of their research or teaching. Your staff needs to understand that organizational restructuring does not mean their work goes unnoticed. Your directors and deans need to feel confident that just because things are changing, it does not mean they have lost the knowledge and expertise that led them to be leaders in the first place.
Leaders often assume that by saying nothing, employees will presume everyone is confident in their role. But when an institution is rocked by uncertainty, silence is often interpreted as further anxiety. Without active acknowledgment from leadership, employees may begin to question their role: Do my priorities still align with the institution? Is my work still visible?
Acknowledging people during times of change communicates:
"I see you. What you do matters. And your contribution has value here."
Leaders need to hear it too
This challenge can be especially difficult because leaders are often left wondering about their own value as well.
Presidents, provosts, vice presidents, deans, directors — they all absorb the instability that comes with uncertain times. But they also face pressure to provide stability for everyone around them. Leaders are often tasked with responding to changing expectations, overseeing difficult decisions, meeting financial targets, and more. And they do this while managing the emotional weight of watching their institution change.
In those quiet moments when leaders reflect alone, they may even ask themselves:
Does what I do still matter?
The answer is (and always should be) yes.
Leading during uncertain times means supporting every employee through times of instability and believing that about yourself. If leaders do not internally reassure themselves that their work still has value, they can quickly become disconnected from their own teams.
The leadership imperative
Leadership steadiness in tumultuous times is finding a balance between execution and empathy. Organizations still require performance. Strategic initiatives still take precedence. Holding people accountable is still important. But organizations also need leaders who recognize that people are not barriers to organizational change. They are the vehicle through which success is achieved.
Organizations will likely keep shifting at a pace that seems faster than what we can be certain of. Institutions will continue to evolve. Priorities will change. Leadership will change. Expectations will adapt. Yet one thing will always stay true. People need to know that what they contribute matters. And leaders, perhaps especially in times of uncertainty, must believe the same for themselves.
Dr. Frederick L. Hunter Jr. is assistant vice president of academic services within the Office of the Provost at Florida Memorial University, where he provides leadership for institution-wide initiatives related to student success, retention, academic support, and institutional effectiveness. His work focuses on the intersection of leadership, organizational alignment, and higher education strategy, with particular interest in how institutions navigate change while sustaining student and organizational success.
