The Empowered Leader equips university department chairs and deans with practical tools to lead through change.
As studies show over 60% of university leaders face burnout or plan to step down within five years, a new book offers practical, evidence-based solutions to the challenges of disruption and uncertainty in the sector. The Empowered Leader: Tools to Thrive in Higher Education Leadership by Jennifer K. (Jenny) Stine, Ph.D., is now available in paperback and digital formats.
Part handbook, part call to action, The Empowered Leader reframes leadership as a practice of alignment, influence, and growth—especially in environments where authority is shared and resources are strained. With vivid examples from real campuses and consulting insights from more than 20 institutions and hundreds of leaders, the book equips academic leaders with adaptive, research-based tools to lead confidently through complexity.
“Unlike corporate leaders, many university leaders are academic experts who have never had leadership training,” says Stine. “Faced with unprecedented disruption and uncertainty, they are expected to drive innovation and change. University leaders who focus on solving every challenge without the right training and tools experience exhaustion and risk burnout and frustration. Being a great leader takes tremendous courage—it means stepping outside your comfort zone, taking risks, and building new capabilities.”
Stine is president and co-founder of the Academic Leadership Group, a firm specializing in helping university leaders to design their organizations and build their people’s capabilities to meet today’s complex challenges. In the book, she addresses persistent challenges such as decision paralysis, entrenched silos, and conflict avoidance.
The book’s frameworks—rooted in the fields of organizational behaviour, leadership, psychology, and strategy—offer tangible strategies for building buy-in, resolving resistance, and navigating institutional politics. Readers will find guidance on everything from deep listening and strategic planning to leading through ambiguity.
Dr. Anne Trumbore, Chief Digital Learning Officer at the Sands Institute for Lifelong Learning at The Darden School, University of Virginia, comments: “Change is not only hard for universities; it’s also critical for them to survive in the current higher ed landscape. Drawing on her decades of experience, Stine outlines the change process in higher education with humor and wisdom. This thoughtful and concise book punches well above its weight in providing clear, actionable steps to drive transformations both big and small.”
