This blog from the Future Leaders Fellows Development Network is based on an honest and open discussion with speakers currently working in senior leadership roles within higher education. Career progression is often seen as the natural next step in a successful research career. You may experience pressure, from yourself or from your institution, to move into more senior leadership positions. It is important to make these decisions proactively and to negotiate them on your own terms. However, many people are unaware of, or unprepared for, the realities that can accompany these roles. These may include increased time pressures, greater political complexity, and strains on research activity, alongside new opportunities to influence culture, strategy, and institutional direction. This resource is designed to help you reflect on what stepping into a senior role might mean for you within your own personal and professional context. It may also help you identify the kinds of questions you want to explore before deciding whether a more senior leadership role is right for you. After reading, you might find it useful to arrange a few informal conversations or coffee catch-ups with colleagues working in different leadership roles. You could use some of the questions posed to …
Reflect on and review your networks
Leaders need a range of types of people in their network. It’s important to periodically review and refresh how you are engaging with your networks. Is it up to date with your current plans and achievements? Are you making the most from your network and are they getting the most from you? Conduct the short mapping exercise in the Imperial Academic’s Success Guide to reflect on who is currently in your network, where you might want to strengthen existing ties (including updating them on what you’re doing now!) or seek out new connections. You may also be reminded of people who you are now in a good position to support or mentor. What will you take forward? One thing to try: Name one relationship in your network that would benefit from refreshing, deepening, or simply reconnecting without an agenda. When will you contact them?
Getting feedback from others and becoming more self-aware
Sometimes we are so busy getting on with things that we don’t realise we have grown in our role. Getting feedback from others can help you to identify your hidden strengths, in order to feel ready to apply for that more strategic leadership role. This feedback might be collected through a structured exercise, such as a 360 degree feedback questionnaire, if your institution offers this (often linked to a leadership programme or coaching). However, there are other ways to get feedback from those around you, such as asking people to describe you in three words, or (perhaps as part of an away day exercise) inviting people to give anonymous contributions on things they think you should start – stop – continue doing. Consider gradually incorporating feedback requests into your regular group, collaborative, or one-to-one meetings, so it becomes a natural habit. This normalises the practice, and your team and colleagues will gradually come to expect these requests and be prepared with responses. Initially, be aware that people may be caught off guard and respond with vague answers like, “No, everything is fine.” To encourage more constructive feedback, ask specific questions. For example, instead of asking, “Do you have any feedback …
Mapping contributions against institutional strategies
Your Institutional and departmental strategies impact your career in multiple ways. Make sure you are up to date on these, and clear about where you might need to adapt or respond. Current funding pressures in the sector mean that many institutions are restructuring and rationalising their focus areas. When was the last time you mapped your activity against your institutional or departmental strategies? Do you know what is different in these now, compared with the last time you looked at them? This resource from the UKRI Future Leaders Fellows Development Network on the UK research landscape offers some tools and definitions to help you think about your institution and departments unique ‘personality’, strengths, opportunities, and challenges. Take time to consider how each of these factors are impacting on you and on where you see things going in the future. Use these resources to identify any grey areas that you might be able to seek clarification on, or opportunities to discuss with a mentor. What will you take forward? One thing to try: Where does your work align strongly with institutional priorities? If you need clarity, who will you seek it from? when will you secure that clarification or negotiate better alignment?
Why and how to move into a senior leadership role in HE
Leadership in HE can take many forms. Hearing stories from others about their transitions into leadership roles can help you work out what is best for you. The Job Shadowing HE series shares authentic leadership stories from across the HE ecosystem. Hear from Vice-Chancellors (Bristol, Birmingham City, Buckinghamshire New University) on strategic vision, student experience, finances, and culture change. Meet Pro Vice-Chancellors, Heads of School, and other senior leaders discussing policy, values, change leadership, and balancing strategy with operations. Episodes feature sector CEOs, governance leaders, and executive search experts revealing insights on senior appointments and key skills. Ideal for established researchers eyeing senior roles, these podcasts offer real reflections on leadership paths, challenges, and essential capabilities. They could help you to gain insights into navigating complex institutions, build alliances, enhance your leadership identity, broaden your strategic view, and inform your career decisions. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What kind of influence do you really want to have in your institution, and which leadership pathways might realistically support that?
Committing to committees: review the value you get from participation in committees
Participation in committees can feel meaningful and worthwhile. The committee work can align well with the work you’re doing at the moment, as well as where you might be able to make changes or develop your role in the future. Consider the committees and working groups that you are part of. What do each of these give to you (think about skills, experience, networks, opportunity to work on something that’s important to you, visibility, joy…). Consider the balance – are they also taking from you in terms of time and energy. This Inside Higher Ed article shares some further reflections on strategic committee choice and explains that whilst committee service can be strategic career capital, not all committee work is equal: Moving your career forward through service on committees (opinion) Reflect on your own committee participation: Take a few minutes of reflection time to ask yourself: This review can help you to make decisions about which committees are still serving you and which might be ones you need to move on from or renegotiate your involvement. It may also highlight some areas of confusion or unclear expectations: is there someone (perhaps a previous committee member or a member of professional …
Learn from your career timeline
Effective self-leadership comes from taking time to review the factors that have contributed to your identity and your career highs and lows. Noticing and naming these factors helps you to be more intentional and assertive in making better-informed decisions, requests, and in prioritising for the future. Sketching out the highs and lows of your career journey can be a powerful exercise, particularly for those of you who are well established in your careers. Ask yourself: Use the template in page 36 of this leadership booklet for research leaders to sketch out your career timeline over the last five or ten years and then reflect on the circumstances that contributed to the highs and the lows. This reflective blog is one example of where the authors have considered how their multiple identities shape their leadership mindset and growth. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Looking back at your career highs and lows, what one thing can you point to as an important condition in which you do your best work?
Connect to your strengths, meaning and purpose: not systems and metrics
Reflecting on what makes an academic career meaningful for you, and how this might have changed over the course of your career, can help you make more informed decisions about what next. This episode of the Changing Academic Life podcast includes a discussion with Prof. Lindsay Oades on academic wellbeing, connecting to strengths, meaning and purpose, and not taking the system too seriously. It takes a relatable and honest look at the realities of academic life, sharing practical insights from someone who has successfully navigated the promotion journey to Professor, drawing on tools and approaches from positive psychology, including strengths-reflection using the VIA survey, job crafting, annual development conversations and aligning your work with what energises you, instead of getting caught up in metrics and systems pressures. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: Which aspects of your work give you energy rather than drain it, and how present are they in how you currently spend your time?
Get to grips with promotions criteria, process and people
Many people have misconceptions about the criteria for promotion and how they are evaluated. To effectively assess yourself and plan your development, rely on accurate information and trusted advice, not on myths or assumptions. Download your institutional promotions guidance and talk it through with a mentor. You can find your institution’s guidance here: Work with your mentor to understand what is really being looked for under each criterion and where you might need to gain some greater experience. For example: At the same time, get to grips with the annual cycles and deadlines for the process and find out if there are people within the Department or Institution who you might draw upon for help. What will you take forward? What do you currently assume counts for progression, and how confident are you that this is based on evidence rather than myth?
Recognise how your role has evolved over time
The nature of contributions you make to projects and your department will evolve over time. However, it is rare that we stop to reflect on how we have developed, what we have learned from experiences and opportunities and how we have built on that learning. The European Competence Framework for researchers defines the skills and behaviours of effective researchers for today’s evolving research landscape. Use this to reflect on how the types of contributions you are making evolve as you progress through your career. For example, you might have moved from ensuring good ethical practices in your own work, to drawing up guidance for collaborations, then to delivering training or contributing to policy or decision making around ethics at Faculty or Institutional level. What will you take forward? How has the nature of your contribution shifted over the last few years? What does that suggest about what you should prioritise next (and therefore what to deprioritise)?
Map your contributions
It’s easy to dismiss or forget quite how much you have achieved and keep focusing on ‘what’s next’ or what’s missing. Remind yourself of the range of contributions that you have made to your department, wider research discipline and other communities who engage with or benefit from you and your research. Narrative CVs were introduced by funders to reflect that there is no one ‘correct’ career path for academics. Your own path may look very different to that of others and reflecting on what you have achieved can help you to tell your story in learning how to put that across in a way that reflects your individual strengths and values. Download the UKRI Résumé 4 Research and Innovation template below and start to populate each of the four themes with activities and roles from your experience. For each of these, ask yourself how you might clearly demonstrate the contribution you made and how this has influenced your discipline or Institution. For example, if you were part of a committee, what did you achieve in this role? People often find it easier to write these by brainstorming with colleagues, join a narrative CV workshop at your institution, or you can look at the University of Sheffield’s example CVs to see the sorts of contributions people talk …
Use mentoring and sponsorship
In their report ‘RAIL: A model for keeping the academic Mid-career on track’, Eastern Academic Research Consortium found that overwhelmingly learning from ‘lived experience’ was the most cited enabler for academic careers. Lived experience came in many forms but broadly was about having more senior people guide you through your career path. Mentoring and Sponsorship were highlighted as key enablers to mid-career success. To learn more about these, make use of the guidance offered by the White Rose University Consortium: If you want to approach a potential sponsor, then you may find the advice on identifying and approaching a sponsor from the FLF Development Network’s Influencing Toolkit helpful. What will you take forward? One thing to try: Identify one person you could approach and one small next step you will take.
Stand in the future and look back
When planning for the future, adopt the perspective of standing in the future and looking back, rather than remaining in the present and looking forward. This approach fosters a positive mindset, shifting from “How on earth do I get there?” to “I made this happen—how did I do it?”. As a reflective exercise, imagine visiting yourself two or three years from now. Spend five minutes free-writing a vivid description of this future version of yourself. Consider: For each key element of your vision, trace your path backwards in time. Identify the steps you took to reach that point and consider the milestones along the way. For further guidance, refer to the first section of the FLF Being strategic blog or watch the strategy videos linked to in ‘Strategic planning – envision and plan into the future.’ What will you take forward? Which part of your future self’s story feels most energising, and what is the first small practical step you can take now, to move in their direction?
Strategic planning – envision and plan into the future
This two-part video series from the Imperial Academic’s Success Guide, helps you to start developing a career strategy. It gives you prompts and ways of thinking to turn vague and aspirational ideas into something more actionable that you can share with others. You can use the prompts to envision your career strategy in general, or to apply to a specific research idea or funding proposal. It may also help you to put together a strategy to present to a probation review panel, a funder or your research group. Whilst it is focussed on research leadership strategy, you can easily apply the questions to other leadership roles in education, outreach, commercialisation, etc. Being Strategic part 1 In this video, you are prompted to explore the big picture and envision the future – this can help you to get the important ‘headlines’ in place. Being Strategic part 2 In this video for Part 2 you will look at practical ways to turn the big picture in to a plan with a coherent narrative. You can also download the horizon scanning questions and a PESTLE Analysis (doc) that is referred to in this video. What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is …
Finding and working with a mentor
Never is working with a good mentor more important than when you are an established researcher, jugging multiple demands and needing a trusted and knowledgeable sounding board. Don’t wait for an official mentoring scheme to find a mentor. Choosing, recruiting, and working with a mentor is a resource developed by Dr Kay Guccione. It explains how choosing and working with a mentor can give you structured time to think through your career, navigate your Institution, and make better‑informed decisions at any stage of your academic journey. It offers practical guidance on identifying the right mentor for you, setting expectations, and getting the most out of conversations so that they genuinely support your professional and career development. What will you take forward? One thing to try: What’s the one challenge where a mentor’s guidance would help you most right now? And who, someone you genuinely trust and find credible, will you reach out to for an informal discussion?
Know the landscape: concordats, charters and commitments that support you as a research leader
As an established researcher, you are no longer just navigating your own career. You are shaping the environment for others. That can feel daunting, particularly when people ask about their development entitlements, research integrity requirements, support for technical staff etc. Much of this is covered by various codes of practice and concordats. Your role is not to memorise every policy or personally implement every commitment. You are responsible for: Key UK Charters and Concordats Below is a summary of the main frameworks you are likely to encounter. You do not need to know every detail, but you should be aware of their purpose and relevance to your leadership role. For a brief explanation of each of the following and a link to further information, see the FLF Development Network’s Research Landscape Toolkit. Career Development and Research Culture. These influence how researchers are developed, assessed and supported across career stages. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion These frameworks shape institutional commitments to equity, representation and inclusive culture. Integrity and Responsibility These define expectations around ethical practice, transparency and environmental responsibility. Technical and Professional Roles: This commitment recognises the vital role of technical colleagues in research and promotes visibility, career development and sustainability of …
Explore tailored research leadership resources
Established researchers express a wide range of leadership and management needs such as recruitment, performance conversations, delegation, effective meetings, coaching and mentoring skills etc. There is an overwhelming amount of advice out there: some relevant to established researchers, some less so. Rather than re-create it all here, we recommend and connect you directly to open access resources that are tailored to research and academic leaders: What will you take forward? One thing to consider: What is one leadership challenge you’re dealing with at the moment? Which single external resource could you engage with this week to move forward?