Recruiting leaders with a strong social orientation is key to achieving holistic development in higher education. Universities play a vital role in nation-building by appointing leaders committed to driving social change. Such leaders should have experience in social impact projects, strategic collaboration, and DEI leadership. Effective recruitment involves targeted searches, clear role descriptions, and holistic assessments. By selecting socially driven leaders, HEIs can become powerful catalysts for societal transformation

Achieving goals of holistic development can be achieved effectively by recruiting leaders with a strong social orientation in the domain of higher education.

Driving social change to meet the objective of holistic development is the essence of education. Especially when it comes to higher education institutions (HEIs), leaders with a strong social drive can play an important role in building learners’ social capital and bringing about a change in society. In other words, universities can catalyse nation building process by recruiting impactful leaders with a strong affinity to bring societal change. So, what key traits one should look into in such leaders and what recruitment strategies should be adopted; here are complete details:

Leaders with social impact: Key personality traits

a) Socially Impactful: To make a lasting impact on society, potential candidates must have experience in community outreach programs, sustainability initiatives, and social entrepreneurship. Candidates should also have a demonstrated record of planning, implementing, and running social impact projects within the ambit of higher education settings. In addition, the experience of working and collaborating at higher levels of education regarding projects in fields such as social justice, women’s health, child education, and social service is also desirable.

b) Strategic collaboration: The ability of leaders to integrate social impact programs with the institution’s strategic goals is of critical prominence. Potential candidates should have excellent collaboration skills as driving social change in the university setup needs coordination across domains, employees, and disciplines. As these leaders need to navigate complex patterns of stakeholders’ interests, they should also be excellent at setting a shared goal and driving negotiations to reach a consensus.

c) DEI Leadership: Ideal leaders who intend to drive social change should focus on combining the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) theme with their visionary leadership. The combination is a sure-shot strategy to achieve the desired impact of social progress quickly. Besides, potential candidates should demonstrate empathy, kindness, and persuasive skills as all these qualities are needed to go that extra mile and bring a change in society through higher education.

Recruitment methods

a) Selected Targeting: Continuous networking with professional organisations associated with bringing social change through higher education can be a good starting point for recruiters to look for potential leaders who can fill the top positions. In addition, the list of potential candidates can be compiled from allied domains of research, CSR, and sustainability among others. Besides, leaders from academic associations associated with one or another social cause can also be considered for the top posts in the higher education domain.

b) Clear Description: While articulating the role and responsibility for the top post, universities must clearly state their commitment to the social cause and desirable outcomes they expect the potential leaders to achieve over time. This unambiguous communication of information is crucial and can bring both management and leaders on the same page as far as the impact of social initiatives is concerned. This description will also help candidates in planning their activities and involving stakeholders to drive positive change through social engagement, community justice, and sustainability efforts.

c) Holistic assessment: In addition to soft and hard skills, the behaviour assessment of the potential candidates with specific reference to their initiatives on the social front is a must for selecting the right candidate for driving social change. First, the interview panel must constitute stakeholders from varied backgrounds to ensure that the selection process is without any kind of bias or prejudice. Second, the university board must ensure that representatives of the communities must also get a place in the selection process. Third, enough weightage must be assigned to the social impact portfolio of candidates and evaluation must be done on how impactful the past accomplishments of the candidates have been. Taking care of all these things in the selection process will increase transparency and help HEIs to hire the right leader for the top position.

Bringing a positive change in society is a collective responsibility and HEIs can play a conducive role in this change. Especially universities with socially oriented leadership can prove instrumental in driving social change by undertaking social efforts in a variety of domains. The key success factor in driving social change is the mindset of the top management of universities and by recruiting leaders with strong affection towards social cause, the educational institutions can become an effective tool for change. Summarily, driving social change has today become a strategic necessity and the time has come to revisit the entire selection process of leadership positions at universities so that the ambitious goal of holistic development of our society can be achieved effectively.

(The author is Managing Partner at EduShine Search Partners)