ABSTRACT
New leaders taking the helm at an organization face a multitude of competing priorities that vie for time and attention. In institutions of higher education, times of leadership transition are particularly complicated. New leaders who have a firm sense of self can communicate their values and principles to their new organizations and leadership teams more authentically. Culture drives daily behavior, organizational thinking, and decisionmaking and is often steeped in institutional history. New presidents who accept the role while also acknowledging that their success depends on the intellect, perspective, and partnership of others have a leg up. Those who acknowledge the reality of their own levels of emotional intelligence and intellectual humility have an additional leg up. Leaders with strong levels of emotional intelligence exhibit the ability to identify emotions of others and their own, are able to discern feelings and acknowledge them properly, and use emotional insight to facilitate behavior and thinking to achieve goals.
