January 17, 2026

Read Time - 4 minutes

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

I've been wrestling with whether to write on this topic, but the more conversations I have with faculty and leaders across the country, the clearer it becomes: higher ed seems to be in short supply of something critical right now. The kind of courage Dr. King described—the kind that shows up at times of challenge and controversy.

Not the courage to make hard decisions or deliver tough feedback—most leaders can do that when it serves the institution's interests. We’ve seen that over and over again with budget reductions and staff and program eliminations.

I’m talking about a different kind of courage that seems to be more rare. The courage that shows up when supporting your people costs you something. When standing with or for someone creates friction with your director, dean, provost, president, board, or legislators. When having their back means absorbing heat that could easily be deflected downward.

The recent headlines have been weighing on me. And the common thread in the conversations I'm having is fear. Fear that a 30 second sound bite of their class will be taken out of context and they'll be hung out to dry. Fear that research on a controversial topic will get them penalized. Fear that a personal social media post will cost them their job. Or fear that a difficult decision will lose support as soon as pressure is applied from above. These are people wondering: If something goes wrong—even if I did everything right—will anyone stand with me?

Regardless of what gets said in faculty meetings or written in leadership statements, when the moment comes, that support too often evaporates. And people are left to fend for themselves. What we need are leaders with actual courage. Not the performative kind that shows up in speeches. The kind that stands with people when it's uncomfortable, when it creates friction, when it costs something. Without it, here’s what happens: your faculty stop making brave decisions. Your staff stop speaking up. Your administrators start optimizing for survival instead of mission. Everyone becomes a risk manager for their own career. And you can't build anything worth building with a team that's just trying not to get hurt.

What This Looks Like

This kind of leadership is certainly possible. It's not easy, but it’s not complicated either.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

1. Know the difference between having their back and covering for them

Having their back means:

• "You followed the policy. I'll make sure that's understood in every room where this gets discussed."

• "This was a judgment call. I support your reasoning."

• "Even if I would've handled it differently, you made a defensible decision. I'm not going to undermine you."

It does NOT mean:

• Defending behavior that violated policy

• Protecting someone from earned accountability

• Spinning a bad situation to avoid consequences

The distinction matters because your credibility—and theirs—depends on it. If you defend the indefensible, you lose the moral authority to support the defensible.

2. Ask "What happened?" before "Who's responsible?"

When something goes sideways, your first instinct reveals everything.

Do you immediately look for who to blame? Or do you start by understanding what happened?

The people you supervise are watching that sequence.

What this looks like:

• "Walk me through what happened from your perspective."

• "What were you working with when you made that call?"

• "What did you know at the time versus what we know now?"

Get the full picture before you decide what comes next. The gap between those two moments—gathering facts and assigning responsibility—is where trust either gets built or destroyed.

3. Defend their authority in rooms they're not in

When someone challenges a decision your faculty or staff made, your response in private reveals everything about your support in public. Do you immediately look for ways to reverse their decision to make the complaint go away? Or do you represent their rationale, explain the policy, and make clear you're supporting what they did? Your people will never know exactly what you said in that closed-door meeting, but they'll know the outcome. And if you undercut their authority to avoid a difficult conversation with someone above you, you've taught them their authority only exists when it's convenient for you. It’s a lesson they'll never forget.

4. Model the backbone you want them to have

If you want your faculty to enforce academic integrity, hold meaningful standards, and make unpopular but necessary decisions, they need to see you do the same.

They need to watch you:

• Absorb institutional pressure instead of passing it down

• Make the harder right choice instead of the easier wrong one

You can't ask people to be braver than you're willing to be. They'll lead the way you lead, not the way you tell them to lead.

5. Bridge divides

When conflict erupts, your response reveals everything.

Do you avoid it and hope it resolves itself? Let people retreat to their corners? Or, when the time is right, do you actively bring disagreeing parties together to work through it?

Having people's backs doesn't mean taking sides. It means creating the conditions for them to resolve the conflict themselves:

• Convene the conversation instead of avoiding it

• Hold space for disagreement without letting it devolve

• Help people find common ground without forcing false consensus

Often, you're the connection between two offended parties. You can leverage your relationships to unite—or step back and let the divide deepen.

When you avoid the hard conversations, everyone loses trust—in each other and in you. Real support sometimes means getting people in the same room and refusing to let the institution fracture on your watch.

Bottom Line

All of this comes back to trust. And how crucial that is.

I've found that with strong trust, just about anything is possible. The risks people are willing to take. The ideas they're willing to try. The initiatives they'll take on. The honesty they'll bring to hard conversations. The commitment they'll make to the work.

Without trust? You get none of that. You get people managing their exposure, playing it safe, keeping their heads down. You get performative effort instead of real engagement.

Trust forms in moments of uncertainty—when someone is vulnerable, exposed, wondering if you'll move toward them or away from them.

This MLK weekend, as we reflect on Dr. King's legacy of moral courage, it's worth asking: what does courage look like in our context? In a profession under unprecedented pressure, where so much feels uncertain and unsustainable, this is something you can control. You can't fix the political environment. You can't change the budget realities. You can't stop the headlines.

But you can choose to be the kind of leader your people trust will stand with them. And in doing that, you give them something invaluable: the safety to do their best work.

That's not a small thing. That might be everything.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

P.S. What leadership challenge are you facing right now? Reply to this email and let me know what you'd like to see covered in a future issue.

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