Planning for succession and leadership transition 

By Lori Wright, Media Relations

Like the seasons of a year, organizations ebb and flow, moving into exciting periods of change and new leadership. At UNH, spring has brought the anticipation of new possibilities as the university says goodbye to several long-time senior-level administrators who have made incredible contributions to UNH during their respected tenures. Now, UNH must prepare to transition to their successors.

Five nationwide searches are under way or have been recently completed: vice president for finance and administration, president of the UNH Foundation, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS), dean of UNH Manchester (UNHM), and assistant vice president for Computing and Information Services.

Candace Corvey, vice president for finance and administration, is leaving at the end of December after nine years of outstanding service to UNH and beginning her “semi-retirement” to spend more time with family and friends. Young Dawkins, president of the UNH Foundation, has been at UNH for seven years and completed his final week at UNH May 13 to become vice principal for development at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Karol LaCroix, former dean of UNH Manchester, was named president of Granite State College (formerly the College for Lifelong Learning) and assumed her new role Aug. 1, 2004. Arthur Greenberg, dean of CEPS since 2000, decided to return to the CEPS faculty. Bob Cape, former assistant vice president for Computing and Information Services (CIS), left UNH in September to accept a position at American University in Washington, D.C.

UNH President Ann Weaver Hart, whose research area of expertise is leadership transition and succession, said that as UNH approached this time of leadership transition, it looked at the positions as a whole package, not as individuals, to allow the university to balance and assess how to make the transitions effectively.

“Leadership transition can be very exciting, despite the fact that we are losing incredibly valuable and strong members of the UNH family. We are going to attract great new people and we are going to thoroughly enjoy working with them. We will work hard to structure our succession and transition period so we can maximize the positive impact of this change,” Hart said.

In considering the candidates for any senior administrative position, Hart said she looks for a number of qualities: commitment to openness, absolute honesty in dealing with colleagues, trustworthiness, creativity, a commitment to hard work and a fun-loving nature.

“UNH is famous for being the kind of place where people are skilled at finding unique solutions under tight financial circumstances. That will always be a characteristic of UNH. UNH is a place where great human beings tend to work, and there are some places that don’t have that reputation,” she said.

Despite extensive succession planning, Hart said it is common for people to feel unsure of the expectations and impact in times like these, particularly those who will be welcoming new leaders.

“The people in the group always are a little unsure of what the impact of a new leader will be. Although it causes the group as a whole to shift, it can raise many new, interesting ideas and ways of doing things, even among people who are not leaving. It can be a very productive time for organizations to look at themselves and look for ways to be more effective,” she said.

Among the most important issues to consider during any leadership transition are preserving institutional memory and strengthening important internal initiatives. “When you have turnover in key positions, it’s important to plan out the search process to preserve those values as well as to bring in new ideas,” Hart said.

Another strategy employed to maintain institutional knowledge and effect a smooth transition when several key administrative positions are fluid is to fill them in a staggered manner. UNH has implemented this approach, with the dean for UNHM recently announced (see related story), the dean for CEPS to be announced shortly, the new president of the UNH Foundation expected to join the university by fall 2005, and Corvey’s successor to come on board around the first of the year. The search committee for the assistant vice president of CIS met recently, and UNH hopes to have a new assistant vice president of CIS in place this fall.

The assistant vice president of CIS position has historically presented unique challenges because of its dual reporting role to the UNH vice president for finance and administration and to USNH. In order to determine if efficiencies could be found, UNH hired an external consultant to provide advice about the position and governance of CIS. As a consequence of that work, an agreement has been reached with USNH that the UNH assistant vice president of CIS will report solely to UNH.

“We found some difficulties with that reporting structure and also with the way in which we govern our independent and shared computing resources. This succession gave us an opportunity to rethink and refine the CIS role into the future for UNH and USNH,” Hart said. Hart encouraged members of the UNH community to get out and meet the finalists as they visit campus, particularly those people who will work with them directly. “Not everybody can serve on search committees but everybody on the team can make an effort to meet with the candidates and get a sense of how they might fit in with the team,” she said. “They should give that feedback to the search committee.”