Leadership Wellness and Mental Health Concerns in Higher Education

This book focuses on the intersections of wellness and leadership within the higher education context. Wellness, defined here as the practice of engaging in behaviors and actions that improve the mental, emotional, and physical state of individuals, is a topic of increasing interest both in the United States and globally. The increased emphasis on wellness is due in part to the ever-increasing reports of burnout across all professions, the psychological and emotional toll of COVID-19 and, within higher education, the increasing corporatization of tertiary education. However, while there is a growing field of wellness texts intended for a generic audience, there is very little focused specifically on the needs of leaders in higher education. This is particularly problematic because higher education leaders are usually experts in specific academic fields but are rarely experts in leadership itself. The emphasis within higher education on developing in-house talent means most higher education leaders must learn on the job. In many instances, this learning, particularly initially, can result in negative effects to their body, emotional state, mental equilibrium, and social networks. This book provides advice and recommendations for other higher education leaders (both as practitioners and mentors of other leaders), as well as describes personal experiences of higher education leaders who have had to develop a wellness practice on their own.

This publication will be the first text to explicitly explore the wellness in higher education from the leadership context. Leadership wellness is generally under researched, meaning there should be a wide array of ideas and approaches that have not yet found a platform on which to be shared. The text may also serve as a balm and a tool for new leaders who are struggling to with their new roles, which may in turn both extend careers and increase the overall production of leadership wellness research.