What is Critical Incident Technique

Increased participation in institutional leadership is one of the most important changes demanded of contemporary faculty. This chapter summarizes findings based on interviews of eight current academic leaders. Interviews employed a qualitative ethnographic approach, strengthened by Flanagan's classic critical incident technique with purposive convenience sampling. Leadership narratives from lived experiences of interviewees illuminate issues, problems, perspectives, and opinions about contemporary academe, including changes in higher education and with today's college students. This chapter discusses administrative leadership tools and provides insider insights about idealistic expectations for administrative leadership styles versus realistic actualizations. This chapter further discusses useful skills in four areas: communication, collaboration, organization, and work-life balance. The rich data from the interviewees provide rare perspectives of how contemporary faculty-turned-leaders can view and influence leadership responses to the changing face of higher education in the United States.