Gary A. Olson, president of Daemen College (NY), writes: A key to becoming an effective department head is the ability to balance those two very different roles. Ineffective chairs foster an us-versus-them climate within the department: “You’ll never guess what they are going to make us do now,” such chairs say, where “they” means all university administrators above the department level lumped into one. Adopting that stance may ingratiate you to department members in the short term, but it also demonstrates a lack of leadership.