Skills in senior management and university policy

This article focuses on the review of set of skills that should accompany, at all times, those who perform the Public University tasks of senior management and responsibility. In respect thereof, this article analyzes, methodologically, the leadership of the highest academic authority of the University with special attention, on the one hand, to the role that corresponds to the rector of the university in the management of decision making, planning and implementation of the dynamics of work of management team, and conflict management between the different university levels; and on the other hand, to what they should be, from their own example, their negotiation and communication skills. By using an interdisciplinary and transversal procedure, in which Education, Psychology and Law converge, it’s concluded, after a comparative analysis of the different leadership styles (commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting and coaching) that, depending on circumstances of each moment and the issues to be address, all and each of them can be useful in the hands of a rector of the university who, being a leader, knows how to exercise as such, has the ability to ask the appropriate questions in each case, actively listening to the entire university community, and who projects his dedication and willingness to serve in the common interest of the university institution that manages.