Background: Leadership within higher education has become increasingly complex due to growing performance demands, organizational pressures, and changing institutional conditions. Previous research has shown that leadership influences employee motivation, communication, and organizational performance. At the same time, limited research examines how leadership practices are adapted in situations where organizational goals are not achieved, particularly within higher education environments characterized by multiple stakeholders and conflicting demands.

Problem: Existing leadership research is largely quantitative and outcome-focused, often emphasizing employee perceptions, motivation, and performance outcomes. There is limited qualitative research exploring how leaders themselves describe and adapt their leadership practices in situations of goal non-achievement. This gap is particularly evident within higher education, where leadership operates under complex organizational conditions and increasing performance pressure.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how leaders in higher education adapt their leadership practices in situations where organizational goals are not achieved. The study specifically examines how leaders work with communication, motivation, support, responsibility, and adaptation under conditions of performance pressure.

Method: This study applies a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with leaders within a Swedish higher education institution. Six leaders in managerial positions were interviewed, together with one union representative, observation from a staff meeting was used to provide triangulation and additional organizational perspective. The collected data were analyzed through thematic analysis using theoretically informed categories related to adaptive leadership, participative leadership, and leadership under performance pressure.

Results: The findings show that leaders adapt their leadership practices through increased communication, structured problem solving, flexibility, and individualized support. Leadership under performance pressure was characterized by increased urgency, more structured control, and active stress management. The findings also show that leaders viewed goal non-achievement as a learning process rather than individual failure. At the same time, the study identified tensions between leadership intentions and how employees experience organizational support and goal clarity in practice. Overall, the findings suggest that leadership in higher education is highly context-dependent and requires continuous adaptation in situations where organizational goals are not achieved.