There are varying motivations for tenured faculty choosing to enter positions of higher education leadership. For some, the prestige of leadership and legacy building is the driving force. Conversely, there are others motivated primarily by a strong sense of work calling and a desire to be of service. These individuals choose to put aside personal accomplishment and recognition in favor of serving the greater good. As a result, the work calling orientation increases their job engagement, impacts their leadership style, and influences the organizations they build. This phenomenological study drew on Logotherapy (Frankl, 2006) and Self Determination Theory (SDT) (Ryan and Deci, 2008) to examine the role of work calling on a select few who felt "called" to move away from the classroom and into executive level leadership roles. Snowball and criterion sampling methods were employed to identify the tenured faculty. Participants took part in open-ended interviews with the goal of understanding work calling's stages from awareness to manifestation and its impact on the organizations these individuals lead. This work also reviewed how demographics, specifically gender and ethnicity, interact with work calling in order to investigate the ways in which tenured faculty who choose to become higher education leaders. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]