Background/purpose: College deans' responsibilities include monitoring and evaluating the performance of academic department heads to ensure that they lead academic programs, faculty members, and students efficiently, thereby contributing to the achievement of both college-level and institutional objectives. This study is the second phase of a project identifying the key competencies required by academic department heads in Saudi Arabia; it explored the perspectives of college deans on the significance of the key competency framework developed during the project's first phase. Materials/methods: A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed, utilizing questionnaire results and semi-structured interview responses from 17 deans at a Saudi Arabian university. Results: The results showed statistically significant differences due to gender and leadership experience in favor of women. The deans provided insights on the implementation of key competencies. Conclusion: These findings will help higher education institutions design and implement targeted training programs to enhance the leadership capabilities of current and future department heads.