Become an institutional leader that can transform the future of higher education.
Overview
Leading in higher education is a difficult task under the best of circumstances. Shared governance, structural barriers to change, and limited discretionary funding are just a few of the many reasons why making a meaningful impact can be hard to do. But it can be done, and the current and future challenges faced by the industry demand that we have leaders who can make substantive—and not just incremental—change.
Join us for a one-of-a-kind program that will help you to lead for the impact you desire. We’ll examine your leadership at a personal level with our Five Paths to Leadership℠ Assessment, and we’ll also share strategies for building high-performing teams with the hands-on, simulated activities to equip you with the tools that you can use to align large groups around a new direction or vision. You’ll also receive integrated coaching and industry feedback from peers in attendance, to help you to further refine and improve your leadership skills. Thanks to this valuable feedback, attendees will leave the event armed with a curated action plan to help them to thrive in their own programs, and with a wider potential pool of future accountability partners from fellow attendees and network contacts to help assure future success.
Who Should Attend
Given the intensive nature of the program, middle and senior managers who have experience in leading teams or units will benefit from attending. We have intentionally designed this program for administrators across the institution, including those on the academic side, such as deans and provosts.
Agenda
Day 1
Future Timeline
The world of higher education has changed fundamentally over the last few years and will likely continue to change and transform in new and unexpected ways. In this interactive session, we’ll explore the events, trends, and issues that will impact higher ed over the next decade, and we’ll also explore practical strategies to build on and practice this anticipatory mindset.
Building Connections with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Methods: An Experiential Process for Reflective Dialogue
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® activity is an experiential process designed for use with adults to prompt dialogue and encourage reflection. To help you get creative and expand your mindset using the approachable medium of play, our facilitator will lead you through a series of structured exercises to kick off the conference.
The Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment
We’ll introduce you to Academic Impressions’ leadership model, the Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment. This assessment will help you to understand your predominant leadership style and how it changes under stress. Knowing your leadership style will better equip you to make decisions that align with your strengths and weaknesses. Understanding your leadership style during a stressful situation can also help you to lead your team more effectively, make better decisions, and communicate more clearly. This will ultimately help you to navigate the situation more successfully and emerge a stronger leader.
Intersectionality and Innovation
The various backgrounds, experiences, and identities we hold as leaders influence the way we show up and allow others to show up, too. As we navigate adaptive challenges in higher education, we need more diversity at the table, not less. And we need to know how to create a climate and culture where everyone doesn’t just belong, but contributes. In this session, we’ll examine each of our own intersecting identities and the broader context in which you’re leading.
The Five Paths to Leadership℠ 360 Assessment
Each participant will complete a Five Paths to Leadership℠ 360 Assessment before coming to the program, and you’ll receive your results on-site. You’ll have a 30-minute coaching session with one of the facilitators to discuss your feedback, identify action steps you can take, and connect what you’ve learned to the topics of the program.
Networking Reception (included in registration fee)
This informal reception is your chance to decompress, have some refreshments on us, and expand your network of connections. Our programs are intentionally designed for smaller groups, so this is a great time to catch up with attendees and speakers whom you may not have connected with yet.
Day 2
Developing Trust Across Differences
This session will give you an opportunity to reflect on the messages you have learned over time about how to engage in conversations about personal frustrations at work. You will practice intentional engagement versus moving past uncomfortable scenarios and arrive at a place where you are more willing to actively take part in solution-oriented conversations, even when they are uncomfortable.
Difficult Conversations Are Necessary, Not Unkind (plus Role Play)
For years, there has been an increasingly dominant narrative in our society about the importance of being kind or “politically correct.” While these are important principles, we must unpack and examine how this narrative often gets in the way of difficult yet essential conversations that leaders often avoid for fear of saying the wrong thing. This session will give you an opportunity to reflect on the messages you have learned over time about how to engage meaningfully in conversations about any number of difficult topics. We will explore how these messages have influenced your daily decisions to engage or disengage in difficult conversations over time. You will practice intentional engagement versus moving past uncomfortable scenarios and arrive at a place where you are more actively willing to take part in and lead uncomfortable conversations moving forward.
7 Practices for Creating High-Performing Teams
Most teams don’t struggle because they lack the requisite talent, but because they don’t focus enough on their group dynamics and process—how they’ll work together. In this session, we’ll examine seven practices used by high-performing teams, including ways to ensure that everyone’s voice is included in the conversation, to improve decision making, support creative and innovative thinking, and more.
Day 3
Power & Systems Simulation
In this interactive session, you will simulate a complex challenge that highlights the naturally occurring dynamics of organizational life. Often on the same day, we play multiple roles: as leader, follower or sandwiched in the middle. And yet regardless of the roles we play, we are all accountable for certain outcomes. In this session, you will gain insight into ways that you can contribute productively to situations—and encourage others to do the same—regardless of the role you are playing.
Mastering Agility
Once you have engaged in a visioning process for yourself and your organization, it’s necessary to make decisions regarding activities which may or may not be moving the organization forward. In this session, we’ll delve deep into the four key strategies of the OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) and explore how these principles can be applied to enhance decision making, giving you a valuable edge in navigating complexity.
Distilling the Lessons from the Three Days
We’ll have covered a lot of ground over three days, so as our program ends, we’ll synthesize the most important takeaways and lessons learned.
Action Planning & Presentations
In our final session, you’ll design your action plan for moving forward—first individually, and then with a thought partner. This action plan will detail how you will use your lessons learned here to impact and further improve your leadership. Your thought partner will help you to build accountability into the process, and you’ll also have a chance to present your plan to the full group and receive feedback. We’ll then share interactive and safe ways to receive feedback that you can easily apply in your own settings.
Location
Academic Impressions’ Denver-based office
5299 DTC Blvd, Suite 1400
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
