Grow your skillset in managing the difficult people who can make leadership so hard.
Overview
Join us for a workshop where you will learn how to intervene with and correct the most problematic performances and behaviors within your team. Within the workshop, you will be introduced to the “EM & EM” model, which includes four increasingly authoritative steps intended to engage, set expectations for behavioral change, communicate consequences for non-compliance, and minimize the ill effects of bad behaviors on others. We will also address the unique aspects of higher education culture that complicate employee oversight—including tenure, union contracts, and ill-defined leadership structures.
This workshop will provide multiple opportunities for you to both apply this model to your unique context and practice these difficult conversations with other leaders experiencing similar challenges. You’ll be encouraged to bring your most difficult personnel scenarios to the group for practice and valuable feedback. Throughout the workshop, you’ll also develop an intervention plan specifically tailored to the challenging people you’re managing, and it will also document how the EM & EM model can help you to customize your approach to your toughest situations. You’ll walk away from this workshop feeling more comfortable, confident, and ready to take on your most difficult conversations.
Who Should Attend
This program is aimed at supervisors, managers, and leaders from all levels in higher education, including but not limited to associate directors, directors, department chairs, deans, associate deans, vice presidents, and associate vice presidents. Perhaps you are:
- A department chair with an assistant professor trying to make tenure who’s fully focused on research and neglecting their teaching duties.
- A dean facing a faculty member who disrupts meetings to vent about a policy which they encourage others to disregard.
- A director or AVP with a longstanding team member who consistently undermines efforts to innovate or change.
- A vice president with a direct report who is bullying others, although not necessarily violating policy.
No matter where you work on campus, if you’re looking for new strategies to help you gain confidence in communicating with your most challenging team members, this conference is for you.
What makes our events different?
Academic Impressions conferences provide the opportunity for quality conversations and relationship-building through both formal and informal networking opportunities in an intimate setting. Our in-depth and hands-on approach to learning provides you with actionable takeaways.
Learn More About the Academic Impressions Conference Experience ➞
Agenda
DAY ONE
Opening Comments and Introductions
8:30 – 9:15 a.m.
Introduction to the EM & EM Model
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
In this session, our speaker will introduce you to the model we will use for the rest of the workshop, focusing on engagement, management, enforcement, and then minimization. You’ll have the chance to focus on a difficult person and how their behavior affects your team.
Engagement
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
During this session, Jeanne will cover the first step of the model—engagement. In this step, you’ll practice how to: clearly articulate the problem, actively listen, acknowledge others’ perspectives, set standards and expectations for behavioral change, and schedule a follow-up and offer support.
Engagement (Continued)
1:00 – 1:30 p.m.
You will continue to practice using the engagement strategy with case studies and your own examples.
Management
1:30 – 2:45 p.m.
When handled thoughtfully, many situations can be resolved at the engagement stage. However, when this proves ineffective, the next step is management. During this session, you’ll strategize how to rearticulate the problem with a stronger emphasis on expectations, building upon the methods employed during engagement.
Enforcement
3:00 – 4:30 p.m.
If engagement and management fail to address performance or conduct, the final chance for behavior change is the third step: enforcement. Enforcement requires you to establish expectations and consequences for non-compliance. These are the thorniest aspects of the process and all too easy to get wrong, so we will engage in plenty of practice. During this session, we’ll spend time discussing when and how to:
- Involve Human Resources.
- Develop a behavior modification plan.
- Facilitate a formal meeting to address concerns.
- Document the process.
Networking Reception (included in registration fee)
4:30 – 5:30 p.m.
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 TWO
Reflection and Questions
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
To start the second day, we will give you some time to reflect on what you have learned so far, and to bring up questions you would like answered in the remainder of the workshop.
Enforcement (Continued)
9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
You will continue to practice using the enforcement strategy with case studies and your own examples.
Minimization
9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
In the event that circumstances make it impossible for you to take effective disciplinary action, or if that’s not the appropriate next step, your last resort is to minimize or remove the impact of the negative conduct in question on others. We’ll discuss when this is appropriate, along with strategies to support your community.
Takeaways and Intervention Planning
11:00 – 11:45 a.m.
During our final session, you will have the opportunity to begin to craft an intervention plan for your difficult person, as well as to share takeaways that you will use after this conference.
Conference Wrap Up and Q&A
11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Pricing
March 11 - April 1, 2025
Online
Starting at:
$2,495
/person
July 10 - 11, 2025
Oakland, CA
Starting at:
$2,995
/person