Connect with a Team Development Expert
Get guidance on how to improve team dynamics and performance.
Leaders can only be as effective as the teams they surround themselves with. When teams are at their best, each individual is able to bring their full gifts to the table. Together they take risks, put new ideas forward, and challenge one another.
Too often, however, teams don’t perform at their best-- not because they lack talent but lack attention to their group process. We help teams develop or repair trust, skillfully resolve conflict, address unproductive team dynamics and make more effective decisions.
No two teams are alike. Factors like the leadership experience and tenure of each team member, how long the team has been working together, and the challenges & opportunities the team is facing are critical contextual factors that influence how we design and approach our team development engagements.
Strong teams depend on engagement, ownership, and participation from each member. Our approach builds self-awareness and leadership capacity among individual team members as well as among the collective, enabling the whole to function as more than just the sum of its parts.
Our team development engagements leverage multiple assessments that serve as diagnostic tools to help teams understand how and how well they are currently operating.
How We Help
Departmental Assessment
When teams or academic departments are in a highly dysfunctional state, there are usually multiple dynamics at work making it difficult to diagnose the root causes and appropriate interventions. In these cases, Academic Impressions can provide an objective and strategic audit of the complex dynamics to make recommendations on how to move forward.
Team Development Workshops
Our team development workshops take a highly experiential and customized approach to improving team performance. We give teams language to be able to talk about their group dynamics without putting anyone on the defensive and build their skill level to have difficult but necessary conversations. Through various assessments and diagnostics, we can get to the heart of the issues and help the team agree on a path forward.
Team Coaching
Sustaining team performance is difficult because the conditions that enable or hinder team performance are always changing. So too are the members of the team. Team coaching can be a highly effective way to help teams sustain momentum, address issues early, onboard new team members and facilitate difficult or sensitive conversations.
Leadership Retreats
Many higher ed leaders organize leadership retreats to jumpstart planning and build cohesion among their senior teams, but few retreats are as effective as they could be. We can partner with you to design a retreat that is more purposeful, that builds trust through collaboration, and that engages all voices and perspectives on your team.
Cabinet Development
Senior teams are even more complex because each team member leads large and complex divisions, diverting their attention. Meetings are often unfocused, too tactical or focused on preserving collegial relationships rather than openly addressing the most pressing issues. We can help cabinets create a strategic focus, learn to work more interdependently and address challenges in new ways.
Connect with a Team Development Expert
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