January 2026 | Welcome To the Program 

January 28, 2026 from 12 – 1:30pm PT 

Join us for a luncheon where you’ll get to meet the other members of the cohort.

February 2026 | Embrace Your Leadership:  The Balancing Acts of Academic Leadership 

February 11, 2026 from 1:30-3pm PT  

Navigating from faculty to chair brings with it unique challenges as your sphere of influence grows and evolves.  Serving as department leader requires the constant evaluation of a series of trade-offs.  For instance, you may ask yourself questions like, “Do I advocate for my faculty or the administration?” “Do I focus on the immediate needs or the long-term goals?” “Am I a colleague or a supervisor?”  In this session, you’ll be introduced to the “balancing act” or “seesaw” as a framing device that will help you to navigate these inherent trade-offs by orienting your leadership choices and helping you to customize your choices to the situation, opportunity, and problem at hand.  In doing so, we’ll help you gain clarity and confidence in what it takes to lead as a department chair, so that you feel empowered to take action in your role. 

Recommended Accountability Partner Follow-up Activity:  Before this session concludes, you’ll be asked to identify an accountability partner you can work with throughout this program.  Once you know who your partner is, schedule a coffee chat or lunch date, which should take place before the next session.  During that “date”, share with each other what gets you excited about being a department chair and how you feel more empowered to lead based on what you learned during the session.  In other words, how will the balancing acts model help you feel more confident in you leadership approach? 

March 2026 | Understanding Your Leadership Style Through The Five Paths®  

March 11, 2026 from 1:30-3pm PT 

Self-awareness is a department chair’s greatest superpower.  One of the best things you can do for yourself (and those you lead) is to gain a deeper understanding of your leadership strengths and approach.  In this session, we’ll do just that.  Before the live session, you’ll take the Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment and then together, we’ll review your results. The purpose of the assessment is to help you to understand how your natural leadership style shows up in both normal and stressful situations, and how you can adapt your leadership approach to different situations and people as needed, thus enhancing your leadership effectiveness.  Joining us for the conversation will be guest speaker from Academic Impressions, Lisa Lafflam. 

Recommended Accountability Partner Follow-up Activity:  Meet up to discuss the key takeaways from the session.  What did you learn about yourself that you didn’t know before?  How might that change the way you show up as a department chair moving forward? 

April 2026 | The Anatomy of Trust 

April 8, 2026 from 1:30-3pm PT  

Building meaningful relationships with your faculty and staff is critical to your success as a department chair and to the success of the department as a whole.  And at the heart of building relationships is your ability to build trust.  You cannot lead those who do not trust you.  Covey says we move at the speed of trust—when trust is high, people give you the benefit of the doubt, they find your meaning, they are willing to take a chance. When trust is low, they challenge you every step of the way, they misinterpret you, they assume the worst.  It’s our job as leaders to build and cultivate trust—both interpersonally and also among and between the team.  In this session, we’ll explore the topic of trust building.  Specifically, we’ll explore the following: 

• How to assess when and how trust can break down 

• How, as leaders, we can assume responsibility for the breakdown and repair of trust that may be happening within and across our teams. 

Recommended Accountability Partner Follow-up Activity:  Meet up and discuss your key learns from this session.  Is there a specific relationship in which you’re trying to build or repair trust and if so, what did you learn from the session that can influence how you do that?  Get advice and fresh perspective from your accountability partner. 

May 2026 | Navigating Difficult (and Sometimes Crucial) Conversations 

May 7, 2026 from 1:30-4pm PT  

This training is a deeper dive into trust-building when it matters the most.  In this training, we’ll explore the STATE Your Path framework from “Crucial Conversations” as a way to engage thoughtfully and respectfully with others when we need to have a difficult conversation.  The framework encourages us to “check” the narratives we bring into these conversations, so we can create a safe and open environment for dialogue.  This training is an interactive one that will require you to practice your crucial conversation skills through role-play, so come prepared ready to engage.  Following the training, you’ll enjoy a closing reception to celebrate how you’ve grown as a leader. 

Recommended Accountability Partner Follow-up Activity:  Just because the program ends doesn’t mean your connection with your accountability partner should end.  Meet up and use the time together as a safe space to rehearse a difficult conversation you need to have with a faculty or staff member.  Make sure you ask your partner for feedback to help you hone your message.  If you’re not in a place where you need to have a difficult conversation, take the time to reflect on a previous difficult conversation you’ve had which went sideways or got derailed in some way.  Knowing what you now know about how to have a difficult conversation, what could you have done differently?