Learn flexible and proven approaches to developing leaders on campus.
Overview
Leadership development is now a top priority for institutions as leaders face increasing challenges. The frequent turnover in leadership positions has highlighted the need for a strong leadership pipeline. In response, institutions are investing heavily in leadership programs, though approaches vary.
Why Choose Us?
With over 15 years of experience, Academic Impressions has helped more institutions develop in-house leadership programs than any other organization.
Our Approach
We guide attendees through our proven leadership framework and introduce applications of the framework through best practices and case studies from our partner institutions. Our framework takes you from personal and interpersonal mastery, where you may be working with new and aspiring leaders, to teams and systems mastery, where you may be working with experienced leaders. We’ll help you see how to adapt a leadership framework to create a foundation for your programs.
What do you need to learn to be a leader?
What You'll Gain
- A proven, customizable leadership framework for your institution.
- Practical tools for self-awareness, team leadership, and strategic planning.
- Insights from institutions that have successfully built leadership programs.
- Dedicated time to develop an action plan for your leadership initiative.
Signature Tools Include
- The Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment debrief: this assessment walks you through your own leadership style and gives you language to communicate and collaborate with others more effectively, regardless of your leadership tendencies.
- Exploring Future Timelines: this activity helps you think beyond the immediate and plan strategically for the challenges and opportunities coming your way in future years.
- A comprehensive workbook that can act as a roadmap for making critical decisions, built over many years of work with dozens of institutions.
To help preserve a practical and interactive environment, attendance for this program is capped at 30 participants.
Get Certified to Facilitate the Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment
After this event in Denver, stay on for a two-day workshop, and learn to effectively facilitate the Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment with groups on your campus. Register for both, and receive a $700 discount! Spots are limited, so register now!
Session Descriptions
More details about the timing of the days can be found by clicking Learn More and Register, but session descriptions of the two days are below:
From Data to Design: Implications for Your Leadership Programs
Academic Impressions conducts the most wide-ranging survey of leadership and professional development in higher education and has longitudinal data that spans a decade. To open our program, we’ll share what we’ve learned about the impact of investments in leadership on faculty and staff job satisfaction, burnout, attrition risk, and more. The data can be used to both build a case for support and inform specific programmatic decisions.
Establishing a Framework and Roadmap
Regardless of whether you are designing a one-off program or multiple cohort-based programs, your approach to developing leadership needs to be rooted in a deep understanding of what leadership is and how it is learned. We’ll share the Academic Impressions model for leadership development and how you can incorporate it into your work.
Exploring Multiple Models and Approaches to Leadership
There are so many ways to build the capacity of leaders on campus, and your approach will vary depending on whether you’re just starting out or expanding on an established, cohort-based program. In this session, we’ll walk you through various decision points, including:
- Whom the program is meant to serve (faculty, staff, students, mixed?).
- The level of the program (for new and aspiring leaders, mid-level, advanced).
- The outcomes you hope to achieve.
- Where the program should live on campus.
- Whose support and sponsorship you need (and how to get it).
- Various funding approaches.
- Who should deliver the program (internal vs. external experts).
- Considerations around project-based learning.
- The pros and cons of 360s.
- How to incorporate coaching and mentoring.
- And more.
Building a Future Leadership Model
Higher education is changing dramatically, and the skills required to lead in the future may differ from the skills prized by current leaders. In this session, we’ll engage in a horizon-thinking exercise and lead you through a separate exercise to prioritize a set of leadership concepts and skills that should be included in your program. Both exercises are easily replicated on your campus so large groups of stakeholders can help you to shape your leadership program.
Developing Self-Awareness
The foundation of effective leadership is self-awareness, so you have to decide how you’ll want to help participants learn about themselves. We’ll explore multiple leadership diagnostics, as well as other critical elements of self-awareness (values identification, intersectionality, helping participants define their own leadership style, etc.) You’ll also get a chance to experience our acclaimed self-assessment tool—The Five Paths to Leadership®—which has been used by tens of thousands of faculty and staff in higher education. Its unique characteristics are the way it frames the need for dynamic and adaptive leadership, its highly intuitive nature and its ability to show how a leader’s style changes under stress.
Designing Engaging Learning Experiences
Too often, leadership programs are driven by topics or who has expertise on campus. Less attention is paid to using frameworks to support the learning journey, build community and ensure the learning is engaging so that it cements both practical takeaways and meaningful relationships. We’ll explore this topic through an interactive exercise in which we model what each of us desires the most from these experiences.
Case Studies: Best Practice Programs
In each case study, we’ll examine a program that is currently up and running and how it models best practice. We’ll explore how the program originated, its goals, its curriculum, and elements of the program you may wish to adopt.
Application Time
Throughout the two days, we’ll have time for you to reflect on what you could apply to your own institution. We’ll provide a roadmap for you to begin planning your next steps, as well as dedicated and structured time to share best practices of what you’ve learned with fellow attendees. You’ll also have a chance to ask any burning questions in small groups so you have a clear idea of how to proceed.
Who Should Attend
If you are responsible for designing, managing, or facilitating leadership programs at your institution, this workshop is for you! We’ve designed it to meet leaders where they are, and we have experience working with participants from all different areas of campus. You will benefit if you are interested in:
- Establishing a framework for your leadership programs
- Exploring multiple models of leadership
- Understanding the need and impact of leadership programs
- Designing experiences to support your attendees’ learning journeys
- Focusing on leadership skills your attendees need to develop to address future trends
- Networking with other leadership development professionals
How You'll Use This to Move Work Forward
- Senior Leaders & HR Professionals - Build a structured leadership pipeline that supports institutional succession planning.
- Faculty Affairs & Department Chairs - Strengthen faculty leadership capacity and create opportunities for growth within roles.
- Divisional Leaders & Program Directors - Design and launch a custom leadership program aligned with your institution's unique needs.
Bring a team! Register 3 or more people and save more than $1,000! Discounts will be automatically applied at checkout.
Previous Attendee Breakdown
Speakers
Amit Mrig
CEO, Academic Impressions
Beth Rotach
Chief Strategy Officer, Academic Impressions
What makes our events different?
Academic Impressions workshops 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 Workshop Experience ➞
Location
Academic Impressions’ Denver-based office
5299 DTC Blvd, Suite 1400
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Grow Leadership. Maximize Your Budget.
Empower your team with professional development that pays off. Our Workshop Group Packs help you build leadership capacity while saving money. Discounts are automatically applied at checkout.
What Our Attendees Are Saying
“This is one of the best workshops/programs I have ever been to. It’s precise, hands-on, perfectly scaffolded in segments that helped me to understand what my institution needs. Thank you, AI team!”
“This program provided practical and innovative training to not only build the attendee as a leader, but also to develop the future leaders of our institutions. You will walk away with ideas, but more importantly, with the skills and resources needed to implement these ideas.”
“The Academic Impressions experience is a great way to bond with others, learn similarities and differences, gain new ideas from our new colleagues, and benefit from top-notch content presented by the AI team.”
Pricing
Starting at:
- Member Price: $2,245/person
- Non-Member Price: $2,495/person
- Teams: Save $1,000+ for teams of 3 or more
June 24 - 25, 2025 | Denver, CO
November 4 - 5, 2025 | Denver, CO
February 24 - 25, 2026 | Denver, CO