Setting up the Supervisory Relationship: Understanding and Adapting Your Supervisory Style

Developing a strong supervisory relationship with each staff member goes a long way in ensuring future success for both the individual and the team. In order to accomplish this, you must understand and be able to articulate your own supervisory style—and learn how to adapt it to the styles and work preferences of your team. Having this shared understanding of styles on both sides will help to anchor the supervisory relationship and fortify it in the face of the challenges that naturally occur in our day-to-day work. You will leave this two-hour virtual training with a deeper understanding of your preferred supervisory style, of how and why you might adapt it for individual staff members, and how to engage in productive conversations with new or existing direct reports to build a strong supervisory relationship. You will also complete a useful pre-event exercise to better understand yourself as a supervisor to ground the work of the training. We will explore key questions like the following: How do you identify and articulate your own supervisory style? How can you come to understand the work styles of your direct reports? How do you have a productive conversation with a new (or existing) direct […]

Imposter Syndrome in Higher Ed: Examining the Self, the System, and Opportunities for Change

Too often, imposter syndrome is regarded as a deficiency of the person experiencing it. Rarely do we examine the system that created it and that allows it to thrive. For faculty, being in academia can seem like a never-ending quest for “more,” to prove you are “enough,” or that you are “worthy” of the accolades you achieve. For faculty who represent diverse and historically marginalized groups, the burden of imposter syndrome is especially heavy and inconducive to well-being and career success. This video course examines the experience of imposter syndrome in higher education from three angles: the self, the system, and opportunities for change. Our experts will help you to reflect on how you may experience imposter syndrome, understand its root causes, and enable you to change that narrative by understanding those elements of your career and well-being that you have control over. This video course has been designed specifically for faculty of all disciplines, both tenure-track and term faculty, although anyone who wants to better understand imposter syndrome and how it presents in higher education will also find value in this video course.

Developing a Comprehensive System of Support for First-Generation Students

Developing a Comprehensive System of Support for First-Generation Students October 19 – 21, 2022 Strategize ways to engage and support your first-generation undergraduates. EVENT INFORMATION ENSURE YOUR TECHNOLOGY IS READY This workshop is intentionally designed to allow for maximum learning, connections, and engagement. We advise the following in order to participate fully: Audio & Visual Needs

Developing an Advancement Intern Program

Providing a pathway for talent development can help ease the staffing constraints that advancement shops are currently facing. With a shortage of talent available due to competitive salaries and aggressive recruiting, one solution you can implement now is developing an undergraduate internship program for your shop. Your institution likely has many students interested in joining the non-profit sector upon graduation. There’s no better place to introduce them to non-profit operations such as fundraising, donor engagement, and data analytics than in your institutional advancement shop. Introducing interns to this work connects the student intern’s career aspirations to a non-profit culture, while also providing techniques for cultivating relationships and managing projects. Join us for this highly valuable program to learn how Trajan Dubiel, Director of Development, leads and continues to grow the Advance-U Internship Program at Michigan State University.

Customer Service Skills Training: Certification for Higher Education Professionals

Customer Service Skills Training: Certification for Higher Education Professionals November 16 – 18, 2022 Gain the knowledge and skills you need to provide high-quality customer service in the higher education environment. EVENT INFORMATION ENSURE YOUR TECHNOLOGY IS READY This workshop is intentionally designed to allow for maximum learning, connections, and engagement. We advise the following in order to participate fully: Audio & Visual Needs

Beyond Salary: An Uncommon Strategy to Recruit and Retain Advancement Professionals

Good development professionals are hard to find—and even harder to retain. This challenge becomes greater if you’re at a smaller institution with a tighter budget that is competing against larger institutions, as well as the non-profit sector, for top fundraising talent. To improve your results in recruiting and retaining the fundraising talent you want, and, on a budget, you may want to consider a non-traditional strategy and approach to identifying new talent. To retain your new development team members for at least three years, you’ll need to adopt a thoughtful six-month onboarding strategy that inspires ownership, autonomy, and recognition. In order to do this well, you must first lean into these individuals’ specific personality traits, from internal drive to problem-solving, professionalism, and accountability. Join us in this webcast to learn how Nichole Fannin, Executive Director of Development and Annual Giving at the University of West Georgia, leads their department’s efforts in a high return-on-talent-investment for their recruitment and retention efforts.

Selecting a Vendor to Augment Your Student Success Efforts

As institutions increasingly use data and technology to drive decision-making, it is important to have ways to efficiently collect, store, and parse that data. But with so much information to store and manage, institutions often need good partners and solutions to aid in managing their data. Many institutions have therefore turned to working with outside software vendors to help manage student retention and engagement. Institutions often have more than one of these outside vendors and work with campus IT professionals to integrate those software tools into their daily work. But how do institutions decide which vendors will help them to be the most successful? Join us for a 90-minute virtual training where you’ll learn the considerations that go into selecting and communicating with a new vendor for student success. Our expert Joseph Connell will discuss what questions you should ask of potential vendors and your on-campus staff to help you decide what the best support looks like for you. You will also learn to create a timeline for onboarding a new vendor for your institution.

Optimize Your Success as an External Dean

As an externally appointed dean, you are expected to hit the ground running, making quick and impactful decisions from Day One. Leading through this change can be tricky, as you will often need to navigate conflicting perspectives from the administration and faculty on which direction to go, as you also define your role in shared governance, identify trusted allies, and make decisions even with incomplete information. Join us for a 90-minute discussion that will provide you with insights and lessons learned from other external deans. Our instructor panel includes two different speakers — one who has served in a variety of external leadership roles at multiple institutions — and the other who just completed her first semester as external dean. If you’ve been asking any of the following questions, this training is for you: How do I research and understand the issues, challenges and opportunities within my college? How do I determine my role in shared governance? Who should I trust, and how do I figure that out as early as possible? Where should I invest my time, and how do I balance listening and learning with getting important work done? What are some of the considerations I need to […]

Engaging in Anti-Racist Conversations in Advancement

In the wake of multiple ongoing pandemics that occurred simultaneously with several high-profile events exacerbating racial tensions in the U.S., many institutions have attempted to commit to better addressing racial injustices. To be successful in this work, professionals across all areas of an institution must be capable of having difficult conversations about race and racism. Advancement professionals in particular play an important role in demonstrating an institution’s commitment to addressing racial inequities, through relationships maintained in their wide networks of alumni, external constituents, and donors. Through this virtual training, you will gain a better understanding of why it is imperative to have discussions around race with external constituents for better philanthropic outcomes, examine your own comfort level with talking about race and racism, and practice skills that will translate into an action plan for engaging those stakeholders around these topics.

Retaining Black Men: Strategies for Before, During, and After College

While enrollment and retention have dropped during COVID-19 overall, Black men in particular have faced barriers to college entry and completion that have only been further exacerbated by the pandemic. Enrollment for Black men dropped 14.3% in the spring of 2021 compared to the spring semester of 2020, and retention rates for Black men remain among the lowest in higher education overall. Developing a system of support that follows the journey of Black men from pre-enrollment through completion to alumni status can help to close this equity gap. Join us for an invaluable virtual training on how to set up systems of support for Black men before, during, and after college. Our expert Dr. Vincent Windrow will share insights from his challenges and successes at Middle Tennessee State University, as he discusses how to create a meaningful college experience for Black men all the way through their educational journey. Although Vincent will focus specifically on Black men, his recommendations are useful and applicable for many groups of students. You’ll also work together to create an action plan of steps you can take at each stage to better facilitate and support your Black male students’ time in college.