Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we work, but how can you leverage its potential to enhance alumni support and commencement activities without risking your institution’s reputation or data security? Join 42Chat for an insightful webcast where we’ll break down the essentials of curated vs. generative AI, share practical use cases tailored to higher education, and arm you with critical questions to ask your AI providers. With over seven years of experience in conversational AI, 42Chat has partnered with organizations to create secure, innovative solutions that drive engagement and streamline operations. This session is your chance to learn how to safely harness AI to better connect with alumni and improve the commencement experience—all while keeping your data and brand protected. Don’t miss it!
The Georgetown University Office of Advancement Leadership Program supports advancement senior leaders to develop skills to engage in values-based actions and decision making within our advancement context and when engaging with campus partners and valued constituents outside of the institution. From February to June 2025, this inaugural cohort of will engage in four in-person sessions designed to foster and strengthen OA’s identified leadership principles—act with integrity; courageous, trustworthy, and effective communication; accountability and resiliency; and care for the whole person. Between sessions, the cohort will have the opportunity to practice applying what is learned and explore additional leadership development through supplemental resources. Agenda topics are subject to change based on ongoing collaboration between Georgetown and Academic Impressions. Please revisit this page for updated pre-work and other information in advance of each session. March 17-18, 2025 (Rescheduled from February 12-13, 2025) To prepare for this session: 1. If you have not already done so, please complete The Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment – Academic Impressions This assessment sheds light on your strengths and potential blind spots by examining five key forms of intelligence including intellectual, emotional, intuitive, action, and reflective. The assessment will help you understand ways of achieving greater balance […]
In the ever-evolving landscape of annual giving, the recent shift away from the APR metric has opened unprecedented opportunities for your organization. If you’re new to annual giving or looking to revitalize your approach, this session is your gateway to becoming the transformative force your organization needs. When it comes to your data, annual giving programs are a powerhouse. Discover how to leverage them to not only enhance donor engagement but also to forge meaningful partnerships across campus and refine your engagement and stewardship strategies. Join us for this virtual conference recording to unlock the full potential of your annual giving program and set a new standard for success. This session promises to equip you with the insights and tools to: Don’t miss the chance to transform your approach and make a lasting impact.
As the enrollment cliff looms, institutional leaders must act with urgency and innovation. With over ten institutions in New York State closing since mid-2023, including The College of Saint Rose and Wells College, the message is clear: no institution is immune. Join us for a critical webcast exploring how senior leaders can strategically differentiate their institutions and prioritize retention through exceptional customer service. This session, designed specifically for presidents and senior leadership teams, will focus on practical strategies to enhance student belonging and retention by improving the overall student experience. We will discuss how leaders can harness the power of exceptional customer service to make students feel valued, supported, and engaged. From creating personalized connections to addressing micro-inconveniences on campus, these approaches will help transform student satisfaction into long-term loyalty. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain actionable insights and start building a more resilient future for your institution. Register now for free! Are you interested in diving deeper into how institutional leaders can help use service excellence to address the enrollment cliff? Read more from Heath Boice-Pardee in his recent article, Customer Service and Navigating the Enrollment Cliff: Strategic Insights for Institutional Leaders.
Agenda topics are subject to change based on ongoing collaboration between IUI and Academic Impressions. Please revisit this page for updated pre-work and other information in advance of each session. January 31, 2025 (3:30pm-5:00pm ET) | Bringing Intention into Your Career Advancement Many academics approach the midcareer stage without a clear vision of what’s next in their career, and their decision-making about which roles and responsibilities to take on is often more opportunistic than intentional. This often leaves them ill-equipped for the demands of these roles or feeling a misalignment between how they spend their time and their professional aspirations. In this meeting, you will reflect on the roles you currently hold, their alignment with your core values, and the implications for identifying next steps in your career. Recommended Trainings: Now What? Navigating The Mid-Career Journey: This program will help you to design an intentional and strategic pathway through your mid-career by guiding you through reflection activities that help you take stock of where you are now, and where you want to go. Crafting Your Mid-Career and Beyond as Faculty: Learn more about the process of career crafting and the different types of crafting techniques (e.g., task crafting, relational crafting, cognitive […]
In your early career, you may not have a lot of power to enact changes or drive the direction of your projects. However, knowing how to advocate for what you need in your professional life and managing your relationship with your supervisor can help you better achieve your goals. In this session, we’ll walk through how to work with your manager effectively and champion your interests diplomatically.
During your early career, you may feel pressure to make career decisions that don’t align with your personal or professional goals. Being able to set and maintain your boundaries and knowing when to be more flexible with them can help you achieve your ideal career trajectory without sacrificing too much. In this session, we’ll discuss how to set your boundaries based on your personal and professional goals, and how to maintain those boundaries while balancing competing priorities.
Who you are as a person and who you are as a professional can be similar but not exactly the same. As you navigate different organizations, you’ll encounter a wide range of professional norms and standards, and you’ll have to decide how you can fit in with your organizational culture and how you may want to make different choices. In this session, we’ll explore what you want your professional persona to be, and how you can make choices that support developing and maintaining that persona. We recommend coming to this session having taken a personal assessment to better understand your leadership style. One option to take ahead of time is Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership® self-assessment. You could also attend the debrief session in August or September to deepen your self-awareness. This event is part of Developing Leadership Skills in Your Early Career to help you build leadership skills as an early leader. Learn more about the series, how it works, when the other sessions will occur, and who it was designed for.
Your leadership philosophy encompasses your core values and beliefs that frame how you make decisions. Although you may not see yourself as a leader in your early career, building your leadership philosophy from the start of your professional life can help set you up to make intentional choices about your career trajectory. In this session, you’ll examine your personal leadership style, along with your values and goals, to come up with what you want from your journey as a leader and a professional. We recommend coming to this session having taken a personal assessment to better understand your leadership style. One option to take ahead of time is Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership® self-assessment. You could also attend an upcoming results debrief session to deepen your self-awareness. This event is part of Developing Leadership Skills in Your Early Career to help you build leadership skills as an early leader. Learn more about the series, how it works, when the other sessions will occur, and who it was designed for.
Young alumni constitute one of your most influential and important alumni groups. If your shop can engage them while they are still students, and further inspire a habit of giving soon after they graduate, the likelihood that they will become committed alumni volunteers and major or lifelong donors increases significantly. As such, it’s crucial to have a robust and meaningful young alumni program, since it can often translate to greater long-term financial health for your institution. Join us online to learn how to intentionally engage young alumni from the time they are students through 10 years post-graduation. This virtual conference is a must if your institution wants to establish strong, lifelong relationships with its newest alumni, in which our expert speakers bring a track record of young alumni engagement and inspiration. Take part in this two-day event to gain useful, practical content that will teach you how to:
Come join us to learn about the immense power of artificial intelligence and how it can be harnessed to your school’s advantage. If you’re looking to make informed decisions about which academic programs to stop, start, or grow, this event is for you. Specifically, you’ll explore how artificial intelligence can help you to:
Influencing your Provost and other senior leaders is a key function of your role as academic dean. It’s your responsibility to provide input and perspective on decisions that will shape your unit—as well as the entire institution. As leadership transitions become more commonplace in higher education, it becomes more difficult to know how to effectively influence “up.” Not only are you learning how to navigate newfound relationships, you’re also responding to emerging strategic plans and changing unit-level priorities. Some days, it may feel like everything is a moving target. In this environment, where everyone is experiencing a higher level of stress, and where attention is split in so many different directions, it can feel difficult to know how to develop trust and credibility with your senior leaders. Join us online and learn how you can better engage with, support, and influence senior leaders such as your Provost. Using the Five Paths to Leadership® as our framework, you’ll learn how to: This workshop will give you an opportunity to reflect on an existing relationship you have with a senior leader, and we’ll then share tips and strategies you can apply to that relationship to nurture trust. We’ve also designed this training […]
Visionary leadership in higher education is essential for driving innovation, creating inclusive culture, and advancing the institutional mission. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why we often focus on the urgent and immediate rather than the big picture—like entrenched traditions, complex governance structures, budget constraints, short-term pressures, resistance to change, external influences, and the need to balance diverse stakeholder interests. Join us for an interactive discussion with President Shari McMahan of Eastern Washington University to hear how she has developed a visionary approach to leadership along with the lessons she’s learned in the process. This one-hour discussion offers a space to engage in open dialogue, ask questions, and learn from one another in a supportive and inclusive environment. Explore how you can cultivate visionary leadership in higher education, navigate challenges, and leverage your unique strengths to drive positive change and innovation within your institution. President McMahan will share strategies and personal lessons learned for how to: Ultimately, you’ll walk away with a renewed commitment to yourself, your values, and the importance of leading consistently.
Due to limited pedagogical training and a lack of institutional focus on teaching as an iterative skill, faculty often replicate the teaching they experienced as students—which may not be the most effective approach. Empowering students to learn, demonstrate agency in the classroom, and legislate their own learning experiences requires reflection and the intentional development of values around teaching and learning. Relationships of Reciprocity: In Pursuit of Shared Teaching and Learning, a new publication from Academic Impressions and authored by Monica B. Glina, offers faculty ways to understand their teaching practice and values, to reflect on how they can incorporate new strategies into in-person, hybrid, or asynchronous teaching, and to evolve that practice. Join us for a webinar that will walk you through an exercise to help you to reflect on the values that inform your teaching. Glina will help you to explore how your professional values manifest themselves in your interactions with your students or co-learners, in the learning experiences you create, and in the way you view assessment. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn more about the interactive nature of the book and how you can use it to plan your upcoming semester.
Agenda topics are subject to change based on ongoing collaboration between IUI and Academic Impressions. Please revisit this page for updated pre-work and other information in advance of each session. November 1, 2024 (3:30pm – 5:00pm ET) | Five Paths to Leadership℠ December 6, 2024 (3:30pm – 5:00pm ET) | The Balancing Acts of Academic Leadership Leadership requires the constant evaluation of a series of trade-offs. For instance, you may ask yourself questions like, “Do I lead as a faculty member or as a department head?” “Do I focus on the immediate or the long-term?” “Am I a colleague or a supervisor?” This session introduces 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. Pre-WorkBefore the session: Resources to Bring with You to the Session Make sure you have: After the session: The three Seesaw videos shown during the session can be re-visited as needed in the Table of Contents section above. Recommended Trainings: January 10, 2025 (3:30pm – 5:00pm ET) | Leadership Responsibilities You serve in a critical and visible […]
As a trusted member of your campus community, there may come a time when a student or colleague turns to you, sharing their experience of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, or stalking. In those crucial moments, it’s essential to be prepared to respond thoughtfully and sensitively, avoiding any actions or words that might inadvertently cause further harm. This video course is tailored for faculty and staff who do not have a mandatory obligation to report incidents of sexual harassment to their designated Title IX Coordinator but wish to support those who come forward. You will learn at least seven effective conversational strategies that will empower you to engage in informed and empathetic discussions, while also understanding the potential risks of miscommunication. Through real-life scenarios and practical exercises, this course equips you with the skills needed to navigate these sensitive conversations with confidence and compassion, ensuring that you’re ready to provide meaningful support when it matters most.
Agenda topics are subject to change based on ongoing collaboration between IUI and Academic Impressions. Please revisit this page for updated pre-work and other information in advance of each session. October 8 and 9, 2024 | In-person Workshop The materials for this session can be found by clicking the “View Workshop Materials” button on the right. They include the agenda, slide decks, and outputs from the activities: Five Paths Meetings and the Appreciative Interview. November 19, 2024 (1:00pm – 2:30pm ET) | Report-out from October session During our previous workshop, you established a leadership commitment for yourself. In our upcoming session, you’ll do the following: No specific preparation is needed, nor do you need to bring anything specific to the training. Just come prepared to engage in conversation with your colleagues. Recommended Training: Leaders as Coaches: Improving Employee and Team Performance In this three-part webcast series, you’ll learn a variety of essential coaching techniques, all of which will help you motivate and build trust with your team members. Skills include the following: December 17, 2024 (1:00pm – 2:30pm ET) | Five Paths to Leadership℠ Continued Learning To prepare for this session: You’ve been introduced to the Five Paths to Leadership℠ […]
You may be familiar with Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership® Framework. Perhaps you’ve taken the self-assessment and used it to gain a greater awareness of your natural leadership style. The self-assessment is a useful tool that allows for reflection and self-discovery. But did you know that you can also get a customized 2-day intensive training that utilizes team’s composite scores? The benefit of such a training is that it allows you to examine how your team prefers to operate, which can reveal a lot about its group dynamics. For instance, the team profile may reveal how fast or slow the group is to make decisions, or how they handle stressful situations. The training can be invaluable for moving the team beyond those roadblocks. Join us online for a moderated discussion, and hear how three campus leaders—Dr. Schnavia Hatcher, Dr. Sebrena Jackson, and Ruth Pionke, MBA—used the multi-day tailored team development training to bring more cohesion to their teams. Each will share how facilitated team development work impacted their initiatives, and they’ll explain the results they are seeing as they relate to increased psychological safety, trust, and team performance. If you’re looking for ways to improve the way your team works together, this discussion is for you!
October 17-18, 2024 If you missed the in-person workshop or if you would just like to review, please watch this course: Understanding Your Five Paths to Leadership℠ Assessment Results – Academic Impressions November 19, 2024 | Debriefing Your CommitmentsThis session is designed as a follow-up to the October workshop and it will help the group continue to build momentum and community together. We’re confident this session will allow you to continue to: • Learn from each other, thus strengthening the community and support they receive from each other.• Build their coaching skills through practice. January 9, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM | Interpersonal Trust February 11, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM | The Secret to Great Feedback March 11, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM | Time Management and Delegation April 15, 2025 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM | Preparing Your Leadership Philosophy Statement + Perfectionism May 19, 2025 | 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM | Full Day Workshop
Team, committee, and group-based work abounds in higher education. But many struggle to collaborate effectively in these settings because not everyone comes to the table with the same understanding, expectation, and collaboration style. While teams are often designed to bring together different voices and perspectives, most leaders default to a singular approach to teamwork that works well for some, but that also causes frustration, withdrawal, or conflict for others. In this event, we’ll use the Five Paths to Leadership® as a framework to introduce the four different collaboration styles that are at play within any given team. We’ll walk you through a detailed explanation of each path and provide tactics that leaders and team members alike can use to approach collaboration and group-based work more effectively. You will leave with a more nuanced understanding of the collaboration types that yield the best results based on the outcomes you are trying to achieve, rather than defaulting to one style based on comfort or personal preference.
