Leading and Influencing as a Department Chair

Leading and Influencing as a Department Chair

 

February 10 - 12, 2020 | Boston, MA

 

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Join a cohort of fellow chairs to participate in this practical leadership training.

Gain the skills you need to lead the strategic vision of your academic department as well as lead and inspire your faculty colleagues. During this practical training, you will learn tools and tactics to help you be successful in both duties as a department chair, including:

  • Handling the most difficult complaints that you face
  • Developing a vision and setting goals within your academic department
  • Motivating and mentoring your faculty
  • Setting performance expectations for faculty
  • Dealing with difficult faculty colleagues
  • Managing crises that occur on your watch

 

Learn from Experts with Over Fifty Years of Experience

This interactive conference walks through a number of scenarios drawn from actual events that our facilitators have faced. By the end of this event, you will have the skills and knowledge you need to confidently navigate challenges that you are likely to encounter.

“Lots of good, solid, and accurate information presented by facilitators who are experts in their fields and seemed genuinely interested in guiding and empowering the attendees.”

- Rosita Sands, Chair, Columbia College Chicago

Pre-Conference Workshop: Understanding the Department Chair’s Many Balancing Acts

Every department chair has many roles and responsibilities. To be effective, you must tailor your approach to the many problems, tasks, and issues that you face. This workshop will help you identify your most comfortable leadership tendencies and grow to embrace multiple leadership modes and skills.

Post-Conference Workshop: Faculty Civility and Academic Freedom: Protecting the Workplace While Preserving Academic Culture

Addressing issues of civility among faculty can be a thorny issue. This workshop will provide an in-depth examination of this increasingly important issue, including concrete steps academic leaders can take to improve civility on campus and address issues as they arise.  Session topics will include:

  • How free speech affects an institution’s ability to address incivility
  • Considering collegiality during performance reviews, tenure, reappointment, and promotion
  • The impact of “controversial” social media use
  • Recommended strategies for responding to an uncivil faculty member
  • Building a culture of civility in your department, college, or institution

This workshop will examine scenarios and concrete examples of managing incivility that will inform your own institutional policies and practices.

Bring a Team of Department Chairs

This leadership institute is designed strictly for department chairs, with a particular emphasis on experienced chairs looking to develop the expertise to become an exceptional department leader. The depth and breadth of training in this workshop is also suitable for those who are contemplating making a move from department chair to a higher administrative position.

 

Bring Your Team and Save!

Save over 15% registration when you register three or more colleagues.

  • 1 - 2 registrations: full price
  • 3 - 4 registrations: 15% off each
  • 5 - 7 registrations: 20% off each
  • 8+ registrations: 25% off each

Follow Through With Success Coaching

Have you ever gone to a training only to find that you came back with great ideas but don’t have the time, support, or skills needed to make the changes?

Academic Impressions has produced thousands of trainings and we have learned that utilizing a coach after attending a conference helps provide accountability and bridges the training with the on-the-ground work of getting the job done.

As a result, we are now offering success coaching on select conferences.

  • Purchase this training + 3 one hour follow up success coaching calls
  • Work with an assigned coach who has extensive experience in higher ed.
  • Get individualized support to help you follow through on what you’ve learned.
  • Workshop your plans, run your ideas by someone and get additional help/practice.

To learn more, contact Patricia Sandler at patricia@academicimpressions.com or purchase the Premium Pass with success coaching below.

“This program is one of the best leadership development workshops I have been to. Their use of problem-solving, solutions-focused approach leads to results within yourself and organization.”

Dr. Cory Church, Program Director, VA Nursing Partnership, Texas Woman's University

“This conference allows for the opportunity to self-reflect about my role as Chair and what that means for my department, institution, and staff. I highly recommend.”

Ebony Perez, Associate Chair Undergraduate Social Work, Saint Leo University

“I appreciate being able to leave the workshop with tools and skills I can apply as soon as I return!”

Callie Rennison, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, University of Colorado - Denver

“An insightful and effective conference that was well above my expectations. Essential tools and fantastic speakers. I am excited to begin my new role.”

Kathleen Bacer, Chair of Advanced Studies, Azusa Pacific University

“Empowering. Real people with real experiences getting real solutions. Being a chair at a community college and probably the only one at the conference, I still felt part of the group and felt 90% of the content applied to me too!”

Lynne Fox-Parrish, Department Chair, Aims Community College

Agenda

Day 1
Pre-Conference Workshop: Understanding the Department Chair’s Many Balancing Acts

8:30 - 12:00 p.m.

Your registration for the pre-conference workshop includes the session below and materials as well as breakfast and lunch.

 

Embrace your role as a leader! This workshop delves into what it means to be a leader and aims to explore a series of questions that a department chair must answer for themselves, including:

  • Am I a boss or a colleague?
  • Am I faculty or administration?
  • Do I focus on the day-to-day or the long-term?
  • Which decisions are mine and which should go to a department vote?
  • Should I have an “open door” or “by appointment” policy?
  • Where does work end and my life begin?
  • How do I balance the daily tasks with strategic and visionary planning?
  • Where do I focus my attention: the “squeaky wheels” or the “silent types?”

The reality is that a successful chair must tailor his or her approach to the many problems, tasks, and issues at hand. The workshop helps you to identify your most comfortable leadership tendencies and then to grow that comfort zone to embrace multiple leadership modes and skills.

 


Main Conference

12:30 - 5:30 p.m.

Your registration fee includes full access to all conference sessions and materials, access to the networking reception on Monday, breakfast and lunch on Tuesday, and breakfast on Wednesday, as well as refreshments and snacks throughout the conference.

 

Who Do I Lead and How Do I Lead Them? Setting the Stage for Effective Leadership

The initial session of this workshop will provide a series of practical and accessible tools regarding questions you may be asking, such as:

  • Why serve as an academic leader?
  • How do I develop as a leader?
  • What is academic leadership?
  • How long is long enough?
  • How do I manage my relationships and my productivity (my management molecule)?
  • What legacy do I wish to leave?

 


 

The Emotionally Intelligent Department Chair

Success as a department chair requires not just knowledge and skills but the emotional intelligence to interact with others effectively. We will take a snapshot of your current level of emotional intelligence and also explore some strategies for how you can improve your management of emotions in order to lead and influence change effectively.

 


 

Networking Reception

This informal reception is your chance to decompress, have some refreshments on us, and expand your network of connections. Our programs are intentionally designed for smaller groups, so this is a great time to catch-up with attendees and speakers whom you may not have connected with yet.

 


Day 2 | Leading the Academic Department

8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

 

Vision and Goal-Setting in the Academic Department

One of the skills essential to departmental leadership is the ability to work with others—both inside and outside of the department—to create a vision for the future and to energize others to focus their efforts to make that vision a reality. The key to success will be your ability to simultaneously manage up and manage down, ensuring that the department’s vision aligns with the dean’s vision for the college and with the overall strategic direction of the university. In this session, we will discuss creating a shared vision for the future, goal-setting at the department level, and aligning the department’s vision with other institutional priorities. We will review different types of department meetings and how to ensure that you are maximizing the potential of your face-to-face interactions with your faculty.

 


 

Department Leadership in Action: Building Your Academic Team

In this interactive session, we will dive deeper into “The Call” to academic leadership, while exploring the skills of effective departmental teamwork. Through simulation and discussion, you will develop strategies for shared leadership, consensual decision-making, constructive conflict, and collegiality and civility.

 


 

Part 1 & 2: Setting Performance Expectations and Dealing with Difficult Colleagues

Although most faculty are conscientious, supportive, and hardworking, occasionally the chair must deal with a colleague whose behavior or substandard performance (whether in the classroom, in governance or service capacities, or in scholarship) presents problems for the department. This portion of the conference will provide tools for the department chair to identify the nature of the performance problem and to determine whether the faculty member can change the problematic behavior. We will also discuss strategies to follow if the faculty member resists attempts to improve his or her performance.

 


Day 3 | Tying It All Together

8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

 

Mentoring and Motivating Others

“Chairing the academic department is like herding cats!” We’ve all heard remarks such as this; the challenge of getting buy-in for departmental initiatives can be daunting. Our experts will discuss how to motivate others to work towards departmental goals (even when those goals may be in tension with individual professional goals), how to ensure voluntary compliance with external mandates, and how to inspire your colleagues to reach their own potentials. We will look at what research says about motivation and about how to harness these results to motivate your own faculty and staff. Finally, we will distinguish mentoring from sponsorship and discuss best practices for supporting your colleagues as a mentor or sponsor.

 


 

Tying It All Together

In this closing session, each participant will apply the previous sessions’ tools and techniques and develop a plan to guide them forward and continue their own professional development on your campus.

 


 

Post-Conference Workshop: Faculty Civility and Academic Freedom: Protecting the Workplace While Preserving Academic Culture

12:00 – 4:00 pm

Your registration for the post-conference workshop includes the session below and materials as well as lunch.

 

Addressing issues of civility among faculty can be a thorny issue. This workshop will provide an in-depth examination of this increasingly important issue, including concrete steps academic leaders can take to improve civility on campus and address issues as they arise. Session topics will include:

How free speech affects an institution’s ability to address incivility

Considering collegiality during performance reviews, tenure, reappointment, and promotion

The impact of “controversial” social media use

Recommended strategies for responding to an uncivil faculty member

Building a culture of civility in your department, college, or institution

This workshop will examine scenarios and concrete examples of managing incivility that will inform your own institutional policies and practices.

February 10 - 12, 2020
Boston, MA

Conference Hotel Information:

Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor
101 Harborside Drive
Boston, MA 02128
617.568.1234

Room Rate: $119
Room Block Dates: nights of February 9, 10 and 11, 2020.
Rate Available Until: January 17, 2020

Please call 617.568.1234 to make your room reservations and indicate you are with Academic Impressions to receive the group rate. Please make your reservations early - rooms and rates are subject to hotel availability.

Speakers

Walt-Gmelch-Headshot-sq

Walt Gmelch

Professor of Leadership Studies and Former Dean of the School of Education
University of San Francisco

As an educator, management consultant, university administrator, and former business executive, Walt has conducted research and written extensively on the topics of leadership, team development, conflict, and stress and time management. He has published over two hundred articles, twenty-four books and monographs, and numerous scholarly papers in national and international journals.

Read Walt's full bio here.

JeanneHey

Jeanne A.K. Hey, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, Former Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
University of New England

Jeanne Hey is an experienced provider of professional development programs, specializing in leadership training for department chairs, deans, and women in higher ed. She served as dean of the University of New England’s College of Arts and Sciences for eight years, overseeing 15 academic departments and 35 major programs at a time of upheaval and risk in higher ed.

Read Jeanne's full bio here.

Kathleen Rinehart Headshot-1

Kathleen Rinehart

President
Cardinal Stritch University

Kathleen A. Rinehart serves as the 9th President of Cardinal Stritch University. Kathleen also serves as a consultant, facilitator and conflict coach for colleges and universities across the country, assisting them with the implementation of supervisory best practices and communication tools to effectively manage departmental and other campus conflict.

Read Kathleen's full bio here.

Need more? Bring this training to your campus

 

Are you looking to engage a team of 10 or more department chairs in formal training? Are you seeking out a customized learning track designed for your institution?

Let us come to you and facilitate an exclusive on-campus workshop. Immerse your team in a shared learning experience to get them on the same page and move everyone towards a common approach.

Sponsor

Questions About the Event?

Egstad-Whitney

Whitney Egstad
Program Manager, Academic Impressions

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