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: 

Day One
Theme: Individual Leadership

Future Timeline
The world of higher education is experiencing fundamental change and will likely continue to transform in new and unexpected ways. In this interactive session, we’ll explore the events, trends, and issues that will impact higher ed over the next decade and identify practical strategies essential to developing an anticipatory mindset. Exploring what we unearth, you’ll apply the learning to your specific role and institutional context to develop next steps and implementation strategies.

Understanding Your Leadership Through the Five Paths
Self-awareness is at the heart of effective leadership. This session guides you through the Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment, which allows you to understand your strengths and natural tendencies when it comes to your leadership. The assessment can be helpful in deepening self-awareness as well as adapting your style to meet the needs of others.

Strengthening Your Leadership with the Leader You Serve
In this activity, you’ll apply what you just learned about the Five Paths to reflect on the leadership style of the leader you serve in relation to your own. Where is there natural complementarity? Where do the two of you get stuck or generate friction? What can you do to manage up, communicate effectively, and build trust as a means of strengthening the overall relationship?

Leading Authentically in the Chief of Staff Role
When Becky Culyba stepped into her role as Chief of Staff to the Provost at Carnegie Mellon University, the organization was very lean, lacking several key leaders and functions. Since then, Becky has consistently evolved the organizational structure and implemented numerous initiatives to drive change and innovation, building out portfolios and responsibilities more extensively. She has also created standard operating procedures and processes and been able to develop academic leaders across the enterprise. In this session, Becky will discuss not only how and what these key initiatives have looked like, but also how her own personal leadership journey and relationship to her role have evolved and deepened throughout her tenure.

Day Two
Theme: Team and Organizational Leadership

“What’s Keeping Chiefs of Staff Up at Night?” Moderated Speaker Panel
To kick off our second day, we’ll assemble our speaker team to engage in a moderated panel discussion framed around the question, “What’s keeping Chiefs of Staff up at night?” We’ll crowdsource topics from the group ahead of time to ensure the conversation is both focused and relevant.

Miami University Case Study: Strategies for Moving the Needle on Culture
In the post-COVID era, a major focus of Jill Gaby’s role within the University Advancement division has been creating a more positive, high-performing culture. In this session, Jill will share the role that senior team development, effective meeting practices, employee appreciation and communication, and leadership development across the organization have played in transforming culture and driving results.

Building High-Performing Teams
Most teams struggle not because they don’t have the requisite talent but because they don’t focus enough on their group dynamics and process—how they work together. In this session, we’ll examine several often-overlooked strategies that high-performing teams practice to build trust, include all voices, clarify purpose and mission, encourage creative and innovative thinking, and reach decisions effectively. You’ll also have a chance to take our High-Performing Teams Assessment to help you reflect on and diagnose areas of strength and opportunities for growth within the functioning of your current senior team.

Effective Succession Planning
In this session, we’ll revisit our output from the Future Timeline activity and use this to identify which critical leadership skills, qualities, and attributes will be most needed to lead our institutions into the future. We’ll then do some small group work to surface some effective models for leadership development and succession planning to arm you with strategies and ideas you can take back to begin more intentional succession planning at your institution, or to improve what’s already in place.