Event Category: Workshop

Creating a Sustainable Culture of Service Excellence (Cancelled)

Many institutions seek to enhance service excellence on campus as a means of improving student and employee retention, however creating a sustained culture change in any setting can be challenging. This conference is designed to review the principles of service excellence and provide you with tools and strategies for making lasting long-term change on your campus or in your unit. You will also spend time individually with subject matter experts to discuss and strategize your specific needs, and to plan for implementation. 

Building a Culture of Mentoring at Your Institution

Increasingly, higher ed understands the institutional benefits of mentoring to students, staff, and faculty, but creating the conditions for mentoring to flourish remains challenging. Join us for a unique in-person experience where you will learn:   Whether attending individually or as a team, you will have the opportunity to directly engage with our experts, connect with higher education professionals across the country doing similar work, and apply your learning to kickstart your work after the conference.  

Advanced Leadership Development in Higher Education

Leading in higher education is a difficult task under the best of circumstances. Shared governance, structural barriers to change, and limited discretionary funding are just a few of the many reasons why making a meaningful impact can be hard to do. But it can be done, and the current and future challenges faced by the industry demand that we have leaders who can make substantive—and not just incremental—change.   Join us for a one-of-a-kind program that will help you to lead for the impact you desire. We’ll examine your leadership at a personal level with our Five Paths to Leadership℠ Assessment, and we’ll also share strategies for building high-performing teams with the hands-on, simulated activities to equip you with the tools that you can use to align large groups around a new direction or vision. You’ll also receive integrated coaching and industry feedback from peers in attendance, to help you to further refine and improve your leadership skills. Thanks to this valuable feedback, attendees will leave the event armed with a curated action plan to help them to thrive in their own programs, and with a wider potential pool of future accountability partners from fellow attendees and network contacts to help […]

Essential Leadership Skills for Deans

Leading as an academic Dean demands a specific and often diverse skillset that requires you to inspire those above, across, and below you in the organizational structure. If that’s not complex enough, you’re doing this work in the context of frequent leadership transitions, evolving student needs, increasing competitive pressures, scarce resources, and the highest levels of burnout seen in decades. It quickly becomes clear that being a leader in today’s current higher education environment can test even the most seasoned of leaders.  Join us for this highly interactive in-person conference to learn new strategies and approaches for how to address some of the most common challenges you currently face as a Dean. Special focus will be given to creating a unit culture that makes for a great place to work, and with the help of our expert speaker panel and a network of other deans, you will have the time, space, and support to discuss how to:  Through a variety of group activities and discussions, you’ll share your perspective on how to successfully navigate your role, and you’ll also walk away with useful insights from other academic Deans, as well. 

Innovative Strategies for Developing New Academic Programs

It is essential for leaders to understand the impact of creating new academic programs as important parts of growing enrollment, maintaining relevance in the curriculum, and differentiating institutions. Too often, proposals lack rigor, are too ambitious or expensive, and lean too far into traditions as an approach for new program development.   Learn the art and science of growing academic programs in a way that maximizes your institution’s chance for success. You will walk through a set of criteria to consider when deciding whether to move forward with a new academic program or initiative. With the help of our expert speakers, you will consider ways to start small, think creatively, and build programs organically. We will dive deep into how you can assess a potential program and its: 

Leading High Performing and Inclusive Teams

In the aftermath of the “Great Resignation,” maintaining and supporting intact teams has become more difficult than ever before. Furthermore, dwindling budgets and decreased confidence about the viability of campuses of all sizes can make the willingness and ability of campus leaders to continue to motivate and manage teams feel daunting.  This conference is designed to provide leaders with a toolkit they can use with their teams to enhance psychological safety and improve outcomes among teams at all levels. With a focus on building trust, enhancing communication, understanding intersectionality and utilizing Academic Impressions’ Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment, participants will have the opportunity to: 

Advancing Customer Service on Your Campus: Train the Trainer Certification

There’s no question that the importance of customer service has become increasingly valuable in higher education.  As institutions grapple with ways to retain students and employees, enhancing customer service and service excellence around campus is critical.  No longer is the pressing issue ‘if we should’ provide customer service training to our teams, but ‘how.’ This unique hands-on certification workshop will offer you and members of your team the chance to learn how to deliver higher education-related customer service training on your campus. You will learn essential content, including:   Each of which will help to shape your service excellence culture, enhance your facilitation skills, and provide feedback on your individual progress from our nationally recognized facilitator. At the end of the 2-day workshop, take the exam to become a Certified Trainer in Customer Service.  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this conference is capped at 30 attendees. 

The Fundamentals of Leadership for New or Aspiring Leaders in Higher Education

New leaders often find themselves learning on the go—and often at the expense of intentional reflection on their leadership strengths, journey, or skill development. This leadership conference, facilitated by experienced higher education leaders, provides you with a set of tools for applying the key tenets of successful and equitable leadership. You’ll practice how to approach difficult and complex conversations through healthy and constructive dialogue so that you can increase trust, motivation, and engagement within your team. You will also gain the confidence and skills needed to become a more effective leader in higher education, rooted in both a deeper awareness of your core purpose as a leader and in your commitment to equity.  Highlights of the program include: 

Driving Institutional Strategy as a Chief Strategist or Chief of Staff

Higher education is at an inflection point. Small colleges have closed due to financial and enrollment challenges, there is public scrutiny over cost, curriculum, value, and the worth of a college degree, and student debt is at an all-time high. And for all of these issues, the Chief of Staff/Chief Strategy Officer plays a crucial role in helping to address them, yet they often have a more solitary professional experience than other Vice Presidents and Cabinet members—many times working through influence rather than via large divisional and organizational chart purview. Through the Academic Impressions Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment, you will discover how you show up as a leader in typical circumstances as well as during times of stress and use this understanding to identify how to work more effectively in your strategy focused role.   This one-of-a-kind conference experience invites Chiefs of Staff, Chief Strategy Officers, and Chief Strategists like you to ensure that you have a data-informed and big-picture understanding of the critical issues facing higher education, and how those may impact the work accomplished by you, your President, and your institution. You will build community, develop resources to take back to your campus, and deepen your understanding […]

Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment Facilitation Certification Training 

Become a certified practitioner of the Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment and bring your expertise to your institution to both support individual learners and facilitate workshops with your campus.  The Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment is being used by thousands of faculty and staff in higher education across North America. The magic of the Five Paths is not just deeper self-awareness but its ability to enable more effective interpersonal and team dynamics. The assessment is unique and valuable because:  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this conference is capped at 30 attendees.