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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 of 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:

Transitioning Leadership Annual Donors into Major Donors

To shift the mindset of a leadership annual donor into that of a major donor is a task that requires you to go beyond just knowing their capacity; you must also understand what the donor wants to see their gift accomplish, and how to align that specific desire with your institutional needs. This requires knowing the effectiveness of each component of your leadership giving program and how to best manage and develop your leadership annual donors. Join us at this in-person conference to learn portfolio management and stewardship techniques to successfully transition leadership annual donors into major gift prospects. You will learn how to:

Building an In-House Leadership Development Program in Higher Education

Leadership development has emerged as one of the most important priorities for institutions today. The pandemic revealed the strength or weakness of an institution’s leadership—at all levels—while the resulting Great Resignation starkly revealed the depth or shallowness of an institution’s leadership bench. Most institutions are now investing heavily in building leadership programs, but they are all approaching it differently. Academic Impressions has helped more institutions to develop in-house leadership programs than any other organization in higher education, and in this unique two-day event, we’ll share what we’ve learned over 15 years of developing leaders and supporting in-house programs. Whether you are simply dipping your toe in the leadership space for the first time, or you’ve run a successful cohort-based program for years, we’ll share a wealth of resources, methods, and approaches that you can implement right away to develop the next generation of leaders at your institution.

Customer Service Skills Training: Certification for Higher Education Professionals

As competition in higher education intensifies, so do the appetites of prospective students for institutions that provide the best education and experience for their tuition dollars. Instilling a culture of service excellence at all levels of an institution can directly enhance enrollment and improve student retention. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an undeniable impact on both the student and employee experience. And with the pending enrollment cliff, institutions will need to retain students at a higher rate, making service excellence more important than ever before. Join us for this virtual learning experience developed for higher education frontline customer service professionals and those who supervise them. Through interactive and small-group activities, you will dive into: You will leave this training with increased confidence in your customer service skills and a greater ability to handle a wide variety of service scenarios.

Chief Strategy Officer Roundtable: A Cohort-Based Series for VPs of Strategy

Chief Strategy Officers tend to have no peers at their institutions. Charged with driving the university’s strategic plan forward and working across stakeholders to ensure proper execution, they play critically important roles on campus. This means that they simultaneously must be data-informed and big picture-oriented, ensuring alignment with institutional mission and vision, and they must also possess the leadership skills necessary to influence culture, develop talent, and create alignment across the cabinet, President, and Board. Given the singularity of this role, Chief Strategy Officers & VPs of Strategy need the ongoing support and community that can only be provided by others serving in a similar capacity. In this roundtable series, you can join a group of other Chief Strategy Officers across higher education to discuss the common challenges you face, get support from experienced professionals, and build your professional and personal network. You will: To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this roundtable will be capped at 12 attendees. In-Person and Virtual Sessions To facilitate community and trust-building among the cohort from the start, the roundtable will kick off with a full-day in-person strategy session in Denver, Colorado on Friday, October 6. Six weekly, hour-long virtual sessions will follow, running […]

Supervising Multigenerational Teams: Building Understanding to Support Success

Your team may have up to five generations working together, a phenomenon that is unique to our time in history. This generational diversity makes our teams stronger and more ready to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. To leverage the full strength that comes from this generational diversity, however, supervisors must first understand the value of and know how to appreciate the unique styles and preferences of each team member. Join our facilitator and your peers across the country to share best practices and experiences for increasing all of our understanding on successfully supervising multigenerational teams. You will come away from the training with the following:

Leading as An Assistant/Associate Dean: An Online Bootcamp

Leading as an Assistant/Associate Dean can be difficult under the best of circumstances. You need to negotiate and balance the competing interests of multiple stakeholders both inside and outside your college. Yet, you may sometimes feel like your role lacks the necessary clarity, authority, and/or support to be most effective—then add in the complexities that have arisen in higher ed in the recent past, and even the most seasoned leaders can find themselves tested. Join us online for this valuable six-week leadership bootcamp designed specifically for Assistant and Associate Deans, that will help you to discover or reconnect with the most effective ways to lead in a variety of situations and circumstances. During the bootcamp, you will: You will leave this bootcamp with an expanded network, a set of proven strategies for leading in a changing academic context, and, perhaps most importantly, greater confidence in yourself as a leader.

Managing Difficult Faculty & Staff: A Bootcamp for Leaders

Join us online for a four-week bootcamp where you will learn how to intervene and correct the most problematic performances and behaviors within your team. Within the bootcamp, you will be introduced to the “EM & EM” model, which includes four increasingly authoritative steps intended to engage, set expectations for behavioral change, communicate consequences for non-compliance, and minimize the ill effects of bad behaviors on others. We will also address the unique aspects of higher education culture that complicate employee oversight, including tenure, union contracts, and ill-defined leadership structures. This bootcamp will provide multiple opportunities for you to both apply this model to your unique context and practice these difficult conversations with other leaders experiencing similar challenges. You’ll be encouraged to bring your most difficult personnel scenarios to the group for practice and valuable feedback. Throughout the bootcamp, you’ll also develop an intervention plan specifically tailored to the challenging people you’re managing, and it will also document how the EM & EM model can help you to customize your approach to your toughest situation. You’ll walk away from this bootcamp feeling more comfortable, confident, and ready to take on your most difficult conversations. A Highly Personalized Experience Your registration for […]

Provost Summit: Leading for Innovation and Growth

In today’s rapidly changing world, innovation has become a critical driver of success for individual leaders and their organizations. However, fostering a culture of innovation is not easy—especially in academia, where traditions and hierarchy often prevail. This unique event aims to bring Provosts together to connect with peers, develop their own leadership, and learn proven strategies for fostering an innovative mindset and culture at their institutions. Participants will learn about key elements of an innovative culture such as openness, experimentation, collaboration, and risk-taking and hear translatable examples of how other institutions have successfully cultivated them, such as: The Summit is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of opportunities for discussion, reflection, and practical exercises. You’ll leave with an expanded network of other Provosts across the nation who are equally invested in thinking outside the box to move their institutions forward.

Training Frontline Student Leaders in Customer Service

As institutions prepare to open for the new academic year, training frontline student leaders—including Orientation Leaders, Resident Assistants, and front desk workers—is critical to enhancing the campus culture of service and creating a welcoming environment. Not highlighting “customer service” skills in student staff training leaves your most prominent frontline ambassadors ill-equipped to make a great first impression. This webcast will provide an overview of the skills that student leader training programs should incorporate in order to highlight the importance of customer service, including: Leave with Discussion Questions for Your Student Leaders One way you can use this training is to ask all of your student leaders to watch it and to then facilitate a dialogue among themselves after the fact. A list of discussion questions will be provided to all webinar participants with this use in mind.

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