The Private Development of Academic Leaders

Many academic leaders have not had the opportunity to learn the full compliment of management skills needed to do their jobs and be able to sustain and grow their institutions. Their executive abilities often are not at the level of the intellectual and academic abilities that commended them to top academic positions. Yet they are expected to be able to do their job from the first day.

Through a schedule of regular 3-5 hour face-to-face consultations, and through private video conferencing as well as phone conversations, the academic leader is encouraged to utilize ready access to the consultant to learn how to assess emerging situations and to develop his/her own strategy for dealing with them. In the process, the academic leader is helped to put these experiences into a context to develop their own leadership model and style.

Among the areas of learning to be explored are the following:

• Learning to lead others in creating a commonly shared
  vision for the future of the organization.

• Learning to assess complex political situations to develop a strategy that will mitigate their threat and to manage them to positive outcomes.

• Learning personal communication and management skills needed to motivate people to achieve institutional goals.

• Learning to defuse and to manage individuals or groups
  who use intimidation and conflict to get their way.

Additional areas of individual professional development are identified and addressed in the course of the leader’s program.