Stepping up into a new role as head of department or service in a university brings with it a host of challenges. On the one hand there are institutional demands to foster innovation, drive excellence and navigate complexity in a dynamic and evolving educational environment.
On the other, questions around your personal ability to lead authentically, influence upwards and manage teams of experts can quickly arise. Leading from the middle, where Heads of Departments inevitably are, can often feel like a lonely uphill battle.
As Programme Director for our most recent participants on Advance HE’s Leading Departments Programme, I was able to journey with them. A mix of academics and professional services colleagues from a wide range of different institutions, they came looking for ways to influence up and down in their organisation, to hone their skills in leading large teams and for some tools and techniques to ground their leadership instincts.
Many applied as a result of recommendations from colleagues who had gone through the programme before.
Leading Departments is designed to empower new and developing Heads of Departments to explore and address such questions through experiential learning, coaching and teamwork. At the heart of the programme is a deep and detailed simulation, designed and fuelled by a highly experienced team of actor-facilitators.
Working in teams, programme participants stretch and refine their leadership capabilities across a range of situations, receiving immediate feedback, coaching and valuable opportunities to rewind and try again as they progress.
Interactive plenaries on critical topics around emotional intelligence, influence, micro-politics and coaching conversations are embedded into the fully residential programme. The key skills of self-awareness and reflection are built into each day, ensuring that delegates are intentional and explicit about what they are seeking to achieve.
Outside of the two two-day modules a 360 diagnostic and follow up coaching identifies personal strengths and areas of development.
Returning to our graduating class, they quickly found that they were not alone, and that almost all of them shared similar challenges. Not only that, they had deepened their ability to listen actively and fully and had encouraged each other to find confidence and curiosity to ask probing questions. In recognising each other’s strengths, they were able to tap into their own unique styles to influence, lead and navigate their organisations with confidence and authenticity.
This is a highly transformative course with many unexpected threshold spaces to encounter. It challenges your preconceptions and equips you to become a more empathetic and confident leader.”Jeremiah Ambrose, Programme Director, Computing & Creative Technology, University for the Creative Arts
"Leading Departments is an eye-opener for academic leaders, allowing them to practice and rethink their leadership philosophy and style while roleplaying on complex issues in a simulated environment.
“This will surface who you really are, with a calling as to why you need to change."Dr S M A Moin, Associate Professor in Marketing, Queen Mary University of London
Leading Departments is an innovative programme that takes a practical hands-on approach to learning new skills and behaviours necessary for successful Department or School leadership. This development programme is fully residential and is designed to engage, support and develop new Heads of Department to meet the operational challenges of leading and managing academic or support teams. Find out more
Booking Deadline: Monday 26 February 2024