Those entering leadership roles for the first time during these challenging times need to be fully equipped to do so, particularly when those roles involve leading academic teams and colleagues. Transition to Leadership (TTL) is an established programme that has three main themes:
- personal leadership
- team leadership and collaborating with others
- leadership in times of change.
Find out more by downloading our information sheet
Register your interest
Enhancing your leadership skills
TTL will explore your personal leadership, your team leadership and your change leadership style. By understanding your own resilience and how you can influence and inspire others you will learn new approaches to manage difficult situations and enable institutional change to happen. Transition to Leadership will allow you to develop:
- Your role in supporting and delivering organisational change
- Your capabilities as a team leader and builder, to optimise your team or project groups performance
- Your emotional intelligence and influencing behaviours as a positive leadership role model
- An understanding of leadership styles and skills, and apply this learning to your own context and sense of identity as a leader
- Your self-awareness and reflective practice
- Your personal coaching skills, including peer- and team-coaching to support achievement by others that you work with.
Jean Chandler provides an overview of the programme
For those interested in taking part in the next cohort of the programme, co-facilitator Jean Chandler reflects on how the programme works and the benefits and confidence delegates see from participation and the shared learning experience and supportive environment it provides.
Who is Transition to Leadership for?
Transition to Leadership is intended for senior or experienced academics who may be moving from an informal to a more formal leadership role, for example those moving from module leadership to programme leadership, or to a school or faculty-wide leadership role, as well as principal lecturers and research leaders.
It is also intended for colleagues in service areas who have perhaps already gained experience as a manager or section head but are looking to expand their leadership influence beyond their immediate functional team, both within and beyond their division. We have found that this mixture of experiences and roles within each cohort has offered a useful opportunity for participants to gain insights into the workings of their University.
What are the programme outcomes?
The Transition to Leadership programme contains diagnostics, self-assessments and structured self-reflection activities, plus online discussions to help participants understand the differing perspectives of others, to better influence and lead. Participants are provided with the opportunity to explore a variety of leadership styles and discover ways to integrate different skills and preferences to create team cohesion. They will enhance their understanding of how to adapt to varying situations within and outside their team and developing their capabilities as a team leader, thus enabling them to optimise team or project group performance.
Facilitators
How is the programme delivered?
Transition to Leadership has been restructured and adapted to suit current circumstances, there is a short introductory webinar on 24 February 2022, highlighting the aims and structure of the programme, how to navigate the online learning environment and the introductory tasks, followed by six online workshops, each of approximately 3 hours duration, covering the following topics:
Workshop 1
Personal Leadership
Leadership styles and how to apply this learning to your own context and sense of identity as a leader
Leadership styles and how to apply this learning to your own context and sense of identity as a leader
Workshop 2
My Leadership Profile and Development: an Introduction to Coaching
What "the leader as a coach" means in practice and how to apply this approach with skill;
What "the leader as a coach" means in practice and how to apply this approach with skill;
Workshop 3
Difference and Team Working
Recognising and responding to difference in order to make the most of a diverse team or project group
Recognising and responding to difference in order to make the most of a diverse team or project group
Workshop 4
Influencing Others and Collaborative Working
Emotional intelligence and influencing behaviours
Emotional intelligence and influencing behaviours
Workshop 5
Leading in times of Change:
Your role in supporting and delivering organisational change
Your role in supporting and delivering organisational change
Workshop 6
Change and Personal Resilience
Maintaining personal resilience in the face of multiple changes and challenges.
Maintaining personal resilience in the face of multiple changes and challenges.
The final module will conclude with a short reflective activity, including a consideration of continuing leadership development.
This programme builds on the very successful blended (a mix of online, on-the-the job and face-to-face learning) approach offered in the previous eleven national programmes. Responding to the difficulty of providing face-to-face workshops, the course has been adapted to the online environment including a series of live webinars, online collaborative learning activities and discussion boards, self-assessments, work-based activities and reflection. These activities are supported by a rich set of learning materials that remain available to participants for a minimum of six months after the conclusion of the programme.
Interview with programme co-facilitator Stuart Hunt
Stuart Hunt, programme director for Transition to Leadership, in our recent interview, discusses the need for the programme in the sector and what participants will gain from attending. The topics Stuart covers in the below videos include; the current challenges facing HE professionals, what it means to be an authentic leader, Personal, team and change leadership styles and Personal resilience and dealing with difficult situations.
Who is the programme for?
What are the benefits of the programme?
The challenges faced by higher education professionals
What does it mean to be an authentic leader?
Personal, team and change leadership styles
Personal resilience and dealing with difficult situations
My learning experiences - transitioning to senior management
Ruth Seabrook
Making the transition from Head of Partnership to a senior leadership role for the Secondary PGCE programme at the University of Roehampton, Ruth Seabrook shares her thoughts on Advance HE's Transition to Leadership course she attended and the benefits gained since.
