Schedule

The goal of the EDUCAUSE Executive Leaders Academy is to help you develop the foundational skills critical for leading transformation, projects, units, and people. The Academy also provides a broader context for considering the opportunities and challenges faced by responsible leaders in higher education.

Each module contains these components:

• Launch Session: A synchronous session with leaders in the field who will outline the key issues, opportunities, and areas for learning.
• Learning Materials: Readings, videos, and websites for each topic that contain key resources and information relevant to your leadership development.
• Activities/Assignments: Practice activities and assignments to apply your learning.
• Toolbox Session: A synchronous session focused on specific skills you can apply to your work.
• Reflections: Summaries, highlights, and reflections at the conclusion of each module.

The Executive Leaders Academy is an immersive hybrid experience that requires attending the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference (included in the registration fee) and continues online. Throughout the Academy, leaders are expected to dedicate approximately three to five hours per week (synchronous and asynchronous) for an engaged and successful learning experience. We ask that participants actively plan their time on the program each week.

Live Session Schedule

**NOTE: Online sessions will be held on Thursdays from 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET. Dates and times may vary slightly based on facilitator availability, but participants will be notified in advance of any changes.

• Thursday, September 18: Leadership Foundations Kickoff
• Thursday, September 25: Leading and Supporting Organizational Culture
• Thursday, October 2: Leadership Foundations Toolbox
• Thursday, October 16: Change Leadership Kickoff
• EDUCAUSE Annual Conference (in person)
  • Sunday, October 26, 12:00 noon–5:00 p.m. CT (includes lunch)
  • Monday, October 27, 7:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. CT (includes all meals)
  • Wednesday, October 29, 3:00–7:00 p.m. CT (includes reception)
• Thursday, November 6: Change Leadership Toolbox
• Thursday, November 13: Strategic Design: Building Trust Through Student-Centered Change
• Thursday, November 20: Collaboration, Influence, and Negotiation Kickoff
• Thursday, December 11: Collaboration, Influence, and Negotiation Toolbox
• Thursday, December 18: Networking Live Session
• Thursday, January 15: Leading a Data-Informed Culture Kickoff
• Thursday, January 29: Leading a Data-Informed Culture Toolbox
• Thursday, February 5: The Overlap of a Data Culture and AI
• Thursday, February 12: Business Acumen and Action Kickoff
• Thursday, February 19: Building a Personal Brand
• Thursday, February 26: Business Acumen and Action Toolbox
• Thursday, March 12: Organizational Design Kickoff
• Thursday, March 26: Organizational Design Toolbox
• Thursday, April 2: Executive Leadership and AI
• Thursday, April 9: Ongoing Leadership Journey Kickoff
• Thursday, April 23: Ongoing Leadership Toolbox and Academy Closing

Academy Modules

Module 1: Leadership Foundations

The landscape of higher education is ever-changing. To stay future-ready, today's leaders must embrace lifelong learning. This module lays the foundation for the Academy's structure, content, and activities. Gain insights into your values, leadership knowledge, and skills; learn to coach and be coached; and reflect on and develop your personal and professional brand. Begin crafting your professional learning plan to navigate your leadership journey for years to come. Connect with new colleagues, faculty, and coaches to enrich your network.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Explored and aligned your personal and leadership values with your workplace values
2. Conducted a comprehensive evaluation of your leadership knowledge and skills with peers and/or supervisors
3. Pinpointed essential concepts and elements for your professional branding to integrate into your learning plan
4. Collaborated with an executive coach to share and discuss your initial professional learning plan
5. Participated in tailored activities to explore and connect with fellow academy attendees and faculty members

Module 2: Change Leadership

In higher education, adept change leadership skills are imperative for navigating the dynamic landscape. Leaders must drive and oversee transformative initiatives that address emerging challenges, technological advancements, and evolving learner needs. Effective change leadership entails envisioning and communicating a compelling vision for the institution's future while fostering a culture that values innovation, adaptability, continuous improvement, and new business models. Successful change leaders in higher education must utilize strategic foresight and prioritize collaboration and a shared vision among faculty, staff, and administrators.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Developed the capacity to lead and manage transformative change initiatives through a comprehensive understanding of emerging challenges, technological advancements, and evolving learner needs
2. Enhanced your change leadership skills by learning to articulate a compelling future and emphasizing a culture that promotes innovation, adaptability, and the integration of new business models
3. Utilized strategic foresight in change leadership, emphasizing forward-thinking approaches in response to evolving educational landscapes and external factors
4. Fostered collaborative and inclusive change leadership practices to engage and align various stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and administrators

Module 3: Collaboration, Influence, and Negotiation

Higher education institutions are often decentralized, with organizational units working independently and, at times, competitively. Leaders with a successful collaboration style, strong influential capital, and humanized negotiation skills can improve and innovate new and existing services more easily, enhance client satisfaction, and lead effective, collaborative organizations that get results and meet institutional goals. In this module, you will explore collaboration frameworks, how to build and leverage influence, and acquire strategic negotiation skills that will help you move institutional initiatives and goals forward.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Articulated your collaborative leadership style
2. Identified the barriers to and opportunities for impactful and intentional collaboration within and outside your institution
3. Identified key leaders and stakeholders with whom strong collaboration is essential for successful initiatives
4. Described how leadership capital allows for positive influence across the institution
5. Explored strategic negotiation strategies related to attaining organizational success

Module 4: Leading a Data-Informed Culture

Leveraging the potential of and cultivating a robust analytics capability are imperative steps in today's higher education landscape. This approach enables institutions to meet, anticipate, and effectively respond to stakeholders’ evolving needs and expectations. From optimizing enrollment strategies to enhancing student retention efforts, data and analytics are indispensable. In this module, you will explore how value lies not just in possessing data, but also in its strategic and insightful deployment.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Understood how to benchmark and advance your institution’s progress and goals using national trend data
2. Used a data and analytics maturity model to assess the institution-wide use of analytics for planning, predicting, testing, and understanding
3. Applied guiding principles to create the foundations necessary to utilize data for actionable insights across an institution
4. Leveraged the key competencies (data governance, culture, analytics, data literacy, reporting, technology, and people) of a data and analytics program that enable institutional leaders to leverage information for decision-making

Module 5: Business Acumen and Action

Business acumen helps leaders make decisions, take action, and guide their institution achieve its objectives. Those with strong business acumen use and rely upon financial and programmatic data, understand institutional decisions, align their team members’ work to college and university strategic plans, and embrace ambiguity. Key to effective leadership is using such business acumen skills to communicate to different audiences your team members’ services, how these contribute to college or university strategic and financial goals, and how you manage your operations as a business. In this module, you will empower your leadership by exploring ways to increase your business acumen at the highest levels of the institution.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Identified how various business acumen skills interrelate to effectively lead strategic efforts
2. Developed a communication strategy to highlight how leveraging technology supports innovations and initiatives
3. Reflected upon and discussed how to enhance influence on key financial institutional decision-making processes
4. Developed a plan to enhance business acumen skills most relevant to the specifics of an institutional business model

Module 6: Organizational Design

Effective leadership requires intentionally designing an agile, flexible, and inclusive organization. Higher education is currently experiencing rapid changes in many areas: workforce, student success, cost and efficiency, mental health, and organizational culture. These changes provide an opportunity to rethink the organization's design and its relationship with other stakeholders at the institution and the greater ecosystem in which your organization operates. In this module, you will review and rethink your organization’s current and future organizational design.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Applied key components to designing an effective, agile, flexible, and inclusive organization
2. Identified the benefits of incorporating organization and culture practices into your organizational design
3. Incorporated social and cultural practices that enhance organizational designs
4. Developed strategies to ensure that you have the right people in the right seats doing the right things

Module 7: Ongoing Leadership Journey

Becoming an effective leader is a lifelong journey. In this module, you will reflect on your recent journey in the Executive Leaders Academy, discuss ways to continue it, and develop a plan to continue your leadership development and growth.

By the end of this module, you will have:

1. Reflected on your leadership journey and progress to inform future growth
2. Developed a plan for continued networking and connections with colleagues from the Academy
3. Identified mentors and/or a coach for your future leadership journey
4. Developed a plan to optimize your executive leadership brand and presence over the next year
5. Identified an activity you will pursue over the next year that contributes to leading or supporting your profession