Leadership in the Academic Environment

Leadership means many things in an academic environment

Formal academic administration roles.  The many forms of faculty governance.
Leadership requirements associated with teaching, mentoring, running a lab.
Faculty leadership within a discipline.  Staff leadership.
Leadership in academia has many faces.

Kardia Group serves as a strategic partner for the many faces and challenges of leadership in academia, including:

• Career skills and strategy
  • proper pacing for achieving goals (i.e., it’s a marathon, not a sprint)
  • dealing with e-mail and other sources of overwhelm (including how to discern urgency and importance from uproar)

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  Formal leadership, leadership development and strategy

  • leadership markers: how to hold and demonstrate authority in a way that fits that leader, their department, and the work that needs to be done
  • strategies for making faculty meetings, departmental retreats, and other significant investments of faculty time worth the effort
  • supporting faculty through significant career and personal transitions (tenure and promotion, retirement, leadership roles, success markers, family changes, mental health issues, etc.)
  • departmental Executive Committees, by-laws and other governance documents, and other departmental faculty leadership roles: what they’re good for, how they vary, how to make use of them
  • “you’re not my boss,” “only my happiness matters,” and other common claims faculty make in dealing with their chairs
  • transparency as a necessary but legally, strategically, and interpersonally complex goal
  • departmental service assignments
  • improvements to performance review system (including how to handle annual reports, annual meetings, and merit raises)
• Interpersonal and departmental dynamics
  • working with different types and levels of conflict
  • dealing with crises or complications left behind by the previous chair
  • boundaries and confidentiality issues with close colleagues and friends
  • dealing with faculty dynamics that undermine the shared academic endeavor (such as territoriality, in-fighting, undermining, and withdrawal)
  • identifying and addressing tensions between faculty and staff
  • dealing with faculty behavior related to legal, moral, or terms-of-employment issues
• Leading change
  • considerations regarding climate assessments and faculty leadership in climate change endeavors

Leadership resources for faculty, staff, and academic administrators

• • Faculty coaching, staff coaching, academic administrator coaching – for leadership development, career development, situational strategy and problem-solving
    • For short, focused looks at aspects of leadership, see our Leadership Skills Snapshot and Leadership Awareness Snapshot coaching packages
  • Leadership development assessments – practical, specific, action-oriented insights
  • Consultations – strategic partnering for positive change
  • Chair/Department head training – contact us for information about coaching and workshop/seminar options