As workforce, professional, and executive education programs focus on recruitment, they often face similar challenges: They need ways to diversify their revenue. They want to retain their students and activate their alumni. And they strive to position their graduates — undergrads, graduate students, and adult professionals — for success, both in their careers and as leaders in their communities.

Time and time again, research has shown that strong interpersonal skills allow leaders to take their newly developed “hard” skills back to their organizations and make an impact.

That’s why college and university administrators who design programs for adult learners aim to offer a well-rounded education that combines skill development and career-track training along with a leadership development curriculum that fosters growth in people skills at the same time.

Yet, institutions’ limited human and financial resources can often stand in the way of their ability to incorporate soft skills training into their larger existing programs. It’s not easy to design an engaging leadership development curriculum — especially when a school or institution has a multitude of other priorities, including marketing overall program offerings, expanding its reach within the community, retaining existing clients, and adopting and integrating new technologies to keep pace with student expectations for virtual delivery.

Based on decades of experience in the field, our experts in higher education leadership development recommend 4 best practices for incorporating a robust leadership development curriculum into workforce, professional, and executive education programs.

Whether colleges and universities are considering adding short courses in leadership, leadership certificate programs, workshops, digital learning or micro-credentialing opportunities, following these guidelines will help you quickly integrate a leadership development curriculum into your offerings and position your program (and its graduates) for future success.

How to Incorporate a Leadership Development Curriculum

4 Best Practices We Recommend for Workforce, Professional & Executive Education Programs

1. Develop research-backed leader level offerings.

Most higher education institutions offer programs targeted to a specific leader level. However, all too often the leadership development program curriculum doesn’t take into account the common challenges faced and different skills needed to succeed at each leader level. To be most effective, the leadership development curriculum should offer research-backed tools and resources tailored for each leader level — from leading self, to leading others, to leading a business function, all the way up to leading an entire organization.

For example, first-time managers face unique challenges, as they must learn how to transition from getting the work done themselves to getting work done through other people. Rather than focusing on their own performance, they have to consider how their team collaborates, whether their group is committed and engaged, and how individual motivations and needs are connected to the work and the organization.

The capabilities new managers need to develop are different from the senior leadership skills needed by experienced executives, who may need help developing clear action plans that address organizational challenges and priorities.

A leadership development curriculum that’s tailored to the leader-level needs of your particular program’s student body will be more effective, engaging, and impactful.

2. Leverage leadership competency assessments.

Workforce, professional, and executive education programs can use competency assessments to identify leadership skill gaps and opportunities for improvement. These competencies can assess the skills of individuals, teams, and/or organizations. This qualitative data is critically important for benchmarking and evaluating program success.

For example, a university with an executive education program focused on artificial intelligence may use a 360 degree assessment to determine which leadership competencies their adult learners already have, as well as where and how to target future development.

If the assessment shows that their cohort of AI engineers are largely lacking in the ability to be agile and flexible with change, the university could incorporate an off-the-shelf workshop that’s targeted for developing skill at leading people through change or increasing learning agility.

Colleges and universities should consider partnering with a leadership development curriculum provider who can help develop a customized competency assessment tailored to their organization’s unique context, student population, and course offerings, to understand adult learners’ strengths and areas for development, weighted by importance.

3. Create dynamic leadership journeys — both virtually and in person — that are scalable and stackable.

When colleges and universities shifted to everything being virtual, given the pandemic in 2020, many realized that in-person events and experiences weren’t always required. Learners and students no longer saw a need to be on campus for a specific number of hours in order to earn a certificate.

With this shift, colleges and universities began to shift their approach towards one of viewing development as a journey, rather than a one-time experience.

And when it comes to designing an effective leadership development program curriculum, this journey is critical for success because it gives learners an opportunity to combine real-world and classroom experience with multiple types of learning.

As with other classes, a leadership development curriculum is most successful when it incorporates asynchronous learning videos with live class discussions, small group activities, and office hours with the instructor — along with course reading, webinars, and discussion threads.

Not only do these experiences require participants to commit to fewer hours “out of the office,” but they also offer richer and more rewarding lessons that ensure sustainable leadership development.

Workforce development, continuing & professional, and executive education programs can leverage scalable options to offer learning opportunities across many different clients and student populations — reducing the bandwidth necessary to design from scratch, and diversify their offerings by bundling or “stacking” multiple solutions together. For example, they could use preassembled workshop kits — complete with PowerPoint presentations based on industry-leading research, classroom posters, facilitator discussion guides, and participant workbooks — to offer their learners short courses or targeted leadership workshops on different topics, including communication, influence, self-awareness, and leading people through change.

4. Build robust strategic partnerships.

Colleges and universities know that workforce-ready graduates not only have the technical skills to do the job, but also the leadership skills required to transform a culture. These workforce, professional, and executive education programs strive to prepare their learners to impact meaningful change by leading with integrity and agility.

As employers identify gaps in skills and abilities — both among current employees and applicants — they recognize a growing need to partner with neighboring colleges and universities to develop programs that fill those gaps.

At the same time, colleges and universities can work to identify and refine their target markets and then develop relationships with organizations that have strong connections with those same populations.

By partnering with neighboring employers and other organizations, universities are able to design opportunities that make an immediate impact, both on learners’ futures and on their local community’s economic health.

And by designing executive education programs that incorporate a leadership development curriculum, these universities produce more professionals who are equipped with the people skills needed to drive innovation and shape their organizations’ culture and strategy — a powerful combination that builds committed, engaged alumni and a deep and rich talent pipeline.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

Evaluate your institution’s readiness for incorporating a leadership development curriculum or offerings into your program by downloading our free readiness checklist below.

Get direct access to our expertise in implementing a leadership development curriculum in your workforce, professional, or executive education program through our Channel Partner Network.

The post Incorporating & Scaling a Leadership Development Curriculum appeared first on CCL.

Effective leadership in higher education means equipping student learners with the skills they need to succeed, whether they’re undergrads, graduate students, doctoral candidates, adult learners, or executives looking to level-up their careers.

But integrating effective leadership in higher education goes beyond teaching technical skills. More and more, leadership development is becoming an important part of the higher education experience, and with good reason. Leadership development helps students and adult learners strengthen communication and collaboration skills, become more agile and resilient, and ultimately learn how to affect positive change in the world around them. Not only do they benefit, but building strong, effective leadership in higher education also helps you increase the value of the educational experience and in turn, your institution’s revenue streams.

What You’ll Learn

In this series of informal virtual conversations on effective leadership in higher education, our experts talk with leaders at institutions across the country. They discuss the current challenges schools face from a leadership curriculum perspective, and highlight ways higher education institutions are developing the leaders of tomorrow — whether they’re undergrads, graduate students, or working professionals. We cover:

• Current challenges and potential solutions in student & adult learning leadership curricula
• New concepts and leadership programming ideas being implemented right now
• Interactive dialogue on what effective leadership in higher education looks like, and Q&A sessions with attendees

Watch our series of engaging fireside chats to learn about building effective leadership in higher education through leadership programs. Hear from leaders at institutions large and small on how they’re tackling challenges and how our world-class research, faculty, and renowned experts can support you and your institution.

Learn more about growing effective leadership in higher education with our Higher Education leadership practice experts or the leadership tools offered through our Channel Partner Network.

The post Effective Leadership in Higher Education: A Conversation Series appeared first on CCL.

• Case Study
• : Higher Education, Education

Higher Education Institution Builds More Cohesive Leadership Culture

CLIENT:	Tarrant County College
LOCATION:	6 campuses located in Fort Worth, Texas and online
SIZE:	Over 800 faculty and 2,000 adjunct faculty; Serves over 100,000 students annually

Client Challenge

Tarrant County College (TCC) is one of the 20 largest higher education institutions in the U.S., dedicated to providing quality, accessible learning experiences for its students. TCC’s 6 campuses offer a variety of programs and services providing core curriculum, associates’ degrees, workforce training, and social support.

As traditional higher education institutions face more intense competition for student enrollment, they must change, finding new and exciting ways to be more efficient, collaborative, and transparent. Higher education’s organizational structure makes this change more challenging because colleges are often siloed — with departments operating independently of each other. TCC’s new chancellor and his cabinet recognized the need for a future-focused strategic plan beginning with team behavior shifts and an organizational culture alignment to help them function as “one college.”

To create this culture change, the new chancellor sought a leadership development experience that would help TCC face their challenges with more agility, speed, collaboration, and interdependent leadership. First, he wanted the chancellor’s cabinet to come together under shared goals, align across campuses, and share a common leadership language. A member of the team described their focus as “building greater self-awareness of not only what we do as a team, but how we do it.”

Solution 

CCL recommended the chancellor’s cabinet participate in a multi-session executive leadership training program to bring about transformative change. The initiative aimed to develop a cohesive culture and a distributed leadership style that could move more quickly to meet the evolving needs of the institution’s students, faculty, staff, and community.

CCL’s higher education experts partnered with TCC to develop a learning journey for the 14 members of the chancellor’s cabinet. “If you don’t start at the senior-level, how can leaders at other levels understand where you want to go?” said one of the college presidents. The initiative included a learning journey with a combination of:

• Peer group learning and small team collaboration,
• Experiential activities,
• Customized assessments,
• 1-on-1 360-degree feedback coaching, and
• 6 hours of executive coaching per cabinet member.

With new clarity around the college’s strategy, the chancellor’s cabinet and CCL facilitators focused each session on the key competencies chosen by the chancellor to promote collaboration and inclusiveness on the team, including:

• Boundary Spanning,
• Self-Awareness,
• Trust,
• Accountability, and
• Candor in communication

As a complex, cross-functional, multi-campus group, the chancellor’s cabinet had no shortage of boundaries, so the first session concentrated on boundary spanning leadership which involves creating team direction, alignment, and commitment. CCL’s research shows that leaders who effectively practice boundary spanning have the advantage when faced with solving problems and creating innovative solutions.

Results

As they moved through the sessions, TCC’s college presidents described a changing dynamic on the team, including increased intentionality, clarity, and courage to speak up. One campus president mentioned seeing these high-performing leaders begin to collaborate in new ways, including “communication with a purpose.”

The initiative’s success was also seen through the dissemination of leadership training and the increase in internal capacity building across the institution. After attending the chancellor’s cabinet team sessions, 3 of the college’s campus presidents conducted CCL leadership training with their own teams. Additionally, TCC’s campus deans, college directors, the provost’s leadership team, and the IT senior leadership team have since participated in CCL-led workshops.

Learn More

PROGRAM SUCCESS

92%

of participants say they are fully committed to achieving the goals they set during the program.

Participants Say

“Coaching was powerful and better than I imagined. Now, we are a high-performing team that works together, and also recognizes that individual contributions matter — we are a composite of the best of our wisdom.”

“I have seen a profound impact on my campus and with my team, more clarity in vision, goals, and intentional purpose.”

“One great thing about the experience is that CCL has invested in our whole institution from the moment that we first engaged with them. And now we have what we need to build and sustain internal capacity that sticks with you differently than other programs.”

Partner With Us

We understand the distinct challenges facing higher education. We can partner with your institution to address all levels of the collegiate experience from senior-level administrators to students. Whether you’re creating your first program or revamping a decades-old initiative, we’re committed to strengthening strategic processes and enhancing the leadership capabilities of colleges and universities.

Learn More

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Are You Getting the Best Out of Your Senior Leadership Team?

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The post Higher Education Institution Builds More Cohesive Leadership Culture appeared first on CCL.

• Case Study
• : Higher Education

Improving Conversations to Scale Cultural Change

CLIENT:	The University of Notre Dame, a renowned private Catholic research university
LOCATION:	South Bend, IN
SIZE:	Over 12,000 students and 4,600 staff

Client Profile & Challenge

If the University of Notre Dame’s performance review process had been an employee, it would have gotten a poor evaluation.

Leaders in Human Resources had implemented performance evaluation software to reduce paperwork, but few liked it or the annual review process. Employee surveys indicated that many people didn’t receive regular feedback from managers — a real problem, because employees who receive frequent, constructive feedback are more engaged at work.

Performance management remained the lowest-ranking item on employee engagement surveys — a quantitative validation of anecdotal experience.

After some research, HR leaders concluded a new review process or different software wouldn’t fix these problems. What they really needed was a culture shift surrounding the type and frequency of performance and development conversations.

“If you don’t fix the conversations, then it doesn’t matter what the process looks like,” says Tamara Freeman, the university’s Director of HR Strategy and Effectiveness.

Notre Dame started by hiring several organizations to teach various conversation skills courses, but nothing seemed to have lasting effects.

The first significant breakthrough occurred when the university engaged us.

Solution & Results

Guided by an understanding of Notre Dame’s culture, we shared our vision for a systematic approach to culture change, where everyone across campus — not just leaders — could provide feedback and coaching in more constructive day-to-day conversations.

Through our Better Conversations Every Day (BCE) experience, university participants learned how to use a framework of “Situation-Behavior-Impact-Intention” to share feedback on undesirable behaviors.

They also developed and practiced the core skills of:

• Listening to understand;
• Asking powerful questions;
• Challenging and supporting; and
• Establishing next steps and accountability.

In order to scale sustainable cultural change, the university understood that BCE needed to be a business initiative, rather than just another HR strategy. That’s why our initial training sessions included “program champions” — top-level executives from units across the campus, not just HR professionals. If leaders valued the experience and put their new skills into practice, their direct reports would be more likely to, too.

We then taught internal facilitators from HR and other departments how to deliver the training. This train-the-trainer strategy enabled the university to train more individual facilitators than it could have if our faculty had delivered all the sessions.

Demand for the training was strong, and the sessions were packed.

During their BCE experience, managers were seated with others who had similar levels of responsibility and authority. That made the interactions more relevant and meaningful for them. Those who completed the program began receiving post-training communications to reinforce the core skills, highlight successes with the new techniques, and offer tips.

There’s ample evidence the culture is shifting. Teams tackling problems, for instance, start by asking open-ended questions before jumping into problem-solving. Likewise, managers will coach each other on tricky conversations. Feedback shows increased accountability, enhanced engagement, and signals that more effective conversations are taking place.

The university is now rolling out Better Conversations Every Day to include individual contributors who don’t have formal management duties.

“We have good evidence that when most of your employees have gone through the program and you have someone focused on the use of the techniques, it does make a difference,” Freeman says.

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KEYS TO SUCCESS

• Involving senior leaders early,
• Recruiting managers outside HR as internal trainers, and
• Reinforcing the training with follow-up communications.

BY THE NUMBERS
6%	increase over 3 years in people agreeing with the statement “My immediate manager gives me regular constructive feedback”
4.5	Overall participant satisfaction rating on a 1-5 scale

Participants Say

“Of any course I’ve taken at Notre Dame, this … is the most challenging, easiest to implement immediately, and valuable for almost everyone I interact with in my life … I’ve seen positive changes and differences in myself, my friendships, and my family. ”

“After going through the training, I started to relate differently … The crew is more  responsive in a positive way, including with each other … With this class, you learn to communicate better, stop micromanaging, lead with a nurturing manner, yet with a vision. And, most importantly, you will grow.”

Partner With Us

We can work with you to scale cultural change, connecting your organization’s goals to a solution that will drive impact for leaders at all levels. It begins with better conversations every day, from the front desk to the corner office.

Learn More

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Jollibee Foods Builds Conversational Skills, Instills a Coaching Culture Across the Organization

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The post Improving Conversations to Scale Cultural Change appeared first on CCL.