Aims

The programme explores:

• Strategies to manage careers and prepare effectively for promotion opportunities.
• Leadership in the context of the future world of work.
• Managing organisational politics to build professional relationships and professional goals.
• Understanding the impact and challenges of being a leader who brings difference to the traditional leadership space and developing strategies for success (servant and transformational leadership).
• Being a role model for other minorities and building coalitions between different minority groups without being labelled 'the diversity champion'.
• Managing the challenges for constant scrutiny and expectations around performance, style, micro-aggressions, and stereotyping.
• Understanding the challenges of working in a majority cultural and retaining authenticity. Developing strategies to deal with others' expectations of 'leader' behaviours and styles.
• Developing a sense of leadership purpose that aligns with one's values and responsibilities while helping to develop authenticity and trustworthiness.
• Understanding how to create space for learning, experimentation, and community (networks). Based on thinking that in general people are less likely to try out unfamiliar behaviours if they feel threatened, but this may be necessary for 'minority leaders' to help find and evolve their style.
• A peer group coaching relationship.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes from the programme are as below:

• Improve your understanding of the strategic context, and higher education’s evolving role.
• Develop an informed awareness of the leadership challenges of the future world of work.
• Assess your strengths and actively seek opportunities to build on your areas for development.
• Develop a deeper sense of self, personal and professional awareness and identity through transformative learning and reflective practice.
• Draw on the principles of values-based leadership to ensure strong leader presence and purpose.
• Increase your leadership effectiveness by developing your emotional intelligence so that you can apply different leadership styles to different contexts.
• Build influence (as a positive role model) through reciprocity (congruency and commitment).
• Confidently challenge norms, values and support the development of acceptable behaviours which support and promote a culture of inclusivity and tolerance.
• Demonstrate a developmental mindset open to working with discomfort, transition, and change.
• Engage consistently in reflective practice to enhance your experiential leadership learning as part of preparation for more senior roles.

Commitments

Our commitment to you - we will make sure that:

• You receive written joining instructions setting out preparatory activities that have to be completed before the live workshops, the themes covered in the workshops, and the post workshop activities.
• The preparatory and post workshop activities provide clear and structured guidance in how to approach them.
• We will listen to your feedback (particularly the responses collected as part of the questionnaires we will ask you to complete), which can help improve design and delivery of the programme on an ongoing basis.
• There is a safe and confidential safe space for you to share your experiences and have open and honest discussions about the challenges that you face as a leader.
• There are a range of learning, growth and development opportunities provided for both individual and collective learning, development, growth and reflection.
• There is a central portal (MyWBS) where you access all programme content (with the exception of the Reflective Journal).
• We respond to your queries, questions, and suggestions in a timely manner.
• You are exposed to a diverse range of experienced leaders who will share their practice and lived experiences of tackling challenging issues whilst remaining aligned to their values and core beliefs.
• There is a central coordination contact where you can report back on any technical issues.

Your commitment - to make this programme work for everyone we ask you to commit to:

• Familiarise yourself with the design and structure of the programme.
• Understand when each module begins and prioritise your time.
• Fully engaging and committing to activities in live workshops.
• Building on your learning from pre-workshop and live workshop activities.
• Fully committing to engaging with and learning from your LEA 360.
• Preparing for and fully engaging in and setting up regular face-to-face meetings with your sponsors.
• Fully engaging in the peer-to-peer coaching sessions.
• Developing your skills as a reflective practitioner.

Format

The image below provides an overview of the programme structure:

Each module will cover a core theme and will consist of:

Pre-workshop activities

Pre-workshop activities will include guided learning and reflection.

Workshops

The content of these live facilitated interactive learning workshops is detailed below:

Post-workshop activities

Post-workshop activities will include:

• Video podcasts from leaders who have overcome organisational and personal leadership challenges.
• Reflective practice - themed reading and writing activities.
• Interactive discussion forum - to enable participants to learn with and from each other on achievements and challenges that emerge across the programme.

Additional activities

The programme will also be delivered through peer-to-peer coaching. Participants will arrange to meet in pairs at three times during the programme to support each other through specific challenges.

Participants will also be provided with an Executive Sponsor. Sponsorship is a leadership development mechanism designed to offer a sponsoree many career benefits, including the backing of a senior leader for an elevated and critically important role in the organisation. You can read more about sponsorship here.

In addition, the programme will include:

• 360 degree assessment.
• Guest speakers.
• Executive dinner sessions.
• Experience leadership in a different sector.

Dates

Dates for the 2024/25 programme are as follows:

• Induction: 11 September 2024, 10am-4pm.
• Module 1: 9 October 2024, 10am-4pm.
• Module 2: 27 November 2024, 10am-4pm
• Module 3: 8 January 2025, 10am-4pm
• Module 4: 12 February 2025, 10am-4pm
• Module 5: 11 March 2025, 10am-4pm
• Module 6: 14 May 2025, 10am-4pm
• Sessions with Piers Ibbotson - Personal Impact, Presence, and Different Forms of Power:
  • 4 December 2024, 9.30am-1pm.
  • 19 February 2025, 9.30am-1pm.
• Dinner events:
  • 7 October 2024, 6-10pm.
  • 28 January 2025, 6-10pm.
  • Challenge and Dinner - 22 May 2025, 6-10pm.
• INspire Leaders Celebratory Event: 5 June 2025, 5-6.30pm.