The Academy for Advanced Leadership will strive to go beyond participation to foster inspiration. This advanced leadership experience will provide an environment for personal and professional growth by using collaborative dialogue, reflective practice, and interactive experiences to engage leaders in a cooperative search for insights, strengths, passions, and best practices in exemplary leadership. This Academy will focus on those factors that hold the potential for Transformational, Inspired, Positive Leadership. The Academy for Advanced Leadership continues in the Academy tradition of being committed to excellence in leadership development.

The Advanced Academy will be an extraordinary learning experience beginning with three days of residential leadership development seminars, followed by a one year practicum, and closing with three additional days of residential seminars. Advanced leadership development occurs over time and is assessed by the 360º Advanced Leadership Perception Survey. The Leadership Survey will be administered prior to the first residential seminar, at the six-month mark of the practicum, and finally at the end of the final residential seminar.

Guest speakers, modeling best practices in the field of leadership, will be invited to share their stories as leaders. The personal narratives of these guest speakers, coupled with the rich background of research and best practices offered by the Academy, will provide a substantive and rich learning experience for all leaders. Personal narratives, conversations, and collaborative dialogues will add depth to learning-centered strategies in this Academy for Advanced Leadership.

Advanced Academy leaders will be networked with two mentors - one from their institution, and one from their community. Each leader will receive on-going support from an Academy Coach and Liaison. Electronic conversations and additional readings will be offered over the six-month practicum to further develop and enhance leadership development. Like our foundation program, the most up-to-date research from the field of leadership and the sharing of best practices from around the world will be incorporated into this extraordinary leadership development experience.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

The Academy for Advanced Leadership is the next step in leadership development for our over 5,000 graduates from the Academy for Leadership and Development foundation program. In addition, chairs, deans, vice-presidents or other organizational leaders who already have on the job experiences and have acquired foundational leadership skills may now want to consider pursuing advanced leadership development. The Advanced Academy is designed to further enhance your leadership in your present job as well as provide development for those leaders who are aspiring for executive level positions in a post-secondary institution.

Leaders from post secondary institutions world-wide are being invited to attend. The Advanced Academy is limited to 56 leaders.

PROGRAM DESIGN

• The Advanced Academy is built on principles of learning organizations so that leaders have the opportunity to expand their personal capacity and the capacity of others to create the results they most desire and help achieve an organizational environment which encourages all members to develop through leadership, communication, and coaching.
• The Advanced Academy will provide opportunities for leaders to reflect on, clarify, and enhance their knowledge and skills in transformational leadership.
• Leaders in the Advanced Academy will build a sense of commitment to advanced leadership by developing shared images of the future they seek to create, and the principles and guiding practices to achieve that future.
• Personal narratives, dialogues, reflective practice and journaling will provide the foundation for transforming development, conversation, and collective dialogue into action so that leaders can be transformational and develop the leaders around them, and their organizations.
• Designed with a focus on relationships and systems, the Advanced Academy will develop leaders with knowledge and skills in fostering effective personal and professional relationships within post-secondary systems.
• The Advanced Academy is designed around the key themes of developing transformational leaders through a focus on effective interpersonal communication, personal and professional ethics, developing and maintaining positive relationships, collegial coaching, building supportive communities of practice, and personal responsibilities for leadership development within their organizations by developing leaders around us.

PROGRAM ELEMENTS

• Six full-days of leadership seminars scheduled with an initial three-day session, followed by a one year practicum, and a closing three-day session.
• A one year practicum experience between seminars with support and guidance by self-selected mentors, and an Academy Liaison and Coach. The practicum includes:
  • Advanced Leadership Development Plan (ALDP)—Leaders will develop and implement individualized action plans (ALDP) to personalize their growth as leaders on the issues investigated in the seminars.
  • Mentoring Program—Leaders will choose two mentors who will provide support, guidance, and feedback regarding their ALDP. One mentor will be from their institution and another from their local community. In addition, an Academy liaison and coach will provide further guidance and support. Leaders will also select a "Program Colleague" for peer support during their practicum experience.
  • Reflective Practice and Journaling—During the practicum experience, leaders will be encouraged to reflect upon their work experience and their ALDP on a regular basis. Reflective Practice and Journaling will help leaders chronicle their leadership journey.
  • Electronic Connection—Leaders will be able to engage in an on-going dialogue with fellow leaders through the Academy listserv. Monthly leadership issues and suggested readings will be offered by the Academy. Additional leadership content, which reinforces and enhances the learning experience during the practicum experience, will also be provided.
  • Leadership Surveys—The online 360º Advanced Leadership Perception Survey, will assess leadership growth and development on Advanced Leadership topics. The on-line assessment will include pre-, interim-, and post-leadership survey instruments. Please note that the interim survey is completed just prior to returning for the closing three day seminar and the post is completed six months after the program.
  • Optional Graduate Credit—We are working with a number of different universities and are anticipating six hours of on line graduate level credit for successful completion of the program competencies.
  • Academy for Advanced Leadership Certificate of Completion—Each graduate of the Advanced Leadership Academy program receives a framed Certificate listing the program competencies as well as an Academy for Advanced Leadership pin, recognizing their efforts and successful attainment of program competencies.

LEADERSHIP TOPICS

• Peak Moments of Leadership
• Leadership as a Relationship
• Understanding Self and Relationships
• Advanced Leadership Perception Survey
• Ethics and Leadership
• Challenges of Inspired Leadership
• Leading the Way With Vision and Clarity
• Sharing the Vision and Enabling Others to Act
• Empowering and Encouraging Others Through Inspired Leadership
• Servant Leadership
• Recognizing and Aligning Individual and Team Strengths for Sustained Success
• Leading Your Organization from "Good to Great"
• Creating Momentum for Organizational Change
• Technology as an Accelator in Post-Secondary Organizations
• Stewardship
• Leading From the Middle
• Leading Up, Down, and All Around
• A Leader's Crucial Conversations
• Developing the Leaders Around You
• Authentic Leadership