UPCEA Updates

These days, educational institutions and organizations face a number of challenges when it comes to developing effective leaders—particularly in the online, continuing, and professional education realms. From difficulties catering to diverse learners to struggles adapting to emerging technologies, being able to navigate these challenges is crucial.

Fortunately, with the right organizational leadership in place, it is possible to overcome common challenges while ensuring sustainable growth and impact.

So, how can your organization enhance its leadership while boosting growth and development? This guide provides some key insights and strategies for leadership development from which all educational institutions can benefit.

What Is Organizational Leadership in Education?

In order to understand how to develop leaders in the realm of education, it’s essential to know what organizational leadership in this field entails and looks like.

Organizational leadership in education can take various forms depending on the nature of the institution, but in simplest terms, it refers to a leadership structure where every member is actively seeking knowledge and continuous learning from one another. Ultimately, every member of the leadership team is united toward achieving the organization’s overarching goals. This collaborative leadership approach is equally effective whether applied within a single department or across various units within an institution, such as online learning, continuing education, and professional education programs. This differs from more “traditional” approaches to management, where leaders fall into more of a hierarchy and are generally less interested in learning from one another.

What kinds of skills and characteristics do effective organizational leaders possess? Some of the most notable include:

• The ability to think strategically
• Short- and long-term vision
• Collaboration and communication 
• Data-driven decision-making
• Interpersonal skills

Why Organizational Leadership Matters

The rapid evolution of technology, learner expectations, and market demands require effective leadership—which is the only way to drive innovation, engagement, and positive outcomes for learners and organizations alike. However, truly excellent organizational leaders are difficult to come by. While organizational support is valuable, the journey to excellent leadership often involves continuous personal growth, reflection, and learning from diverse experiences.

With this in mind, it is perhaps more critical than ever for both higher ed institutions and organizations to invest their time, money, and resources into leadership development. This includes proper leadership training to ensure sustainable growth and maximum impact.

Key Challenges and Skills

At the same time, developing organizational leaders isn’t a straightforward process—even with a large budget and good intentions. Educational leaders can face substantial challenges in their everyday work, especially with today’s influx of new technologies and innovations. Even the most experienced of leaders may struggle to adapt to these changes while maintaining strong leadership and decision-making skills.

Meanwhile, other leaders may struggle with other aspects of the job that range from managing remote teams and catering to increasingly diverse types of learners. With more educational institutions and organizations moving to some form of remote work in recent years (specifically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic), leading remote teams has become a challenge for many professionals. Combine this with a larger number of learners returning to school who require different teaching and leadership styles, and it’s clear why these can present obstacles.

The most successful organizational leaders in education, then, will possess core skills that include digital fluency, data analysis, communication, and confident decision-making. Likewise, these educational leaders need to be flexible and adaptable so as to grow with their organizations without falling behind.

Strategies for Leadership Development

Of course, the skills organizational leaders need to be successful and overcome common challenges can’t be simply acquired or taught overnight; they must be carefully built upon over time through careful and thoughtful training. This means your organization will need to be prepared to put in the time, effort, and investment into developing organizational leaders in order to reap the benefits.

Seeking some tried-and-true strategies to develop and strengthen leadership in your own organization? There are several methods worth applying and adapting to meet your needs.

Blended Learning

Combining online and offline learning methods can be an ideal way to improve leadership development, with a few practical options including:

• Online courses – These utilize online platforms like massive open online courses (MOOCs), microlearning modules, and dedicated leadership development programs that provide training as needed.
• In-person workshops – These workshops are ideal to facilitate for focusing on specific skill sets, like data analysis and communication.
• Case studies and simulations – These offer scenarios and real-world examples for leaders to apply their learning.
• Collaborative projects – These blended learning opportunities create team projects where leaders are able to work together on solving challenges or developing their own innovations.

Mentorship and Coaching

Along with blending learning options, mentorship and coaching opportunities provide personalized guidance and support that can accelerate learning and growth. Examples of these opportunities you can offer your leaders include:

• Peer-to-peer mentoring – This involves matching experienced leaders with newer leaders for ongoing guidance and support.
• Executive coaching – This provides individualized coaching sessions with experienced professionals who are focused on personalized development goals.
• Internal mentorship programs – These establish organization-wide mentorship programs where senior leaders are paired with mentees.
• Reverse mentoring – These mentorship programs create opportunities for younger leaders to mentor senior leaders in areas like technology or digital fluency.

Leadership Communities

There is no overstating the value of peer-to-peer learning and collaboration within dedicated communities. Consider providing opportunities for leadership development in any (or all) of the following realms:

• Internal communities of practice – This can include fostering online or in-person communities, where leaders can share their own experiences with best practices while collaborating on challenges and learning from one another.
• Professional organizations – Inviting leaders to participate in organizations like UPCEA offers unique opportunities for dedicated leadership development. Consider, too, exploring UPCEA’s Uplift mentorship program to help leaders gain valuable insights and feedback while growing their professional networks and learning new skills.
• Online forums and groups – Don’t overlook the value and potential of online platforms and industry-specific forums for discussion and knowledge sharing among leadership professionals. In addition to LinkedIn groups, UPCEA’s CORe discussion groups are an excellent resource here.
• Conferences and events – Empowering leaders to attend relevant events and conferences is a great way to encourage networking, learning, and exposure to new ideas. Check out UPCEA’s Events page to stay on top of the latest industry conferences, seminars, webinars, and more.

Continuous Learning

One of the most important things to remember when developing organizational leaders is that these professionals should be in a perpetual mindset of growth and learning. By cultivating an environment that encourages ongoing learning for leaders to stay ahead of the curve, educational facilities can set themselves up for success.

Some possible ways to encourage and support continuous learning within your leadership teams include:

• Encouragement and incentives – Create a culture that encourages ongoing learning by offering such benefits as tuition reimbursement, time off for professional development, and/or recognition programs.
• Curated learning resources – Provide a list of curated articles, podcasts, books, and other helpful resources that are relevant to leadership development. Make sure these resources are readily available to team members at all times and regularly updated with the latest information.
• Internal knowledge-sharing platforms – Establish a platform where leaders can reliably share resources, presentations, and best practices with colleagues directly.
• Subscription services – Offer access to subscription services with a variety of learning content on key leadership development topics. Take your time researching possible subscription services and platforms to determine which would offer the best resources to your leaders.

Continue Your Leadership Journey

In today’s dynamic world of higher education, strong organizational leadership can very well be the difference between an institution’s success and failure. The most promising leaders are those who adapt to changing times and embrace a mindset of continuous learning from others.

Institutions and individual leaders alike should be taking necessary growth and development steps to invest in the next generation of organizational leadership. Through blended learning, leadership communities, continuous learning, and mentorship and coaching, leaders can build upon their skill sets and encourage mutual growth while working toward the institution’s long-term goals and objectives. From there, solid leadership promises to shape the future of online, continuing, and professional education in incredible ways.

Looking for more support as you continue your journey to educational leadership within your organization? UPCEA offers a wide range of professional development courses to help you take the next steps with confidence. These programs are crafted to offer high-value content for learners at all professional levels and have been designed by some of the most highly respected leaders in the field.

Learn more about UPCEA’s professional development programs or any of the other resources we have to offer by getting in touch with our knowledgeable team today. You can also become a member or begin your course registration at your convenience. 

 

Sources

https://upcea.edu/professional-development-certificates/ 

https://upcea.edu/membership/become-a-member/

https://elevate.upcea.edu/ 

https://upcea.edu/uplift-mentorship/

https://core.upcea.edu/home

https://upcea.edu/events/

https://core.upcea.edu/home