Leadership on Deck Institute (LDI)

Leadership on Deck Institute (LDI) This academic year-long administrative training is limited to 10 participants, who will commit to exploring opportunities for administrative advancement and to being included on a roster of faculty who have been vetted for key administrative roles, e.g., associate chairs/chairs, assistant/associate deans/deans, academic program leaders, and assistant/associate/vice provosts.

The opportunity is designed to allow faculty who have not served in an administrative role to reflect on their strengths and shortcomings relative to an administrative career; to introduce them to various leadership roles; to cultivate core leadership skills; to develop and capitalize on a commitment to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; to provide an opportunity to demonstrate preparation by completing a self-led leadership project; and to complete a Leadership Statement and final assessment. Training will begin with a personality inventory. The program will include opportunities for mentoring and networking.

Participants must be at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor. They will be selected through an application and recommendation process.

The LDI class will meet one Friday per month in September, October, November, January, February, March, and April. The April meeting will feature presentations, an assessment, and a celebration. Each session will focus on a specific topic, offer a guest lecture by an experienced administrator, present an engaged/active learning opportunities, and allow abundant interaction among participants. By holding the LDI annually, participating faculty will grow the ranks of faculty prepared to accept leadership positions, either as an interim or on a permanent basis.

2022-2023 LDI Working Schedule

Session Topics Activities/ Readings
September
  • Reflection of personal leadershipstrengths and limitations
  • Exploration of personal identity development (cultural and professional)
  • Exploration of leadership styles
  • Effective mentorship: How to get one and how to be one.
  • Strengths Finder Activities and Discussions
  • Implicit Bias Test
  • Identity development models
  • Role plays
October
  • History of MTSU and organizational structure
  • Foundational and historical implications related to the future of MTSU
  • Quest for 2025- how leadership impacts the vision
  • Panel discussion
  • Forrest Hall
  • TBR
November
  • Understanding Title IX and Campus Accountability
  • Social Justice, ethics, morals and laws in higher education
  • Understanding the implications of worldview and racism (societally and institutionally)
  • How to Be an Antiracist (Kendi)
  • Reading reflections
  • Discussions
  • Role plays
January
  • Conducting crucial conversations and effective communication
  • Trauma informed and culturally centered communication and problem-solving skills.
  • Navigating disagreements and challenging individuals
  • Dissolving relationships and involving third parties
  • Motivational Interviewing techniques (stages of change)·
  • I/O Psych (personality traits)
  • Dale Carnegie Course (with thanks to Dean Urban)
February
  • Chaos, complexity and leadership
  • Promoting and practicing trauma informed and culturally centered self-care
  • Strategic planning and goals
  • Translating MTSU’s vision and goals to departmental strategic plan
  • Wellness Wheel
  • Group scenarios
  • SMART Goals
  • I/O Psych
March
  • Fundraising basics
  • Budget processes at MTSU
  • Implications of public funding cuts
  • Institutional funding sources
  • Decolonizing funding in higher education
  
April
  • Focus group evaluation
  • Presentation of final projects
  • Ceremony
  

Additional potential topics:

  • Impacts of social media
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Evaluation and tracking
  • Gender and leadership
  • Transformation, leadership and change
  • Enneagram/personality traits?
  • Board meeting attendance

Sample Leadership on Deck Session

Conducting Crucial Conversations

Session Topics

  • Conducting crucial conversations (CC) and communicating clearly 
  • Motivating unit members through crucial conversations 
  • Dealing with disagreement and difficult individuals 
  • Dissolving the relationship and involving third parties 

Before the session

  • Read 
  • Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, Kerry Patterson, et al.
  • “Taking the stress out of stressful conversations” HBRJuly-August 2001, pp. 113-119 
  • TBA
  • Write
  • Guided reading reflection

Session Activities

1:00-1:30  Discussion of readings
1:30-2:00 Interview with experts from Office of University Counsel, Disability and Access Center, Human Resources
2:00-2:30 Conducting difficult conversations. Multiple roles plays in small groups.
2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-3:30 What do you do when promises for new behavior fall through?  How to adjust/dissolve a relationship through termination or other methods
3:30-4:00 Summary, takeaways, and actions steps


Session Learning Outcomes

Following the session participants will be able to do the following:

  • Describe barriers affecting effective interpersonal communication 
  • Describe strategies for enhancing interpersonal communication in the workplace 
  • Use crucial conversations principles to motivate others
  • Create a strategy to dissolve a relationship