SLP Level 2: Leadership Agility Series
Level 2 of the Strategic Leadership Program kicks off on November 16 with Context Setting, the first workshop in the 2010–2011 Leadership Agility Series. Unlike SLP Level 1, which provides foundational knowledge and skills for new or newly promoted UW supervisors, SLP Level 2 will present new leadership concepts and timely strategies for UW managers, directors, and other executives.
“As the lead facilitator for SLP Level 1, I am continually reminded of the importance of providing supervisors with tools, skills, and resources to more effectively manage themselves, their staff, and their units at UW,” POD Manager Ujima Donalson explains. “But as an experienced leader and as the head of POD, I also fully understand the need for development opportunities that can help me take myself and my organization to the next level. That's what I believe SLP Level 2 can provide.”
For the current academic year, SLP Level 2 will focus on leadership agility through a series of half-day workshops based on the work of Bill Joiner and Stephen Josephs, authors of Leadership Agility: Five Levels of Mastery for Anticipating and Initiating Change. Leadership agility was chosen as the series focus after POD's Renée Hanson attended a conference session co-facilitated by Bill Joiner last fall.
“A year after discovering Leadership Agility, I am still engrossed with it and still learning from it,” states Hanson, who manages POD's University Consulting Alliance. “The material is so rich and so timely, I'm confident it will open up new avenues for many UW leaders.”
The concept of leadership agility resonated with many at POD, and agility as a key business practice struck a chord with POD's manager. “Although we might not have articulated it as part of our business strategy as such, being agile is integral to our operations and our long-term success at POD,” states Donalson. “We need to plan, we need to be strategic, but we also must be fluid. We must be responsive—to trends, shifting demands, participants' input, leaders' needs, changes in the University's culture—in order to stay relevant.”
Hanson will facilitate all four workshops in the Leadership Agility Series: Context Setting, Stakeholders, Creativity, and Self. One workshop will be offered each quarter, starting with Context Setting this fall on November 16. “I think many leaders understand the need for agility and many are quite adept at it,” states Hanson. “Still, I find it empowering that, as leaders, we can develop our capacity and our organization's capacity for greater agility and, in turn, develop our potential for greater success.”
Although interrelated, all workshops in the Leadership Agility Series can stand alone and participation in the entire series is not required. To learn more about the Leadership Agility Series, visit POD's SLP Level 2 webpage.
