Georgia Institute of Technology Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA

Overview

 As a manager at Georgia Tech, you are often charged with leading your administrative unit – determining strategy, allocating resources, implementing tactics, and inspiring team members – while aligning to the vision of senior leadership. In this balancing act of priorities, it can be hard to find the time or know where to look for leadership development and professional growth. This proactive leadership development initiative was created with you in mind. Complete 18-24 hours of learning over 13 weeks this spring to receive a Culture Champion Certificate.

Research shows that employees with greater self-awareness and social intelligence are frequently more successful ("Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership," Harvard Business Review). For this reason, Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement is offering the Inclusive Leaders Academy, a professional leadership and legacy development program for managers at Tech. More self-aware managers collaborate better with others, are more effective in leading change, can be more inclusive and engaging, and proactively seek to develop others.

The goal of the Inclusive Leaders Academy is two-fold:

• To support managers' career development by creating opportunities to learn and grow.
• To build a leadership community who will transform the culture at the Institute through modeling inclusive excellence.

Key Learning Benefits and Curriculum Topic Areas

The key learning benefits of the Inclusive Leaders Academy – and corresponding curriculum topic areas – include Self-Awareness, Social Intelligence, and Courage. Although it is self-guided, we recommend completing the content for these three curriculum topic areas from February to May 2019 in order to receive your certificate of completion this spring.

• Social Intelligence: How do you engage and influence others?
  • Three 30-minute, self-guided learning modules on inclusion to explore how to Find Common Ground, Lift People Up, and Help Create Clarity[required]
  • One 60-minute, live webinar to summarize the Include™ and receive a decision guide [required]
  • One Stories We Live Dialogue and one subsequent Writing Lab [required]
  • One two-hour Resilience Wisdom Lab to practice the Rising Strong Process™ of writing a brave new ending to a story of struggle or change based on the research of Brené Brown, Ph.D. [optional]
  • One two-hour Leading Bravely through the Art of Empathy Wisdom Lab to hone your ability to avoid engaging in emotionally abusive behaviors, increase connection, actively listen, and attune to the needs of others [optional]
  • One 90-minute Micromessages and Unconscious Bias Coaching Session to generate insights on how small things we do exert a positive or negative impact on others [optional]
• Self-Awareness: Who are you? How do you identify?
  • Three 30-minute, self-guided learning modules to explore unconscious bias and the SEEDS Model™ (Similarity Biases, Expedience Biases, Experience Biases, Distance Biases, and Safety Biases) [required]
  • One 60-minute, live webinar to summarize the SEEDS Model™ and receive a decision guide [required]
  • One two-hour Unconscious Bias Wisdom Lab to take a deeper dive into the scripts that drive implicit biases [optional]
  • One two-hour Identity Cores Wisdom Lab to explore the multiplicity of "self" through experiences, natural traits, and preferences and the degree to which you bring your whole self to work [optional]
  • One 90-minute Emotional Intelligence Coaching Session to identify personal triggers and saboteurs to avoid self-sabotage and strengthen calm, creativity, and emotional intelligence [optional]
• Courage: Who do you want to be as a leader?​
  • One two-hour Leadership Legacies Dialogue to create your personal transformation plan as a compassionate, connected, and co-creative leader [required]
  • One Written 800-1200 word Leadership or Diversity Story [required]
  • One Mitigating Unconscious Bias Through Self-Acceptance, Bias-Resilience™ & Story Group Coaching [optional]

To complete the program and receive a certificate, participants must finish the required online core curriculum, plus a minimum of two wisdom labs and at least one 90-minute group coaching session. All participants are expected to attend the opening and closing ceremonies in 2019. The closing ceremony, an Inclusive Leaders Roundtable, will be offered for all qualifying participants to engage in a community dialogue, celebrate transformations, and be recognized with other managers.

Additional Options for Completing Curriculum Requirements

The following activities are sponsored, co-sponsored, and approved by the Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement team to provide some flexibility to participants. Any of these activities will suffice as a substitute for participating in one wisdom lab or one group coaching session:

• One Written 800-1200 word Leadership or Personal Story [optional]
• Approved alternate activity/event, see below for options: 
  • Annual Diversity Symposium, Fall 2018
  • Annual Storycrawl, Winter 2018
  • Fierce Generations workshop
  • Welcoming Diversity in the Workplace: Prejudice Reduction Workshop

Who Should Participate

The Inclusive Leaders Academy is open to managers at Georgia Tech. Eligibility to apply is based on holding a supervisory role in a campus unit; successfully or partially completing a qualifying existing campus leadership development program; and/or serving in a leadership role in an Employee Resource Group, Diversity Council, Staff Council, or other approved campus network. Staff Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement will invite approximately 100 managers to the third cohort of the Inclusive Leaders Academy during spring semester 2019. Individuals who began the curriculum in 2018 will also have the option to complete the program in 2019.

Self-Nomination Form

Colleague Nomination Form