Overview
As a manager and people leader at Georgia Tech, you are charged with leading your administrative unit or project – determining strategy, allocating resources, implementing tactics, and inspiring team members – while aligning to the vision of the Institute. 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.
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 people and change, and are more inclusive and engaging. They also 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 practicing and 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 cultivating Self-Awareness, Social Intelligence, and Courage. Although the experience is self-guided, we recommend completing the content for these three curriculum topic areas from February to May 2021 in order to receive your certificate of completion with the fourth cohort.
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 SCARF Model™ and receive a decision guide tool [required]
- One Stories We Live Wisdom Lab and one subsequent Story Writing Lab [required]
- 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? What are your existing scripts and beliefs?
- 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 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? “What is your call to courage?”
- Day 1: 6-hour Dare-to-Lead Workshop – Rumbling with Vulnerability and the Power of Authenticity [required]
- Day 2: 6-hour Dare-to-Lead Workshop – Braving Trust and Rising Strong™ [required]
- Complete an 800-1200 word Leadership or Diversity Story [required]
- One two-hour Leadership Legacies Dialogue to create your personal transformation plan as a compassionate, connected, and co-creative leader [required]
- One two-hour Creating a “Calling In Culture” Wisdom Lab [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 one 90-minute group coaching session. The equivalent of 18-20 hours of learning and practice. All participants are expected to attend the opening and closing ceremonies in 2021. The closing ceremony, an Inclusive Leaders Roundtable, offered for all qualifying participants to engage in a community dialogue, celebrate transformations, and be recognized among other campus leaders and 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 with unavoidable conflicts. Any of these activities will suffice as a substitute for participating in one 2-credit wisdom lab or one 2-credit group coaching session. A written reflection summarizing your insights and how they are applicable to the core curriculum topics is required to receive credit.
Approved alternate activity/event, see below for current options:
- Safe Space Training
- Trans 101 Training
- Social Justice Training
- When Women Lead: Insights and Experiences
- Brown Eyes Blue Eyes: Linking Perception to Performance
- Selected ERG events
Who Should Participate
The Inclusive Leaders Academy is open to managers, administrators, and academic professionals at Georgia Tech. Eligibility to apply is based on holding a supervisory role in a campus unit; leading an enterprise project; successfully 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 fifth cohort of the Inclusive Leaders Academy during winter/spring semester 2021. All culture champions from prior cohorts are welcome to take courses to refresh their knowledge on aspects of inclusive leadership.
