Being a head of an academic school or department or head of a professional service in a university is a tough job. Academic heads have to respond and interpret the demands of the complex and changing external environment, their Deans along with other senior university leaders, whilst balancing these with the needs of their Schools, their staff and the wider university. They usually have leadership responsibility for academic quality and standards, the student experience, learning and teaching, research and external income generation along with staff management demands. Heads of professional services also have a challenging range of responsibilities including staff leadership and are, increasingly, being asked to make efficiencies and to anticipate and interpret needs beyond their own services, implementing changes internally in response to the increasingly complex external environment.
How can Entrepreneurial Heads help you?
Entrepreneurial Heads is a new programme, developed by NCEE, and aims to support Heads of Schools and Services to respond personally to the external challenges their organisations are facing. Introducing the concept of entrepreneurial leadership and change management processes, this programme promotes the development of entrepreneurial thinking, along with an entrepreneurial mind-set and behaviours that can be embedded into schools, departments, services and the wider university. The Entrepreneurial Heads programme also encourages participants to work across academic and service areas to enhance and promote interdisciplinarity and innovation. This new programme draws on the expertise and experience of those who have been involved in the highly successful NCEE Entrepreneurial Leaders programme which has run for the last decade.
The first two study days of the programme will take place Wednesday/ Thursday 12th/13th June 2019, with a final study day on Tuesday 10th September 2019. The venue will be in central London.
So what is entrepreneurial leadership?
Entrepreneurial leadership is an approach to leadership that embraces the need for passion, vision, focus and the ability to inspire others, along with the mindset and abilities to develop new ideas, explore new opportunities, face challenges and crises and influence others to foster innovation and change. Entrepreneurial leaders are able to solve problems creatively and use resources effectively and are, therefore, more likely to be better able to deal with challenges and crises thrown up in the current turbulent higher education environment. Being an entrepreneurial leader requires you to think creatively, seek new opportunities proactively and to be agile, brave and courageous enough to make decisions about risks swiftly to secure benefits for the wider department, service or university.
How will you benefit from Entrepreneurial Heads
• You will gain an increased understanding of the concepts and theories of entrepreneurial leadership and change management from a range of senior staff who have expertise and experience of working at senior levels in the higher education sector.
• You will acquire knowledge, skills and practical tools to promote new ways of working and implement change in your schools, department or service.
• Opportunities will be created for you to learn from, and network with, like-minded individuals who are facing similar challenges.
• You will gain a clearer understanding of the changes and challenges impacting on the sector and how you can start to apply an entrepreneurial mindset in your day-to-day work in order to deal with them.
• Entrepreneurial Heads will assist your leadership development and facilitate career progression. You may be interested to progress onto the NCEE Entrepreneurial Leaders programme in order to learn more.
For further information and how to apply please visit the NCEE website at www.ncee.org.uk/leadership or contact me, the Programme Director at lesley.dobree@ncee.org.uk. or at lesley@dialogueforsuccess.com
We would love to welcome you on the programme.
