Business Management Institute - Track 2
Earn up to 19.5 CPE Credits

Course Description

Strengths hold the power to unlock one’s potential and facilitate personal and professional growth. Through recognizing and understanding how unique talents create power and edge, individuals can leverage these talents as strengths to consistently and productively build strength in themselves and others. By building upon the first-year curriculum of discovering individual strengths, participants will learn about balconies and basements, further explore the four domains of strengths, and continue enhancing their ability to recognize, leverage, and celebrate their talents and the talents of others. Join us to learn how to leverage your talents as strengths.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Review of terminology and concepts from Year One.
• Enhance understanding of how to utilize individual talents and productively apply them to build strengths in ourselves and others.
• Learn how to further apply themes to showcase your best self.
• Gain further understanding of the domains of strengths and how to leverage those domains.
• Uncover unique ways to use strengths to positively contribute to your team(s).

Course Description

In the higher education workplace, the conventional structures used to organize how people work together often stifle inclusion and engagement. Is it possible to engage employees and help transform our campuses by implementing simple, easy-to-learn processes? During this course, you will explore a contagious phenomenon spreading throughout higher education called Liberating Structures. You will learn the extent of its reach, as well as some of the results that colleges and universities are seeing from applying these tools and approaches. Helena Rodrigues and Thomas McDonald, both of the University of Arizona, will present and guide you through utilizing the tools, and will share their experiences (and cautions) with Liberating Structures.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Identify problems quickly, from a solutions-based mindset
• Generate numerous ideas to solve seemingly intractable problems
• Engage all voices in a more inclusive manner
• Facilitate meetings that yield better results

Course Description

Becoming an effective leader is a challenging proposition for many of us as we seek to enhance our own skill sets while motivating our employees to perform at high levels. Using principles derived from Situational Leadership (directing, selling, coaching, and delegating) as well as the Leadership Challenge (modeling, inspiring, challenging, enabling, and encouraging), leaders and potential leaders will gain an understanding on how to identify and evaluate their employees’ abilities and willingness to perform the task at hand. This knowledge will provide the foundation for adjusting your leadership style – situationally – to increase employee productivity. These principles also will provide a framework for developing an overall work environment that combines the art and science of leadership that encourages engagement, accountability, and high performance for all team members. 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Identify the 4 quadrants of situational leadership.
• Evaluate the development level (competence and commitment) of employees in order to determine an appropriate supervisory style.
• Understand factors that are important in effective decision-making and how they can be applied situationally.
• Recognize how to apply the 5 leadership practices (modeling, inspiring, challenging, enabling, and encouraging) that can positively impact the performance of employees.

Course Description

The most effective business officers in higher education are those who approach people and projects with positivity and a sense of curiosity. Innovative organizations have leaders who serve as a “coach”— someone who enables a culture where ongoing, coaching conversations about performance and professional development are a common practice throughout the year. In this interactive session, you will explore how to get to the heart of meaningful matters in moments through the art of asking powerful, open-ended questions. You will gain useful tools and techniques to increase your effectiveness in creating coaching conversations that employees want, and that inspire their best work, whether in-person or in a remote setting.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Review International Coach Federation (ICF) Core Competencies
• Compare and contrast coaching, advising, counseling, mentoring and training
• Practice using “powerful questions” to create coaching conversations people want
• Write responses to self-reflection questions that lead to an action plan for creating coaching conversations at work

Course Description

The most successful managers create a culture of openness and accountability, set clear expectations, and have the courage to have hard conversations. During this session, we will work through the performance issues that challenge managers most and discuss the power of candor to create high-performance work groups.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Establish professional expectations for your work team
• Understand the performance issues that challenge managers most
• Apply a 4-step process for delivering difficult feedback
• Differentiate between appreciation, coaching, and evaluation
• Conduct meaningful performance conversations

Course Description

In this course you will gain an understanding of the different types of audits that are typically done at our campuses. You will learn how to prepare for and survive audits of your college, department, or unit. There are risks in all aspects of the campus environment. Internal controls are the business practices, policies and procedures that help to minimize risk. This session will provide you with an understanding of risk and internal controls and how they impact our work on campus. By attending this course you will be able to identify business risks within your department, learn about the importance of internal controls in all of our campus jobs, be prepared for potential audits of your department, and learn the red flags of fraud.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Differentiate between the types of audits that may occur on your campus
• Learn about risks in the university environment
• Gain an understanding the purpose and importance of internal controls
• Recognize the red flags of fraud

Course Description

Do you have the communication skills to be heard, the gravitas to gain respect and an appearance that garners positive professional interest?  What does that look like, sound like and feel like on screen?  Let’s talk about how you can maximize your on-screen meetings and build relationships in a virtual world.  You know that executive presence will get you noticed and sponsored. This fast-paced session will share information on the how, what, and why of being visible, sponsored, and promoted in person and on screen. Both being a leader and being perceived by others as a leader will be critical to your success. Virtual meetings have their advantages.  Let’s break them down and improve our impact.  We will take a look at our communication, gravitas, and appearance so we can identify and embody the executive presence (in person & on screen) required to make our own choices and control our destiny.    

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Understand what makes up executive presence, how to develop it and project it
• Know how to actively listen and connect with others
• Recognize the impact of non-verbal behavior
• Know how to project professional presence and confidence

Course Description

What makes a leader stand out among their peers?  Decades of research would suggest the ability to demonstrate emotional intelligence (EI).  This course will provide an overview of key EI concepts with a focus on their application to communication.  Through interactive activities you will learn simple, emotionally intelligent communication strategies to practice in your next conversation!

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Identify the four domains of Emotional Intelligence (EI).
• Explore how each domain impacts communication.
• Practice identifying emotions in others.
• Practice using emotionally intelligent phrasing. 
• Identify emotionally intelligent communication strategies for immediate application. 

Course Description

Risk Management in higher education is always evolving as new risks come on to the horizon and begin to impact our organizations. As new risks arise, and known risks are better understood, best practices for managing those risks are continuously fine‐tuned by experience. This session will dive into some detail about some of the more challenging risk issues impacting colleges and universities today. Institutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting every organization, and there are multiple safety and risk issues involved in those responses.  Other hot topic risks include ransomware and cyber security, fraud prevention, international travel, and protecting minors.   Attendees will be encouraged to bring forward risk topics from their own experiences at their institution through an open forum for discussion.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Develop an understanding of some of the more complex risk issues in higher education, and the strategies for managing those risks.
• Review and understand the unique risk factors raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, and how institutions are changing for the future. 
• Review risk exposures posed by ransomware and lapses in cyber security.
• Understand the risks faced during international travel by faculty and students.
• Review the risk exposure associated with programs serving minors, and best practices for risk mitigation and youth protection.

Course Description

Every organization experiences two basic types of problems: people problems and institutional problems. Administrators and supervisors are faced with an ever-increasing abundance of adversity, miscommunication, change, low morale and diminishing resources. Professionals must be good problem solvers. Albert Einstein said, “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.” The best problem solvers have patience, step back to see the big picture, and consider everyone’s opinion before determining the best strategy to implement. Problems and conflicts must be dealt with in a timely manner to prevent problems from escalating throughout the organization.

This course will equip higher education professionals with the skills to identify, analyze and develop strategies for implementation to resolve problems and conflicts.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Strategically prioritize problems
• Gather pertinent facts
• Avoid the landmines
• Obtain objective input
• Employ the 5 steps of the problem-solving process

Course Description

The session on strategic planning and implementation in today’s environment will cover the components of strategic planning, variations on how it is done, illustrate examples, discuss tools for implementation and engage in group discussion and exercises.  Participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with planning, at the unit, organizational and institutional levels.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Understand the concepts of strategic planning in today’s environment
• Understand the leader’s role in strategic planning
• Learn variations on planning
• Learn tools that can be used for implementation and tracking

Joyce Lopes, Vice President Business & Financial Affairs, Western Washington University

Course Description

The strategic plan articulates an institution’s top priorities. However, university budgets tend to be incremental and allocated according to the organizational chart rather than by university priority.  This results in a tendency to maintain status quo operations rather than provide opportunities for investment in strategic priorities.  When building a budget, identifying institutional assets should be central to the process.  Fiscal decisions should align with the institution’s mission and long-term goals, investing first in strategic priorities through a transparent, intentional process.  Such a method of allocating resources helps guarantee the long-term capacity and health of the institution. This course will explore the ways to align budget with strategic priorities in a meaningful and on-going way.  Participants are encouraged to print their institutions strategic plan/priorities (electronically or printed) to refer to throughout the session.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Align our budget with our strategic priorities to improve student learning and success
• Invest in our institutional assets to ensure we are using resources efficiently and effectively
• Implement evidence-based budgeting linked to assessment, as required by WASC

Course Description

As supervisors, we often encounter individuals we find to be very difficult to communicate with due to their abrasiveness, unwillingness to listen, or negative attitudes.  Or sometimes we find ourselves in positions where we have to communicate negative information to people, such as a substandard performance evaluation or a disciplinary document.  Learn tips for improving your essential communication skills; learn how to identify the “filters” that interfere with effective communication; and most importantly, learn how to best use communication as a tool to influence changes in difficult people.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Build participant confidence by providing concrete steps and suggestions for identifying issues and motives, and engaging in face-to-face communication with difficult people
• Empower participants to control situations with difficult people with tact and skill by providing steps and considerations for preparing for and engaging in face-to-face communications with challenging individuals, including steps for the setting, use of key communication skills such as listening, summarizing for understanding, communications filters and body language.
• Tips and techniques for influencing positive changes in difficult people as well as suggestions for follow-up and prevention/minimization of future communication problems.

Course Description

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way higher education leaders view and report on key performance indicators (KPIs). While most finance professionals still embrace a less-is-more approach to monitoring KPIs, institutions often have a thirst for more information—if measuring three KPIs helps operations, wouldn’t measuring 10 be even better? Not necessarily.

The course will explore how focusing on a smaller set of KPIs can help your institution deliver value and stay agile in a constantly changing business environment. We’ll cover key topics, including:

• Strategies for measuring the right metrics
• Steps to implement a KPI-driven budgeting process
• KPIs that can improve institutional value

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Describe the importance of measuring the right things
• Describe the key performance metrics that can drive improved value in your organization
• Identify ways to implement a KPIs-driven budgeting process

Course Description

Change and challenge are the watch words in higher education. This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities higher education professionals are facing during turbulent times. Leaders are being challenged on every front to expand services and educational offerings within a diminishing resource pool. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric, stated, “Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Essential leadership attributes for challenging times must include trust, a growth mindset, broad-based participation and effective communication.

Higher Education professionals must make informed decisions based on the mission, vision and goals of the organization.  Integrated strategic planning, budgeting and assessment are excellent assets to have in the administrator’s toolbox.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop participants will:

• Think and plan strategically
• Understand the importance of leadership and influence
• Keep the 3 forces of character in balance
• Lead from a growth vs. fixed mindset
• Communicate change effectively
• Develop and employ a “Personal/Professional Planning Matrix” to achieve your maximum potential