UTO Emerging Leaders Cohort Develops Up and Coming Leadership

The UTO Emerging Leaders program, dedicated to providing leadership training and professional development for new and rising leaders in the University Technology Office, has expanded its program offerings this year to better prepare its participants for leadership roles.

The 2018 cohort consists of 26 participants and 10 mentors. The expansion added the development of a leadership “compass” for each participant, use of digital portfolios to keep track of growth during the program., and a Slack channel for participants to easily communicate and collaborate with each other.   In addition, participants and mentors took the Energize2Lead profile assessment from Academy Leadership. As in previous years, workshops, readings, and assessments will make up the educational process of the program. They cover accountability, project management, dealing with difficult people and conflict, customer service, and staff coaching/mentoring. Workshop additions for this year include appreciative inquiry and Lean Six Sigma.

The program has been presented at several national higher education events, including two EDUCAUSE Connect conferences and SIGUCCS.  It has drawn significant interest from other departments within ASU as well as other higher education institutions. A connection was made at the 2017 SIGUCCS conference with Virginia Tech who is in the process of developing a similar program, which has led to collaboration with the coordinator of the Virginia Tech program.

The program originally began in 2015 when the Customer Services & Support area reorganization promoted several team members into management roles and leadership training was needed to help guide and ensure their success.   The proposed program was presented at a UTO AVP meeting and the CIO and other AVPs recognized the value of such a program, asking that it be opened up to all UTO teams. The program fulfilled a need for both succession planning and large-scale, cohort-based leadership training for rising technical starts across the department.

January 2016 saw the first implementation of the program with 26 participants in the first cohort. Ten mentors also participated in the program, providing 1:1 guidance to the participants. In 2017, minor adjustments to the curriculum were made and, as mentioned, a substantial expansion to the program was implemented in 2018.

Going forward, the UTO Emerging Leaders program has organized an alumni association, which operates a Slack channel for alumni to stay in touch. Social events are also coming soon!

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