Josh Charles shared five lessons that can help you “level up” to the next step in your leadership journey during the 2024 HighEdWeb Annual Conference.
1. Build partnerships across campus
He shared key ways you can build partnerships across campus:
- Take control of your story. Meet with internal stakeholders, articulate what your team does, connect your work to strategic goals, highlight your impact.
- Personalize your communication. Relate your team’s work to who you’re speaking with. Let them know how it affects their day-to-day.
Allies make a difference for big and small projects, and they can help smooth the way forward in significant ways!
He also shared ideas on how to engage using subject-specific town halls, joining department meetings (to listen and inform), and seeking ways to collaborate across departments.
2. Get to know your leadership
Getting to know your leadership extends beyond the leaders you directly report to. To start, get to know what’s important to those leaders:
- Learn what they’re responsible for
- Learn how they measure success and communicate
- Map your team’s work to their priorities
Possible outreach methods include meeting them where they are already (e.g. join existing leadership meetings), scheduling periodic 1-on-1s, or simply asking how they prefer to communicate.
3. Focus on the big picture
Don’t get stuck in the weeds! Instead, stay high-level. In short, “focus more on the what and why, and less on the how.” This approach applies to giving feedback to team members and managing managers.
Check yourself by asking: “If you’re in the weeds of your team’s work, who is doing the leadership work only you can do?”
4. Be your team’s biggest advocate
Being an advocate means following through on your words and actions, listening to team member concerns and carrying them up the org chart. You can extend this to investing in your team’s professional growth.
None of this will matter if you don’t promote psychological safety. Think “higher morale = happier team members = more motivated team!”
5. Invest in your own development, too
Don’t forget to invest in your own development too! That might mean stepping outside your comfort zone. Try sharing your expertise through presentations at events, joining panel discussions, exploring podcasts, writing blog posts, completing certifications, or volunteering. We really do learn by teaching!
Networking is another way to invest in your own development. Expanding your network can help you find connections that benefit you now and in the future. Josh Charles suggested that one way to consider how to approach your development is to look at job postings for roles you wish to hold, then reviewing the requirements and build your experience in those areas.
There were many golden nuggets in this presentation for all levels of leadership experience!
About the author
Julie Duersch has a master’s degree in management information systems from the Utah State University Huntsman School of Business and serves as the director, CMG (chief meeting goer) and official extravert for the USU IT Web CMS Team. When not enjoying the human interaction from her many meeting opportunities, she likes to learn about “how things work” by reading, Googling and talking to the many smart people that are part of her “web” of connections!
Session recordings + professional development library
HighEdWeb conference attendees have access all online track session recordings for four weeks after the event. Access the session replays by logging in to the Event Hub through Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
HighEdWeb paid membership provides unlimited on-demand access to the conference recordings. The Professional Development Library includes recordings from this event and other HighEdWeb conferences.
Link Journal has covered the HighEdWeb Annual Conference since 2011. Read more articles from the 2024 conference. Explore our archives for articles about previous conference sessions.