Hello Leader.
The new year is a time for setting goals and building habits, like improving health and fitness. But what about your strategic fitness? Defined by Rich Horwath in his Harvard Business Review article, The Most Strategic Leaders Excel in 4 Disciplines, strategic fitness is a leader’s ability to learn from and adapt to their environment in order to set direction and create competitive advantage. Read on to build your strategic fitness and flex your leadership muscles!
ELA-Higher Ed: Accepting Nominations for 2025-26
The Executive Leadership Academy (ELA)-Higher Education is a rigorous and immersive individualized seven-month program for accomplished mid- to senior-level staff and faculty. This award-winning program offers a comprehensive experience designed to enhance core leadership attributes essential for effective, adaptive, and creative leadership in today's ever-evolving higher education and research environments. If you would like to nominate yourself or another leader for ELA-HE, please send the name, email, and position title of the person you are nominating to oe-leader@uiowa.edu before April 4th, and a member of our team will contact you/them with information on how to apply.
Emerging Staff & Faculty Leaders: Summer program
This summer, elevate your leadership journey with UI LEAD (Leadership, Education, Assessment, and Development) – a comprehensive program for emerging staff and faculty leaders. Engage in collaborative cohort roundtables, personalized behavioral assessments to sharpen your leadership skills, and individual leadership coaching. It is ideal for emerging leaders preparing for increased responsibilities. Nominations are currently being accepted through March 3. If interested, contact your HR Senior Leader or oe-leader@uiowa.edu for more information.
Save the date: LeadingBetter™ Summit
We will be offering a special discount code for the 2025 LeadingBetter™ Summit in the March newsletter. Speakers will include Daniel Roth, LinkedIn VP & Editor-in-Chief. This year’s summit is Wed. April 9, 2025 | 8:30am - 5:00pm ET. We received lots of positive feedback on last year’s event and are happy to share an opportunity for you to receive a reduced registration rate for the virtual event.
Career opportunity: Assistant Director, Organizational and Leadership Development
Organizational Effectiveness is looking for a leader to play a pivotal role in overseeing and providing professional human resource services and programs related to Leadership Development and Organizational Development to faculty administrators, directors, managers, supervisors, HR professionals and other University employees. Interested in developing and implementing leadership development programming, coordinating leadership coaching and providing organizational development consulting services? Learn more and apply: http://phxc3c.rfer.us/UIOWAC_DONA
COACH'S CORNER
Evaluating Your Strategic Fitness
Many of us spend the majority of our time and focus on just getting our work done, but we neglect the skills which primed us for success in the first place. Without devoting some time to practice and keep growing on these strengths, we can weaken the very skills that led us to do well in the first place.
In The Most Strategic Leaders Excel in 4 Disciplines, Rich Horwath, author and CEO of the Strategic Thinking Institute, surveyed C-suite leaders and found 4 disciplines critical to strategic fitness – being able to competently adapt to and thrive in the workplace.
- Strategic fitness: following a clear strategic direction, but being able to change course when needed;
- Leadership fitness: self-awareness and being able to adapt to what’s needed;
- Organizational fitness: awareness of future trends and changes to be able to move proactively when necessary;
- Communication fitness: you don’t have to do it alone – collaboration brings in strengths you may lack, or which can bolster your own
New interactions, ideas, and greater competence are yours for the taking.
Find the complete article here.