Executive Coaching in Higher Education

“Executive leadership coaching can be transformational in higher education — but only if we understand the environment we’re stepping into. If you coach primarily in industry and are interested in exploring work with colleges and universities (or if you already have a campus client and want to increase your effectiveness), join me on June 17, 2026, for a 90-minute, CEU-eligible session on Coaching in Higher Education. You’ll leave with a deeper appreciation of the campus ecosystem, stronger contracting questions, and practical strategies for helping clients create meaningful and sustainable change in one of the most complex organizational environments.

In the pre-work video, I take you on a journey into what lies beyond the façade of most campuses: deeply embedded silos and a surprisingly strict pecking order shaped by role, degree, rank, discipline, and other status markers. I also introduce the “faculty leadership trap,” where talented scholars are promoted into leadership without first being developed to lead people and systems. Add to this persistent organizational misconceptions that create dynamics that often collide with resource-scarcity narratives, misaligned stakeholder agendas, and the reality that coaching is still frequently perceived as a punitive intervention rather than a benefit and an investment.

Our live workshop is built for application. We’ll quickly move into interactive discussions to help surface and translate the video’s key ideas into coaching implications — especially around identity, positionality, and why “quick-fix” or overly directive approaches can backfire — and work through scenarios and institutional obstacles you anticipate encountering before getting practical about engagement realities: how a client’s position shapes the work, and what to consider around landing the engagement, working with possible sponsors, and payment modalities. We’ll close with open discussion and key learnings, so you leave with clear next steps.

What you’ll take away:

• A practical orientation to silos, influence, governance, and status dynamics on campus
• A coaching lens for positional leadership and the faculty leadership trap
•  Contracting questions that clarify success criteria, stakeholders, decision rights, and hidden expectations
• Strategies to build trust when coaching is perceived as an intervention for employees in trouble
• A clear distinction between coaching and consulting in the higher education context, and how to position coaching as a high-value investment
• A “frontline expertise” lens to help leaders tap the people who often hold the institution’s real operational knowledge”

Dr. Tim Jansa breaks down what you need to know to work effectively inside academic institutions, from navigating internal vs. external coaching roles to asking the right questions from day one.
Join us Wednesday, June 17 | 1pm ET ➡️ Register Now: Executive Coaching in Higher Education