Academic Impressions Membership
Carnegie Mellon University provides all faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows and students with a full institutional membership to Academic Impressions. This resource offers higher-education-specific training to help you lead with confidence, foster collaboration and navigate your academic career.
Academic Impressions utilizes a leadership development framework designed to support faculty at every stage of their career. The curriculum is designed to help faculty build mastery across four critical levels:
- Personal - leading self, self-awareness, understanding strengths, blind spots, values and personal definitions of leadership
- Interpersonal - leading others, effective communication and collaboration, resolving conflict, negotiation
- Teams - leading groups and teams, creating psychological safety, building effective teams, and
- Systems - leading divisions and the institution, managing change, shaping culture, setting strategy and addressing inequities
Featured Tool: The Five Paths to Leadership®
The Five Paths to Leadership® Model underpins all Academic Impression’s leadership work. It enhances self-awareness and personal effectiveness and has been successfully applied in settings ranging from new faculty orientation to leadership development programs.
Complete a 15-minute diagnostic assessment that examines five forms of intelligence (Intellectual, Emotional, Intuitive, Action and Reflective) to identify your leadership style and potential blind spots. After receiving your results via email, register for a live or pre-recorded debrief session to understand your results more in depth.
The assessment sheds light on your strengths and potential blind spots and helps you build greater balance across the five forms of intelligence, strengthening your overall effectiveness as a leader.
Free Training and Resources
- On-Demand & Live Training: Faculty can participate in certificate programs, short courses, webinars, and other live and pre-recorded programs on a variety of topics at no cost. Examples include:
- Career Navigation: Mid-career planning, navigating the "Now What?" phase and advocating for yourself.
- Academic Skills: Preparing for difficult conversations, clarifying mentoring roles and strategies for completing an academic book.
- Leadership Growth: Transitioning into leadership roles and leading change from your current position.
- Well-Being: Setting empathetic boundaries and purpose-driven series.
- Articles and Reports: Access a library of blog articles and research reports on current trends in higher education.
Paid Workshops and Coaching
Note: These opportunities require an additional cost beyond the institutional membership.
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Interactive Workshops: Deep-dive sessions on topics like Essential Skills for Department Chairs, Managing Difficult Faculty and the Institute for Women Leaders.
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Leadership Coaching: Personalized, one-on-one coaching to help navigate complex challenges or career transitions.