At a recent panel of senior higher education leaders, a respected leader said every senior leader should have a coach. I could not agree more. Coaching is a powerful way to build capacity, gain clarity, and take more effective action.
But individual coaching is only the beginning.
When we do leadership development in higher education, it often focuses on individual leaders. Senior leaders do not lead alone; they lead together. And a group of individually developed leaders is not the same as a developed leadership team. Ron Friedman’s article in Harvard Business Review on high-performing teams illustrates how critical continuous improvement is for the team itself as a unit of development, not just the sum of its parts.
When a leadership team develops together, the benefits are not just additive. They are exponential.
Shared language becomes a shortcut to accountability, encouragement, and humor. When a team shares language, they can remind each other of what matters, name what is happening in real time, and navigate disagreement from common ground.
Shared experiences build trust that cannot be manufactured through silly icebreakers or cheesy activities. Developing together creates the kind of bonds that hold a team steady when things get hard.
Shared content does not stay in the room. When a whole team learns together, the ideas show up in meetings, in decisions, and in how challenges get named and navigated. The learning becomes a living part of how the team actually operates.
Shared context gives the team a reference point to return to when culture drifts or pressure mounts. It keeps the team’s values and commitments intentional rather than accidental.
This is exactly why Evolve works with intact leadership teams, not just individual leaders. If you are ready to invest in your team as a unit of development, I would be glad to talk.
