Build the Leadership Capacity for What's Next
Coaching and workshops designed specifically for higher education, helping academic leaders build the clarity, confidence, and capacity to lead through complexity and create lasting institutional impact.
Academic leadership is unlike leadership in most organizations. Leaders are expected to navigate shared governance, balance competing stakeholder priorities, build consensus, and make decisions in environments where influence often matters more than authority. Coaching provides a confidential space to think strategically, strengthen leadership capabilities, and approach complex challenges with greater clarity and confidence. Customized workshops and development opportunities deepen the impact.
What we do
Jump Start Coaching
A short, focused one-to-one coaching experience designed for leaders who need clarity and confidence quickly. Through five confidential sessions with an expert coach, Jump Start helps newly appointed academic leaders build on their strengths, establish priorities, develop productive leadership habits, and navigate the early months of a new role with greater self-awareness and direction.
Transformational Coaching
For senior faculty and academic leaders ready to invest in their long-term development. Over six to twelve months, we help leaders clarify their leadership vision, strengthen critical capabilities including communication, trust-building, and emotional intelligence, and develop the habits that enable sustained leadership growth. Our approach draws on research in adult development and Gallup's work on high-performing leaders while remaining grounded in the realities of academic life.
Senior Team Workshops
Designed for senior leadership teams seeking stronger alignment during periods of change, growth, or organizational transition. These facilitated sessions help leaders surface difficult issues, strengthen trust, improve decision-making, and move forward with shared clarity and commitment. Every engagement is customized to your institution's context and the challenges your team is facing.
Cohort Leadership & Coaching Programs
A strategic investment in your next generation of academic leaders. Multi-year cohort programs develop high-potential faculty leaders through sustained engagement, peer learning, and real-time application to the challenges they're facing today. The result is a stronger leadership pipeline, healthier culture, and greater institutional continuity through change.
The ALG difference
Many coaching firms help leaders become more effective. We help academic leaders become more effective within the unique realities of higher education.
We combine proven leadership frameworks with decades of experience in higher education, adapting them to the realities of academic institutions long before they reach the coaching conversation. Our clients don't spend valuable time translating business concepts or explaining how universities work. We begin with a shared understanding of their context and focus on the leadership challenges that matter most.
We also see coaching as part of a larger system. Individual leadership growth creates the greatest impact when it strengthens teams, advances institutional priorities, and helps organizations navigate change. The result is coaching that is practical, deeply contextual, and immediately applicable, giving leaders greater clarity, stronger judgment, and the confidence to act in the moments that matter most.
"I am a better chair now because I have learned to prioritize, to share workload, to communicate better, to develop buy-in, and to be an assertive leader but also a genuine one."
-Department Head, Research University
Meet some of our ALG coaches in this interactive video
How we work
very engagement is built around the leader and the institution they serve. We begin by understanding your context, goals, and leadership challenges, then design a coaching experience that reflects your role, your culture, and the outcomes that matter most. Rather than following a standard coaching process, we combine evidence-based leadership practices with deep expertise in higher education to create an experience that is practical, relevant, and immediately applicable.
Our methods include:
Strengths-based assessment – CliftonStrengths and other validated instruments that build on what's already working while deepening self-awareness.
Goal-setting and leadership vision – Clarify priorities, define what success looks like, and create a practical roadmap for growth.
Confidential coaching sessions – Regular one-to-one conversations with an experienced academic coach matched to your role, goals, and institutional context.
Interview-based 360 feedback – Structured conversations with colleagues, supervisors, and direct reports that surface blind spots and accelerate growth.
Facilitated team and cohort experiences – Virtual or in-person sessions that strengthen trust, create shared language, and increase collective effectiveness.
Progress check-ins – Periodic conversations with sponsors or stakeholders, when appropriate, to keep coaching aligned with evolving institutional priorities.
Practical tools and frameworks – Proven resources adapted specifically for higher education and designed to be applied immediately.
Engagements range from five-session Jump Start intensives to multi-year cohort programs, depending on your goals and the level of investment you're making in your leaders.
What success looks like
Coaching should create lasting change, not just new insights. After an ALG engagement, leaders leave with greater clarity, stronger relationships, and practical approaches they continue to use long after coaching concludes.
Leaders and institutions typically experience:
Greater clarity about priorities, role, and leadership approach, especially during critical transitions.
More confident decision-making and communication, even in high-stakes or ambiguous situations.
Stronger team dynamics, healthier cultures, and more effective collaboration.
Practical tools and decision-making frameworks that leaders continue using long after coaching ends.
Reduced overload and burnout through better delegation, clearer boundaries, and more intentional leadership.
A stronger pipeline of academic leaders prepared to carry institutional priorities forward through change.
Client examples
Jump Start Coaching for New Department Chairs
New department chairs often describe their first year as one of the steepest learning curves in academic leadership. An Ivy League university partnered with ALG to accelerate that transition through Jump Start Coaching, helping chairs strengthen communication, establish priorities, and build confidence quickly. Now in its fourth year and expanded to a second university, the program has supported dozens of department chairs who consistently report greater confidence, clearer priorities, and stronger relationships with colleagues and faculty.
Leadership Development for Future Leaders of Science
As research teams become larger and more interdisciplinary, scientific leaders face increasing organizational complexity. A leading research institute partnered with ALG to develop a six-month coaching and leadership development program for lab leaders and mentors. Combining one-to-one coaching, workshops, and mentor-supported goal alignment, the program produced stronger communication, greater confidence in addressing team challenges, and more collaborative research environments. Participants continue applying the tools and practices years after completing the program.
Multi-Year Faculty Leadership Coaching
One university recognized that faculty often stepped into leadership roles before they had the opportunity to develop the skills those positions required. ALG designed a customized, strengths-based coaching program focused on coaching skills, managing competing priorities, and building authentic leadership presence. Now in its sixth year, participants report greater role clarity, increased confidence leading others, and sustained momentum toward both their research and leadership goals.
Ready to learn more?
Every coaching engagement begins with a conversation — to understand your goals, explore what you're navigating, and determine whether ALG is the right partner for this moment.
A discovery call is a no-obligation opportunity to talk with our team, ask questions, and get a clear sense of what coaching with ALG looks like in practice.