Longhorn Leadership Symposia (LLS)

picture of employees collaborating around a table smiling.

Objective

Cater to the unique needs and abilities of leaders of people at The University of Texas by creating a collegial community for learning, sharing, and supporting one another.

Rationale

Managers are a historically overlooked population when it comes to providing resources for development and professional support. They also experience an outsized amount of pressure to perform when success is most critical for the University. The Faculty & Staff Experience Survey results indicate that managers have concerns about how effectively UT is managed, how UT cares for employees, and the barriers to effectively do their work. LLS is an effort to support people in these critical positions by creating a community that serves one another in a collective effort to continuously improve service. Because of their outsize role at UT, targeting support to this population will have an equally outsized impact.

Concept

picture of 4 people sitting around a table talking

LLS provides a place where leaders of people at UT gather to discuss meaningful topics and share knowledge. We foster a community of peers. From highly experienced to leaders to new leaders with a fresh perspective, engage in productive conversations with a focus on supporting one another and continuously learning how to better serve the community. The term “Leaders of People” was chosen to highlight the expectation and appreciation that this population serves as leaders in our community, and they are stewards of other people throughout the UT community.

Format

Leaders gather monthly in small groups that we call Pods. Each Pod will join a virtual gathering hosted by a Hub. The Hub will launch discussion on a new engaging topic. Through this format, we are able to keep conversations intimate and expansive at the same time. Sessions will include subject matter experts as guest speakers, high-impact workshops, and facilitated discussions on timely subjects. Central to each event, will be collective discourse. Events are meant to start or continue a conversation unbounded by time or place.

To express interest in participating in the Longhorn Leadership Symposia please email UTLD.