Capacity Building for Shared Equity Leadership: Approaches and Considerations for the Work

This report, the fifth in the On Shared Equity Leadership series, explores ways to build capacity for the work of shared equity leadership (SEL) in higher education. SEL is a leadership approach that scales diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work and creates culture change by connecting individual and organizational transformation. Capacity-building efforts help leaders develop a repertoire of knowledge, skills, and dispositions to collectively lead equity-minded change efforts on campus. To create environments where SEL can thrive, campuses need to build capacity for both shared leadership and DEI. This distinction is important because shared leadership capacity building involves working and leading collaboratively, whereas capacity building for DEI is more focused on the knowledge, skills, and critical consciousness necessary to make progress toward DEI-related goals. Additionally, capacity for SEL must be built at multiple levels—the personal or individual level, the collective or team level, and the organizational level. The report identifies distinct strategies for building capacity at each level and indicates whether they can build capacity for shared leadership, DEI, or both.

Categories: Equity and Leadership, Leadership