Synergy Circles for Academic Leaders
Beginning January 2027
A space to say
what you can’t say on campus.
What if you had a room without anyone who reports to you, works for you, sits on your committees, or knows anybody who does?
YOU
Five seats · four other universities
You just became the boss…Or the bigger boss.
Maybe you came in from outside, and you’ve inherited a team that has to get behind a vision they had no say in choosing.
Or you were promoted from inside, and the people you’re responsible for now are the same ones you used to vent to. It’s one of the hardest relationship shifts there is, and nobody hands you a method for it.
Either way, you’ve found yourself in a predicament: there’s nowhere you can talk about the real problems you’re facing, and talking about the “safe version” doesn’t help you solve it.
That’s what Synergy Circles are for: five people doing a similar job at five different institutions. No shared budget. No history with you. No reason to repeat anything, and nobody to repeat it to.
Who’s in the room
I place each person after a complimentary hour getting to know you and what you’re dealing with.
Nobody shares a circle with someone from their own campus, and I match by role, so everyone in your circle shares the same pressures.
Circles form around whoever comes forward.
Deans
New, interim, or newly permanent, you hold more power than anyone in your college, but “managing up” has taken on a whole new meaning.
Department & School Heads
You run a unit inside a college, and half your faculty have their own ideas about who should be in charge and how things should be run. Plus, you know, tenure.
Service Unit Directors
You serve the academic mission from the outside, so your purview is staff more than faculty. For leaders in research administration, graduate education, student affairs, or communications.
Research Development
Your field is young, most of campus can’t explain what you do, and nobody has built the leadership pipeline for you yet. Odds are you were promoted from inside the team you now run.
How the circle works
Six sessions, one hour each
Format
Cadence
Every two weeks across three months
Size
Five people, all at different institutions
Where
Zoom
Every session has a topic, and the questions go out a few days ahead so you turn up having already thought about it. Every session also holds time for whatever you actually walked in carrying.
Register by November 15 and receive a bonus individual coaching session.
Prefer working one-on-one?
That works too. Let’s chat.
Who everyone is, and what gets said in here
Sample session topics
01
Building credibility
02
Holding people accountable
03
The conversations you have been putting off
04
Leading versus managing
05
The impact you are having that you did not intend
06
Each circle sets its own topics based on what the members need.
two hours that are just yours
An hour focused on your CliftonStrengths. What you’re built to do, where that’s an advantage in this job, and where it’s working against you.
Center Ring
An hour to examine what changed in three months - what you handle differently, what’s still stuck, and where you’re headed next.
Curtain Call
Run by a Ringmaster
I’ve been coaching leaders in academia individually and in groups since 2016, at every level of leadership, from administrative assistants to Deans and VPs. I’ve got a master’s in leadership and organizational development, but more importantly, I used to run a circus.
The tightrope acts, the divas, the drama, the constant financial pressure to do things better AND cheaper all translate eerily well.
Plenty of group programs are essentially a facilitator with a list of questions. This is more than that.
I’m part facilitator, part coach, and part consultant, depending on what the moment calls for. My ego doesn’t need me to have the right answer all the time, but when I do have the right answer, I’m going to share it.
Academia needs this format more than any other industry, and the reason is simple: politics. You can’t air your biggest problems in any room on your campus, because there are too many live wires you need to work around.
What matters most to me is that you leave each meeting with something actually actionable.
Want to see how it works?
What people say about the circle experience
“The meetings are structured really well - Hanna provides questions on the upcoming topic so you have time to pull your thoughts together and show up ready to dive into these important issues, and I always looked forward to the next meeting.”
Emily
“It was really a great experience to learn about other leaders that were mid-career like I was. After about a semester is when I made the decision to explore further what the options were for more coaching.”
Kirsten
“Knowing the group is curated, that we’re here for a purpose instead of randomly coming together, makes a huge difference. There’s no wasted time or posturing or virtue signaling.”
Arden
“She has the unique ability to marry individuals with complimentary interests and experiences and then facilitate growth minded discussions with them.”
Julie
What it costs
$2,400
Six circle sessions, your Center Ring hour and your Curtain Call.
Register by November 15 and pay in full, and your Center ring hour and a bonus coaching hour happen before the circle begins in January.
If I cannot place you in a circle, you get priority placement in the next one, credit toward individual coaching, or your money back. Once a circle begins there are no refunds.
Start with an hour
Every new client gets an hour with me before anything else happens, and it is free. We spend it on whatever is hardest right now. By the end we will both know whether the answer is a circle, individual coaching, or neither - I am not going to sell you something you don’t need.
It is also how I place people, so there’s no separate application to fill in.