”This network is for colleagues who want to explore their leadership identity, sharpen their academic direction and profile, strengthen their visibility, and who may experience challenges related to representation or belonging in academic leadership spaces,” says Sanne Frandsen, Associate Professor at the Department of Business Administration, LUSEM, who is the organiser and facilitator of the network.
A key focus is addressing the internalised barriers and norms that many academics from underrepresented groups experience in academia – such as self-doubt, fear of failure, or feeling isolated. While these challenges show up at the individual level, they are rooted in broader academic norms, power structures, expectations and should not be seen as personal shortcomings.
By working collectively through group coaching and mastermind formats, the network can support participants in recognising and challenging these dynamics, reclaim their power, and create space for developing more authentic and sustainable leadership practices.
The network aims not only to create a supportive peer community but also to strengthen participants’ readiness to assume leadership roles, increase the visibility of diverse leadership practices within LUSEM, and generate insights that can inform the school’s broader strategy on leadership and equity – along with increased collegiality across departments.
Target groups: Professors, associate professors, senior lecturers, assistant professors (BUL), and permanently employed researchers, who are interested in, or already hold, leadership responsibilities.
To be eligible to participate the person must be employed at least 50 percent of full time and have a permanent position, or at least two years of continuous employment at the faculty.
Academic leadership at LUSEM is understood along two dimensions:
- Strategic and administrative leadership – such as serving as Dean, Deputy/Vice Dean, Head of Department, Deputy Head of Department, Program Director, Director of Studies, or Director of Research and Director of third cycle studies.
- Research leadership – such as acting as professor, center director, principal investigator for large-scale programmes, leader of research teams, supervisor of doctoral students, or mentor for early-career colleagues.
Format: Monthly meetings during the spring 2026 semester (lunch + three hours), with rotating themes, group coaching, peer discussions, and shared readings/reflections. Those who join commit to participating in all or the majority of meetings.
Duration: 6 meetings during the spring semester 2026.
Schedule: All meeting are held from 12:00-16:00 on the following dates.
- 29 January
- 26 February
- 26 March
- 23 April
- 21 May
- 11 June
Sign up below. The deadline is 15 January.
After the spring: The network can serve as a testing ground for future ideas on leadership training. Insights from the network can be fed back into LUSEM’s management workshops and reports on gender diversity progress. An evaluation of participants’ outputs and experiences will determine whether the network should continue.
Facilitators: Sanne Frandsen is an Associate Professor of Organization and Management at LUSEM. Alongside her academic work, she has extensive experience coaching academics - both individually and in groups. As a researcher, she works on topics such as identity work, meaningful work, resilience, burnout, crises, and organisational change.