Torch has a pool of coaches with academic experience who understand the challenges facing university academic and non-academic staff. We match your people with coaches who can relate to their roles and help them lead.
Shape your university’s programResults from our work with an Ivy League university
93% of impact-survey respondents reported moderate or greater change from coaching.
Explore the resultsSupporting leaders in higher education.
A respected researcher becomes a department leader. A professional-services team takes on a wider remit. A clinical leader needs to make space to lead.
Higher education coaching connects personal development to that real work. It helps people lead across disciplines, navigate difficult conversations and build effective teams without losing sight of the institution’s purpose.
Academic and non-academic staff face different demands within the same institution. Drawing on our pool of coaches with academic experience, Torch matches for the participant’s role, working relationships and development goals.
Lead through relationships, not only reporting lines.
Develop people as well as your own discipline.
Work on the behaviours colleagues experience.
For your university, Torch starts with a 360 and builds coaching around what it reveals. Each leader works with a coach to understand the feedback, act on it and bring new habits into university life.
An initial 360 brings together the participant’s perspective and feedback from the people they work with.
Agree the leadership behaviours, feedback group and confidentiality boundaries before the assessment begins.
Select from Torch’s pool of coaches with academic experience to match the participant’s role and leadership challenges.
For academic and non-academic staff, consider the school or function, working relationships, coaching style and the participant’s goals.
Turn the 360 findings into a focused development plan, then work through live leadership situations with the coach.
A difficult faculty conversation. A new department remit. A team that needs clarity. The work between sessions makes the learning useful.
Review progress against the starting goals and agree how colleague feedback will show what is changing.
Build repeat feedback, surveys and program reporting into the measurement plan, without exposing private coaching conversations.
Coaching reached the university’s School of Medicine, Central University and University Health, alongside a leadership development track. Three-, four- and six-month engagements addressed distinct challenges, from leading faculty and clinical teams to managing people and making strategic choices across the institution.
Leading through a new role or wider remit.
Participants explored mindset and managing up while working through leadership transitions, competing priorities and broader responsibilities.
They described using feedback more deliberately, sharing development goals with supervisors and helping team members take ownership.
Leading colleagues and trainees in academic medicine.
Faculty and clinical leaders brought difficult conversations, emotional responses and trust with colleagues into coaching.
Comments describe listening more patiently to trainees, finding better ways to communicate with managers and rethinking workloads that felt unsustainable.
Making room for strategic work in the central university track.
The central six-month track focused on new ways of thinking, listening, managing up and making better use of feedback.
Participants described protecting time to think, asking where they could contribute most and approaching difficult decisions more intentionally.
Putting leadership habits into practice.
The three-month track included mindset, difficult conversations and emotional responses, alongside managing up and motivating teams.
Early comments describe more actionable leadership habits and greater confidence in communication. The overview includes no impact-survey results for this track.
Participant-reported outcomes at an Ivy League university.
The change measure comes from participant surveys. It is separate from the initial 360 proposed for your university above.
Impact survey · 29 respondents
Four-item experience measure · 29 respondents
Recommendation survey · 45 respondents
Source: customer coaching program review. The 93% figure is a self-reported degree of change, not a measured 93% improvement. The coach experience score is the average of a four-item measure. The recommendation score is an average on a 10-point scale, not a percentage or NPS. Respondent groups differ by question.
These historical results do not establish 360-assessed change. The 360-led journey above describes the program proposed for a university working with Torch. Program tracks and individual comments are not evidence of identical results across every faculty, school or participant.
The School of Medicine and central university survey samples were small. The University Health track had no impact-survey responses. Those tracks are described through coaching themes and participant comments here.
of respondents in the university’s four-month leadership development track reported large or very large progress.
Leadership development track
16 of 23 impact-survey respondents
Reflections from four coaching tracks at an Ivy League university. Anonymous participant comments, including early feedback from the University Health track.
Leading through transition
“Coaching has been invaluable as I started a new role with a new team. It has been a safe place for me to be myself and voice my concerns, fears and doubts during this transition period.”
Understanding your impact
“I’ve gained deeper self-awareness, especially around how I show up as a leader, how my communication is received, and how to use feedback as a tool for growth.”
Helping others take ownership
“Leadership is less about having all the answers and more about staying present, asking better questions, and helping others take ownership.”
Listening across perspectives
“Be mindful of the different perspectives of myself and others. Be patient with my trainees. Spend more time hearing their voices.”
Making space for strategic work
“My coach has helped me ask myself questions about what I can bring, and where I can be most effective, at my level and with my abilities. That pause before just going in and doing is key.”
Turning insight into action
“My coach has helped me think about behaviours that can support my leadership growth, which is a more tangible and actionable approach than what I had before coaching.”
Our coaches can relate to the pressures of university life, from leading academic peers to managing professional-services teams. We select from this pool to fit each participant’s context, so academic and non-academic staff get support relevant to the challenges they actually face.
Explore coaching at TorchRelevant experience from Torch’s university-focused coach pool.
Academic or non-academic responsibilities, team dynamics and institutional context.
What the 360 reveals, and what the participant wants to change.
Coaching style, constructive challenge and personal chemistry.
Start with the priorities of your university, not a list of coaching licences.
It is coaching designed around the leadership work of a university: leading faculty and professional staff, influencing across departments, developing teams and navigating change. Torch pairs participants with coaches selected for relevant university experience, using a development plan shaped by their role and initial feedback.
Yes. The university can set a shared purpose while tailoring coach matching, goals and program length to faculty, clinical leaders, professional staff and central university functions. Our work with an Ivy League university included its School of Medicine, Central University and University Health, alongside a leadership development track.
Participant and colleague feedback establish a starting point. The participant and coach use the findings to choose development priorities, then bring real situations into coaching. The program brief should agree which behaviours to assess, who provides feedback and when progress is reviewed.
Torch has a pool of coaches with academic experience who can relate to the challenges of university academic and non-academic staff. We match for the participant’s role, institutional context, development goals and preferred coaching style, not simply a job title.
Agree the evidence before launch: participation and engagement, progress against coaching goals, participant experience and changes colleagues observe through follow-up feedback or a repeat 360. These are different measures and should be reported separately. The Ivy League university results on this page are participant-reported, not verified 360 improvements or financial ROI.
The program should fit the leadership challenge and the university’s calendar. Our work with an Ivy League university included three-, four- and six-month tracks. Torch can help define the appropriate duration and review points rather than applying one fixed timetable to every cohort.
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