How do you keep track of what you have to do?
I would say that is mostly a whiteboard. When I'm my regular office, I keep short-term projects and long-term projects up there. Long-term projects, I break down into pieces, because it feels really good to erase something. One of the things about the job is that you're never done in this job. So it feels really good for me to go, “Done.” Like yesterday, when I sent out my last pre-review meeting email, it felt really good to say, “Done”.
How do you make sure nothing falls through the cracks?
Pray? [I’ve been short staffed] so it is just constantly going back and looking at my email. I do keep a daily list— sometimes it's just making sure you're responding to stuff. I feel like I've been pretty lucky with staff, whether it was here or other places I’ve worked. I have great chairs who keep me on my toes and, so far anyway, the chairs have been very forgiving.
How do you plan for and manage the day, the week and the semester?
That's really where Outlook comes in. The night before, I always look at what's coming up the next day. I mean, honestly, I'm trying to plan when I’m going to work out. When do I need to get the [kids to school and activities]? You know, those kinds of things. And stuff comes up with my husband, too. So there's always the negotiation of the calendar every night. The week? I have very few standing meetings right now other than Thursdays, when I've got the deans meeting and then my staff meeting is on Mondays and the chair meetings vary from semester to semester. I don't know if I said this before, but I meet with the chairs one-on-one, twice a month and then we have one monthly chairs meeting. But to me, those are a relief, because I get to really talk to the chairs about what's going on.
I feel like I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule right now. I don't have a lot of night stuff because the reviews that we're doing are online — which, honestly, has just been a gift because when I used to have to stay until 9:30 to do reviews, it just killed me. It's just really hard to do, physically. I think from a semester standpoint, I send out the Outlook invites to everybody early so that we can try and get those set. I like structure, and knowing what the plan is, because once you've got it in, it's always easier to edit than it is to create.
What tips you would offer to a new manager? Hard skills? Soft skills?
Hard skills is time management. When I have seen faculty come into the dean role, every one of them struggles with the schedule because they're used to, “I teach classes at this time and then I can do the grading or the prep whenever I want to.” So they've got to have some time management. And start reading the contract when you get a chance.
And then, what is it that you don't know about that division? One of the things Frank does that I like is that, during the summer, he takes a deep dive into something. That makes sense. You take a deep dive into the budget, you take a deep dive into programs. I've actually started saying that to my staff: “I am reading these books over the summer.” One of the ones I read was Grading for Equity. It's not like I'm grading, but it's definitely a conversation I'm going to be having multiple times. I need to have some of that research behind me because I have been removed from the classroom for a long time. I have to show them that I'm serious about it when we're talking about these things. The other hard skill is that you've got to intentionally take care of yourself and that's going to look different for everybody, but you've got to figure out what that is for you. You've got to take care of yourself and the other relationships that feed you, because there's a whole lot that is not going to feed you on campus.
And then the soft skills — I think trying to maintain relationships with faculty who you don't know, even if you don’t want to maintain a relationship with them, is important because at some point they're going to need you, or you're going to need them. Even if you butt heads or you don't like them, you're just going to have to figure that out. And the same thing with your staff, because you don't always get to choose your staff.
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Something to think about:
“The challenge of performing while transforming has become the leadership test of our time.”
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The Rabbit Hole (resources, content, etc. that are relevant to the job):
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