The Dean's List #38

What tips would you offer to a new manager? Hard skills? Soft skills?

One soft skill, I would say, is delegating. Being able to delegate, knowing when you can hand it off. Sometimes you have to follow it all the way through yourself, but you also have to think about how other people can help you with that. I think it's kind of a reflective process. So when I'm in it, I'm like, ‘Wow, I am really in the details right now.’ And I'm really good at details, so that's kind of a comfortable spot for me. But when I recognize that this task is just taking too much time, then that's time for me to step back and remember the context. It’s a balance between doing the whole thing by myself and just handing it right off. That doesn't necessarily work either. I’m trying to learn that balance. I would like to start thinking about it as project management, but instead of me managing the project, I'm bringing other people in to manage it.

We spend so much time just managing things. What does leadership look like to you?

To me, leadership looks like always keeping the big reason in mind. All the small management is about intentionally reaching a goal. The purpose of every bit of management is to close equity gaps. So, you know, how are our various units functioning? Are they equity advancing? Are we keeping the data in mind? Even things like communication or how we’re serving employees, right? Are we doing it in a way that honors each person? Or are we doing it in a more myopic way where we're not really working human to human? The way we act, how we spend money, what projects we choose … if I have that ultimate goal of serving students equitably, then that's what leadership is. If I lose that, then it's just managing.

Where do you find the most joy in your job?

I find the most joy in interacting with people in ways that support them in bringing out their best. When I'm working with someone who's passionate about something, if I can recognize that and build on that passion, feed that passion, that brings me a lot of joy. Someone who doesn't have contact with students in the work that they do is still an expert at something, right? And they're here working at our college because they want to. So if I can find the thing that makes them tick and recognize it, see it, support it, amplify it, give them space to use it, that brings me joy. And with faculty, if their passion is their students succeeding, then anything I can do to support that and see that rev up within them, then that brings me joy. I'll just say I am someone who can commonly get in a state of wonder, and that's what it was with me and students. Students would just keep me in a state of wonder —just point after point, it was just kind of a little explosion in me, and it's the same way for me with colleagues.

What are the positive and negative impacts of the job on your personal or inner life?

The negative is that It can be consuming. This seems minor, but when I'm sitting with my child and they’re telling me something, but I haven't heard any of it because I’m thinking about work. That’s how it can be consuming and kind of consume who you are being in your personal relationships. That is something that I am aware of and am working on and watching out for. Because you can stop it, you know? I can just tell myself, ‘Turn off, now's not the time. This is the line,’ and then it's OK. But that doesn't always happen. I don't know if it's a negative or something that I just want to stay aware of and figure out, but I think about how the position is changing me and what I want to foster. And then, on the positive side, it's growth. I am learning new topics, subjects, areas of expertise, as well as new ways of working. I find that really exciting. That's what I wanted. I wanted to keep growing in the field of higher education and leadership, and that's exactly what I'm getting.

What does work/life balance look like to you?

This is a little more recent, but there's a time at night – and it's not very late – where I just do not work anymore. And what that leads to is being able to have time with family and sleep. If I don't turn it off early enough, then I'm not going to sleep. Sleep also always equals balance to me. So that and, and then, I try to be conscious about how I want to spend the mornings. So sometimes I actually spend them working – sometimes I work super early, and other times I want to make sure I carve out that exercise time. I'll work all the way through the day, obviously, but ideally that is spotted with some conversation, meeting up with and talking to people along the way. On the weekend there are a lot of other things that need to take my time, so I can't spend all weekend doing work. I try to plan my weekends in a complimentary way to work and sometimes doing a little bit of work will just make the rest of the week easier and sometimes cutting it off will make it easier.

Something to think about:

“Inclusion benefits both individual performance and team effectiveness. Exclusion is usually subtle, but damaging.”

--from 3 Small Ways to be a More Inclusive Colleague, by Juliet Bourke