Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Taking on a leadership role Taking on a management/leadership role, even at the department level is a big deal. You might be really excited about the possibilities and have all kinds of plans for how you can make things better (for some value of “better”). But you also know […]
Read More »leadership
What is “administration” anyway?
I find the use of “administration” and “administrators” in academic circles increasingly problematic. In particular, there is a lack of precision in the use of the term. The term “administration” seems to be applied to everything from clerical work to running the institution. It has become a catch-all category for any work done in the […]
Read More »Proactive professional development
Under no circumstances should you wait around for someone to notice what a good fit you would be for a particular role/position/committee and sponsor you out of the goodness of their heart.
The people with the power and influence to do that are very busy. They aren’t spending a lot of time looking around for hidden gems. Prepare your case and go to them.
Read More »Actively managing your career
The problems identified around leadership/management seem to be twofold: there are good people who are not moving into those roles/positions there are people in those roles/positions who are not doing the kind of job we’d like them to be The piece from the HBR blog and the parody of it highlight one contributor to this […]
Read More »Are negative images preventing good people from applying?
This post is not based on research. This is me thinking aloud about some of the issues I brought up in recent posts on management and leadership. I invite you to think aloud with me in the comments. Research is important. People are doing research (maybe not exactly in our sector but there is research […]
Read More »What is required for management/leadership
Continuing with the difficult thoughts. Someone I follow on Twitter said this: “is it possible to “manage” well something you don’t fundamentally understand or know how to do yourself? I doubt it.” I’m not attributing it because it’s not about them. This is a really common sentiment. I’ll pair it with a statement a colleague […]
Read More »Leadership and management: some questions
To make a start on those difficult questions… Here are a couple of things that have inspired me, irritated me, sparked difficult thoughts lately. Various conversations about women and leadership: The Status of Women: Gender and the Ivory Ceiling of Service Work in the Academy on the FedCan blog. This parody of a post about […]
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