dean
reading The Unwritten Rules of Managing Up by Dana Brownlee
One of my colleagues / friends / mentors / confidants recommended this book to me. Steve Lem is serving as Interim Associate Dean during my first year as Dean in a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Steve and I don’t just do our work; we also have meta conversations about leadership strategies, interpersonal dynamics, and how we can help our entire university to work more effectively in the ways we approach our own roles and help our office to function better. So when he talked about this book, I put it on my list of things to check out.
Steve said some of the terms in the book might seem a little cutesy, but the ideas are solid. I’m a fan of not taking ourselves too seriously, so I’m cool with the cutesy.
Today is a snow day and I decided to use the morning to go through my inbox (which occasionally is a hydra with multiplying heads; I used “schedule send” so almost everything I’m sending this morning will go out at 4:00pm so I won’t get more emails back while I’m in the midst of cleaning that inbox out….thank you to whoever taught me that trick….).
I’ll be using the afternoon to work on my own research. I’m in a heavy-work period right now so I will do either research or drafting a promotion letter this evening. Don’t worry. I’ll also take breaks, do a workout, goof off. It’s Friday, after all, and a snow day. I will find ways to play!
In the midst of all that, as I have a food break (pancakes with strawberries! yum!), I opened the digital version of Brownlee’s book. It looks like it will be helpful for me to think about my own leadership style, and I think my end goals are to be a) thoughtful about ways I might want to adjust my style and b) more explicit about my style with others. I think identifying my leadership style more clearly, in practical ways, may be especially helpful for my chairs and for my immediate dean’s office team.
I won’t finish the book right now. But I’ll chip away over time.
***
Take away 1–the book has advice to offer me not just as a leader but also as a subordinate
My immediate boss is the provost, and I’m lucky because she’s a strong and effective leader. The book offers advice for working well with strong leaders, and it all seems smart. The original is way better than my paraphrases, but I’m not going to extensively quote, so check out the actual book if you want better quality.
- build trust relationships
- be easy, not a pain
- do super good work in whatever role you occupy
- figure out how your boss likes to communicate and adapt to that
- be honest and brave when talking to your boss, but do so in the right time and place and using appropriate rhetoric
- anticipate and prevent problems
- do stuff to lessen the boss’s workload…and take on jobs that no one else wants or is willing to do
Take away 2–framing and communication are everything
Any kind of “us vs. them” framework in the workplace leads to poorer relations and less effectiveness. I say that regularly in my current leadership role. I get frustrated when colleagues approach challenges as if we are playing a game of Risk, building empires and toppling opponents. I’m more of a fan of identifying a challenge and seeing ourselves as partners on addressing the challenge. That doesn’t mean we will agree or see things in exactly the same way, but it does mean we will listen to one another and do the best we can to move forward in smart ways, even if not everyone’s needs/wants are 100% met.
Brownlee also writes about how easily unspoken expectations can result in problems. If we want certain behaviors, we need to make expectations explicit, not hope people can figure them out on their own. I think I am usually good about this one, but I sometimes assume others are on the same page or assume that I understand others’ expectations. Occasional miscommunications might be unavoidable, but I think the idea is to minimize these unnecessary conflicts as much as we can.
Take away 3–the “difficult boss” behaviors I am most prone to
Okay, I’m going to start off by actually identifying the “difficult boss” behaviors that I am not likely to exhibit. It’s so easy to be hard on ourselves, to see all our areas for growth without noticing the things we excel at.
I am not: overly temperamental; sneaky; a proponent of busy work; resistant to change; self-absorbed; competitive with others (except when I play board games!); chaos-inducing; negative or pessimistic; full of unreasonable expectations of others; a shit-stirrer; incompetent; a micro manager; or disempowering.
Guess what? I went down the whole list and decided I don’t fit any of the “difficult boss” types! Hahahaha. But now I’m gonna give all of us a dose of reality.
I do have areas for growth I am super aware of, and I think they fit in Brownlee’s “difficult” categories in ways that might not always be obvious:
- I sometimes overwork.
I do this behavior less than in the past, but “overwork” can also mean that I’m doing others’ work for them, not delegating enough, not communicating enough with others about what needs to be done, not organizing responsibilities among my team members in a clear and explicit way, and so forth. I don’t completely suck, but this one is an ongoing area of growth, for sure. - I am still learning how things work at my university.
I don’t think I’m “incompetent” at all, but I am regularly aware of policies, procedures, past practices, and so on that I don’t know as well as I would like. I also am constantly learning more about the thirteen departments and thirty+ major programs my college, and I don’t know all the faculty and staff in my college, which makes me sad, but I don’t know how to correct that one. - I sometimes struggle with my emotional attachment to my work.
My work role is part of my identity. Education matters deeply to me, and I care (too much at times) about what others think of me, so sometimes I have trouble shutting off the spiraling voices in my head. I also internalize others’ emotions in ways that can be a form of self-sabotage instead of a tool that can help me be a thoughtful responder to people and situations. But I am way better at focusing on doing good work and letting things go than I used to be. So yay for gradual improvement!
My interim associate dean has been super helpful in his feedback to various situations that have arisen (he has regularly said after a challenging meeting, “That went great! We are doing things we have never done, and that conversation really moved things forward”; that commentary helps my framing a lot), and he also models a separation between his work life and his emotional state. That’s one of the ways he’s been a mentor to me!
I also appreciate the Brene Brown approach: Pay attention to what a select few people think of me, the very few people I can rely on to give me honest feedback. And then, when I know better, I do better. - I am sometimes overwhelmed with the volume of work.
This one seems related to all three points above. And I am also doing my best to approach work in organized ways so I don’t lose track of things. That’s an ongoing project. - I sometimes undervalue my own judgment or opinion.
I came back and edited this post to add this area for growth because I was thinking about it this past week. If others have set something up in a certain way or pitch a certain preference, I tend to accept it, downplaying a part of me that might see a better way to do things. This attribute is sometimes helpful for collaboration, for prioritizing what really needs attention, and for being a low maintenance person who doesn’t create work for others.
However. I’m in my role for a reason. I need to take ownership of decisions in my area, and, as long as I’m being smart and thoughtful and making sure I have the relevant info, I need to assert my opinion so we do things well as often as possible.
I’m also going to add that these areas for growth are very particular to me. Other people could struggle with the exact opposite things. Often it’s about striking a balance, using my default habits in moderate ways that are helpful to me, my colleagues, and my university….but not taking my habits to extremes that are detrimental.
I gotta end here and get to my research. My pancakes and strawberries are long gone. But I’m reading ahead a bit (I’ve only read the Intro and Chapter One! yikes), and I like what I see. “Managing up” isn’t about who controls whom; it’s more about being aware of styles so we can work better as a team within existing hierarchies. I like that. As someone in a middle management position, I really like that.
My first chair retreat
Today I’m going to be leading a retreat for the chairs in my college for the first time. I’m happy about it, and I’m also anxious.
What if it sucks? What if I suck??
I don’t want to be reductive, but I regularly draw on my teaching background in my leadership roles. Teaching is about showing students why learning something matters, giving them tools and guidance to help with learning, and giving them opportunities to apply and grow and create within (and occasionally beyond!) the structure of a class.
Teaching well is only partly about what I bring to the classroom. It is largely about what I invite and encourage students to bring to the classroom.
So as I get ready to head to this chair retreat, maybe what I need to remind myself of is my actual role. I need to offer the structures, guidance, and clarity that will invite chairs to engage in the learning and planning we’ll be undertaking today. My role is not to shine. My role is to help chairs own their power, grow a little bit, feel a bit more ready for the year ahead. My role is to help our chairs shine.
When I think about it like that, the day ahead feels like a piece of cake. Our chairs already shine, are already engaged and thoughtful leaders, already collaborate, already support their faculty and students and dean.
My job is to do my part and step out of the way so they can do theirs.
reading A Leadership Guide for Women in Higher Education by Marjorie Hass
I’m continuing to read and process books in relation to the HERS Institute. This week I’m reading Ch. 1 and 4 of Hass’s book, a book I took out of the library awhile back and never read. But now I’m going to!
Ch. 1 Transforming Your Professional Identity
I read a little bit of this chapter before beginning to blog about it, and I have to say: I’m nervous about this transformation. And there’s a major irony in my nervousness, which I’ll explain.
First, here’s the part of me that is not nervous. From the time I was in grad school, I was tapped for leadership roles. I directed the University Writing Center one year while in grad school, a role that involved supervising a number of undergraduate and graduate writing consultants, training them to do their work, and moving initiatives forward to support writing across the university.
That kind of administrative leadership continued as I directed a writing program and chaired departments. At this point, I’ve been a full-time administrative leader for almost 3 years as assistant and then associate dean, and I imagine a deanship of some sort is the next role for me. My shift has thus been gradual.
Why the nervousness then? Because I can be so open and honest that I worry I will get myself in trouble.
And the irony? That nervousness about being ready to take on increasing responsibility seems to be far more common among women leaders, and the whole point of reading the book is to not get caught up in imposter syndrome. And it’s doubly ironic because I just pointed out that I’ve been tapped for leadership positions all along, and it was always the same old me, and of course I made mistakes, but I mostly have done really good work.
***
I’m going to process some other things I’m reading about. One is that transitions to a new position are likely to involve a sense of loss, remorse, and regret; then a liminal stage when everything seems dark and awful; and finally a new sense of belonging (17).
My take on new positions is more connected to “learning curving,” which is the time when I am learning a lot and thus making mistakes. It’s also a time when I feel like I’m being judged a lot because of making first impressions. So it’s a super tough thing to be making more mistakes than usual while also feeling like people are paying a lot of attention. I’ve become better at having internal voices that set my expectations in realistic ways and that comfort me when I make errors. There’s this thing I heard in church once about that painting, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, and she (the minister) was saying that we all feel like our falls are super visible to others, but usually people are too busy living their own lives to spend a lot of time noticing what’s happening in mine. And if there are super judge-y people paying attention to a new person making mistakes, that says more about them than about you.
***
A whole bunch of transitions are named and described, and I again feel a bit validated in my response to this chapter–a kind of anxious nervousness. But, really, I’ve already made most of the transitions to some degree, like I’m okay with my individual ambition, and I’m all about teamwork, and I’ve become good at understanding how my role as an administrative leader is different from my role as faculty.
I also see a lot of continuity in how I occupy various roles. The skills I used as a faculty person and continue to use as an administrative leader include listening; sharing information; supporting others; accomplishing everyday tasks in a timely way in service of long-term projects; doing my everyday work with a sense of how it contributes to a particular mission and vision; finding time to laugh; having people I can vent to; working collaboratively and helping others come along on a journey with me, partly because I’m not invested in dictating everything but instead lead by listening.
I’m excited about a lot of roles a dean plays–just showing people support. That’s what I was good at as chair, and I want to continue that.
***
This part makes me mad: “…as long as you are neat, age-appropriate, and wearing clothes that fit well and that trusted friends would deem ‘professional,’ you can pretty much wear any style you want” (26). Hass goes on to say that clothes and hairstyles associated with various ethnic groups are all considered “professional,” so I guess that’s something, but I…well, I just think it’s ironic that we all go around saying that certain things matter and other things don’t, but when it comes right down to it, we are all about surface appearance. Well, maybe not all about surface appearance, but maybe too much about surface appearance.
Whatever. I dress in ways that conform so it’s not like it affects me. But it still makes me mad.
I’m coming back to this the next day, and I’m revising my thoughts. The choices we make about our appearance are ways of expressing who we are and what we value, and those expressions exist in very particular contexts. I think it’s smart to know it and own it and make choices accordingly. I’m totally against judging others’ appearances in ways that are racist / classist / sexist / ageist / etc-ist, and maybe that’s what sparked my anger–the phrase “age appropriate.” Anyhow.
This whole chapter is to help women be more thoughtful about transitions, I think so as to prepare for them and reflect upon them as they happen. It is helpful, really, even though it also sparked touch of anxiety for me.
Ch. 4 Growing As a Leader
I like this chapter right away. Hass points out that it’s hard to measure how well you’re doing as a dean (66).
She then turns to an approach that I heard repeatedly at a CCAS New Dean Seminar about knowing your own mission, knowing your own core values, and constantly returning to those while making decisions about “the best way to use limited resources,” which areas of challenge and opportunity I turn my attention to, and how I explain my decisions to myself (!) and others (partly from Hass 67). Indeed, I do worry about conflict keeping me up at night when I’m in a dean position. The mentors at the CCAS seminar said use your core values as a touchstone.
***
Hass explains key differences between leadership in higher ed versus in corporate settings. We are led by our mission, not by profits, with a sense of a long history and a long future informing decisions. We are complex, with principles of shared governance guiding how decisions are made. And students are not customers (though I like the comparison of students to people who enroll in a gym, at least to some degree) (get it? degree? hahahaha).
Hass uses another metaphor that I love. She says learning your leadership style is a lot like learning your writing style. And you may have a range of “voices” in either domain depending on the situation, but that range is always you, and it may be different from others, and that is all good. LOVE THIS.
She also has a definition of leadership I appreciate: “Leadership is the practice of ideas and actions that inspire others to make positive change” (71).
Okay, this chapter is totally aligned with how I think. Hass writes about leadership as involving a growth mindset (not the phrase she uses, and I laugh as I use it because people HATE that phrase because it’s so overused)–that is, about ongoing development and an openness to reflection and improvement instead of a desire to “arrive” at some kind of pinnacle (72). Still, while ongoing development is the goal, there are still moments of recognizing “arrival” at some goal or another, in all kinds of ways, big and small (72).
This next piece is helpful. Hass contrasts “leadership” and “management,” with the forming being about “inspiring change” and the latter being more about making sure the trains run on time (72). Deans do both, and both take time and ability and energy.
I’m going to pause and toot my own horn. I think the reason I’ve been tagged to take on leadership positions is because I’m good at both. I have to say, my approach to “inspiring change” is not about me having a grand plan and thrusting it on people. It’s more about listening, paying attention, often connecting disparate pieces of information to envision paths that others might not yet see, and then articulating all that while continuing conversations so that the “change” I’m “inspiring” is a shared vision. That is, I think I both “inspire” and “get inspired” in a kind of snowball thingy that gathers momentum.
***
Hey, here’s a super practical thing. To figure out where change is needed, consider mission, business model, and culture because “an institution is healthy only when these are in alignment” (75). Hass explains that figuring out the strength (of the 3 pillars) and then working to draw the other pillars into alignment with the strength tends to be the way to go (76). I like that. It makes sense. I’m all about building on strengths, but I never thought about these 3 pillars. Hmmmmm.
Hass also puts this into perspective, with past university models separating the three, so the mission fell to faculty, the board focused on business model, and student life focused on culture (76-77). But no more. We all kinda get that these things are interwoven and the idea is that they align, just like my individual time and energy should reflect my personal goals and belief systems and values. It all goes together or we end up feeling out of whack and being less effective.
Hass gets into ways to make change happen, but I think Buller covered that really well, so I’m going to skim.
***
Here’s another useful bit Hass provides about decision making. When it’s tough to make a decision, think about whether more info Is needed, or if none of the options is appealing, or if I “know what has to be done but don’t want to do it” (82). My current boss says of that middle scenario that sometimes we need to make the “least worst” decision. I find that helpful.
The other thing Hass says is to consider how the decision will help align the mission, business model, and culture. And at the CCAS seminar for new deans, the leaders said to have a clear idea of your own mission and core values so you can rest easier at night, even in times of conflict or in the midst of hard decisions.
Hass also has good explanations of transparency and how there are times when confidentiality must be maintained, but it’s generally good to share how and why decisions are made (82-83). Hass also warns against keeping secrets. I know someone who was caught in a web of secrets some time back (not of her own making), and it was a huge relief to her when she was out of that situation. I’m totally on board with secrets being a Bad Idea.
***
Here’s some other good stuff. Virtuers from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and from Joanna Barsh’s work include: wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage, discipline; meaning, positive framing, connecting, engaging, and managing energy (85). Okay.
Hass adds “attunement” and discussed the role of faculty in ways that are reminiscent of Buller (87). Again, I’m gonna toot my horn. These qualities are generally ones I’m decent at. Do I still need to grow and learn? Abso-fucking-lutely. Like cursing is probably not appropriate for a dean, so there’s something to work on. And I think I jump to solving problems too quickly sometimes, which can lead to overcommitment or to poor decisions. So, yeah, I got things to work on, but I don’t think these qualities are out of my wheelhouse, so it’s all kinda validating / reassuring.
Okay. That’s good. I liked that reading. It made me feel less rather than more anxious, so I’m glad it came after Ch. 1!
Laurie Mac Reads 