After more than three decades in academe — half of that stretch in administration — I firmly believe that anyone with the skills and inclination can step up and lead. But I also can’t ignore the crucial role played by another factor: chance. Of course many people methodically plan their first move into management, but for others, it happens unexpectedly and even overnight.
In unstable and uncertain times, any leader on your campus could be suddenly out of a job — for any number of reasons — and you could be asked to step in. But you have to be in the right place at the right time, physically and mentally, when “the call” comes. The question is: Are you ready? If, say, the dean called tomorrow and asked you to become your department’s new chair, would you be prepared, willing, and able?
In a new series of the Admin 101 column on academic leadership, I’m aiming to help you plan for this unexpected career shift — what to do if you’re suddenly offered a management position, what factors to consider and conditions to negotiate before you say yes, how to step into an interim role quickly and smoothly, how to build a transition agenda, how to both “manage up” and supervise peers, how to plan for the long term even if your appointment is short term, and how to clinch the “permanent” position (if that’s what you want), knowing all the while that there is no tenure for an administrative role.
Sudden leadership transitions may seem more common lately, but they have always happened in higher education. My own career is a case in point: Just a few months after I received tenure, the associate dean of graduate studies and research stepped down. My then-dean asked me to step in on an interim basis, and I got my first taste of budgets, personnel issues, recruiting, and strategic planning. After my interim term ended, I went back to the faculty to focus on my research (and become a full professor). But the experience left me well-positioned years later, when I saw a similar opening at another university, felt ready to apply, and landed the job.
So let’s begin with the prequel to your administrative adventure. Privately, you may have decided to pursue the administrative track, should an opportunity arise. Maybe you have even started applying for positions. But how do you convey that readiness to your institution? And how do you prepare for an abrupt invitation to become an administrator?
Signal, through your service work and enthusiasm, that you are open to administration. Most people who become overnight administrators are not completely shocked or totally inexperienced — the choice to call upon them was not random. Typically, they signaled their capabilities, their interest in management, and their willingness to serve. How? By chairing a search committee, sitting on a university task force, or helping to design a new academic program.
In my case, before the call came offering me an interim gig, I had served on several faculty committees (curriculum, hiring, facilities). But probably most important, I had helped to design our unit’s first Ph.D. program, which was scheduled to roll out the following year. So my dean was betting that I could do administrative tasks in an area that was of greatest need to the program and of highest familiarity to me: recruiting our first doctoral class.
Second — and I think this is the most common factor that leads to overnight administrative offers — I had shown some passion for service and administration in graduate education. I really loved working on the Ph.D. program, especially putting together a budget, creating a profile of the kinds of students we hoped to recruit, planning how to recruit them, and making the case that our doctoral program would add some new value to our field.
In short, I had (a) done the work and (b) indicated that I liked it. I was lucky, but I had also set up conditions conducive for opportunity to come knocking.
Take advantage of training options, even for work you don’t do yet. When I get together with other administrators, we often joke about how little training we’ve actually had to do our jobs. But in truth, most institutions offer a lot of workshops and programs for people who want to become an administrator. That might include a “Presidential Leadership Academy,” a workshop on “Budgeting for Beginners,” or a seminar on “How to Run a Committee.”
Likewise, innumerable opportunities for administrative training are available via national disciplinary societies and higher-ed organizations.
I’m not saying you should make it a second career to prepare for your potential management career, but if you are going to your national conference anyway, why not sign up for that workshop on “Stepping Into the Chair Role”? My disciplinary organization, of which I was president a few years ago, has a robust Leadership Academy that involves pairing up a future administrative aspirant with a sitting leader for a year of mentoring. The capstone, which I just concluded with my mentee, was inviting her to spend three days at our college, sitting in on meetings and talking with all of our administrators.
Build a management network. You can’t predict when “the call” will come. But the best way to prepare for that moment is to assemble a stable of trusted colleagues whom you can turn to for advice when it does. If you are a faculty member, your pool of allies should include both people like you (other would-be administrators) and mentors who are already campus leaders.
Select carefully and even at a distance. The safest people to talk with about your career hopes and dreams are probably not in the office next door. A vice president at a small liberal-arts college told me that, in his preadministration days, he had built friendships with different leaders across his field while attending his national conference. They became lifelong, go-to, mutual advisers who shared ambition and tact.
Be realistic about what you are ready for. Experience in quasi-administrative enterprises — chairing a committee, taking leadership training, networking with potential mentors — allows you to consider the existential question: Is academic leadership right for me? Here’s a short checklist:
- Start by asking yourself: Which aspects of academic administration am I attracted to? Which duties sound or feel like something I wouldn’t want to do? A college president told me that what she loves most about her job is “always being ‘on’” — the constant activity and new stimulation. She had been a department chair but found it “too quiet.” For many academics, the reverse preference might be true: Your ideal administrative position would involve only a limited number of gala receptions and very few 14-hour days.
- In breaking down the various tasks of administrative life, make sure you truly understand what they each involve. For example, fundraising duties (as I have written before) are a “hard pass” for many academics. I thought that might be true for me as well — and then I actually did some fundraising and found it both invigorating and fun. Now, as a dean, it’s a part of the job that I enjoy greatly. Don’t write off an aspect of administration before you have fully investigated it.
- Talk candidly with your family. True to stereotype, my Generation X cohort of professors-turned-administrators didn’t factor in our home lives as much as we should have. I have missed a lot of family togetherness because of my administrative career. Pay attention to what the people you care most about are willing to give up, in the near or distant future, for your career.
- Finally, answer the all-important full-professor question. As I noted, after I was asked to be an interim administrator, I opted not to seek the permanent position there because I wanted to focus on becoming a full professor. Overwhelmingly, that was the advice that I got from my senior mentors, and it’s still the advice I give — with a few caveats: Ideally being a full professor puts you in a much better position politically for promotion to a leadership position. And if you and administration prove to be a poor match, you can return to the faculty at the top rank rather than being stuck (potentially forever) at the associate level. But the timing may not be right: The chair’s position may not be open again for another 10 years, and if you’re an associate professor, you may not want to wait that long. And maybe you are the kind of person who is so good at human relations and so productive research-wise that being a department chair won’t stop you from progressing to full professor. It’s up to you to do your own self-assessment on this crucial variable.
Becoming an administrator, seemingly overnight, is a heady, even scary ride. A colleague at a western university was just about to go on sabbatical when he got a late-night call from the provost saying, “Your dean is stepping down tomorrow. Can you serve as acting dean for 90 days?” The acting designation became interim and then he got the job without a modifier after a competitive national search. My friend described the various transitions as “shocking, jarring, and life-changing” — but, ultimately, gratifying. In retrospect, he said, his administrative experiences as a regular faculty member, his conversations with other administrators about administration, and his own reading about administrative careers had made the choices stressful but “survivable.”
The point is: You may have to decide to become an administrator with very little notice, so why not start preparing now? Next month, I’ll explore how to respond when you get the call offering you a leadership post.
