Note: In the “Ask the Chair” series, the author of How to Chair a Department answers your questions about departmental leadership. Send your queries via Twitter, Facebook, or email. Read previous columns here.
Question: What can, or should, institutions do to help a professor excel in the chair’s job? Leading a department presumably requires new skills and knowledge, yet I believe many institutions do not set chairs up for success, but rather for an extended period of trial and error.
Signed,
Willing But Ill-Equipped
Dear Willing,
Since the publication of my book almost a year ago, I’ve been leading professional development workshops for department chairs on campuses across the country. Based on those interactions, my sense is that a lot of institutions are wrestling with the same issue, many of them for the first time, in the wake of the workplace upheavals wrought by the pandemic. And “I have thoughts,” as they say.
The most important thing an institution can do is embedded as an assumption in your question — the idea that institutions should, in fact, equip chairs for success. Great chairs aren’t born, but made; “trial and error” isn’t actually a professional-development strategy. The provost and deans should recognize that a confident and competent chair makes their job easier, creates a well-functioning department, and buoys faculty, student, and staff morale.
As someone vitally engaged with the chair’s role, I do think we are experiencing a sea-change when it comes to how institutions are preparing chairs. For too long, colleges have treated the position as simply a minor cog in the chain of command. But more and more institutions are now investing in their chairs. Just the other day, I spoke with an assistant dean at one of the nation’s most prestigious universities, and was impressed by the array of professional-development programming that it’s putting together — not just for faculty members, but also specifically for chairs. In another recent conversation with a dean at a small college, I asked why the institution was considering new programming to support its chairs. I was surprised by her response: “We see it as a retention issue.”
Whether the pandemic was the cause or just the last straw, a growing number of faculty members are “quiet quitting” from all but the essential requirements of their jobs — that is, minimizing or eliminating their service commitments to focus purely on teaching and research. The result: Administrators say it’s increasingly difficult to identify and recruit professors into leadership positions. Collectively, we seem to be recognizing that the least that we can do for those who are willing to become chair is to set them up for success.
Most faculty members are familiar with the broad responsibilities of the chair’s job but not necessarily with the details. Among the topics that a new chair will need to study: managing budgets, hiring and mentoring faculty members, working with staff members, dealing with conflicts, and overseeing curricula.
As I respond here to Willing But Ill-Equipped, I realize I’m not sure of your own position on the campus. You might be a dean or provost wondering how best to support your department chairs; you might be a new chair, looking for resources to request from your dean or provost. Whatever your position and access to resources, my suggestions are the same. They range from free and easy to somewhat more involved and costly.
Bond with other chairs. In my workshops, a simple idea I always stress — that, strangely, often takes people by surprise — is the importance of chairs meeting regularly. Such meetups are one of the highest-impact, lowest-cost steps that an institution can take to foster esprit de corps and shared wisdom among departmental leaders.
When I came to my current college, the dean at the time did not organize regular gatherings of department chairs, which struck me as odd. So I did it: I collected the email addresses from the dean’s office and wrote inviting all of the chairs to an informal lunch. (Bonus: I got the dean to pay for it!)
It was eye-opening for all of us — and so easy. For instance, my department was preparing for a self-study and program review, and I was new to the institution. So at the meeting, I asked: What were the experiences of other chairs who had recently taken their departments through the process? We all had questions and problems to pose to our fellow chairs; it was collegial and informative, and we quickly vowed to make it a regular practice.
It’s best to convene chairs meetings without the participation of the dean or the dean’s office staff members — not because we want to talk about them (though we might) but because their presence changes the dynamics of the conversation. Such gatherings are free (or nearly so) and easy to arrange, and take advantage of the collective experience and institutional knowledge of your colleagues.
Read up on management skills. This takes things up a notch but can still be fairly inexpensive. There are plenty of books that tackle the role of chair, including my own. Two of the most popular are Don Chu’s The Department Chair Primer and Jeffrey L. Buller and Robert E. Cipriano’s A Toolkit for Department Chairs. Purchase copies of your favorite book on chairing for all of the department heads (some publishers offer volume discounts) and invite the author to come to your campus to give a talk or do a workshop.
Or, for a more cost-conscious approach, convene a reading group to discuss the book and apply its general principles to your local situation. That’s another fairly simple way to catalyze a conversation among chairs and demonstrate the institution’s support for the important work they do.
Get formal training. There are various professional-development programs available to support chairs. One that I participate in as a presenter/facilitator is the online Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs offered by The Chronicle, in partnership with Dever Justice LLC and Ithaka S+R. The next round of sessions is scheduled for October; you can find more information here. Alternatively, provosts and deans can bring a consultant to the campus for an in-person workshop for their chairs.
Those two different modes have their respective advantages and disadvantages. The online format helps to keep costs down, especially for a small group of chairs, and eliminates the need to make the logistical arrangements for a consultant visit. In-person workshops on your own campus are more cost effective with a large group of chairs, and can be tailored (to some degree) to the specific needs and context of the institution. The convenience of online training is a big plus for some; for others, nothing substitutes for the dynamism of in-person engagement.
Going even narrower, some institutions are able to provide professional coaching for chairs who request it. Most academic-career coaches are oriented toward helping faculty members achieve their scholarly goals rather than supporting professors in their role as chair. But since most of us chairs are juggling our leadership and scholarly roles (not to mention teaching), getting help with our writing and research can allow us to better respond to the demands of the chair’s job.
Individual coaching isn’t cheap. One coach I know charges $995 for a six-session coaching package. That amount is the equivalent, roughly, of enrolling in an online leadership program for chairs. Sometimes the dean’s and provost’s offices have money to support this kind of coaching. And it could be an excellent thing to negotiate for if you’re been courted by your dean or provost to take on the chair’s role.
Two quick, final observations. Professional development for department chairs needs to come from an independent source, and not from the dean or the provost. Sure, nearly all deans and provosts have a wealth of experience as successful department chairs, and doubtless have good advice on how to lead a department effectively. But their own chairs won’t be able to hear it. “Advice” coming from the VP to whom you report often feels like manipulation rather than support. Going to the trouble and/or expense of bringing in an outside expert helps remove the suspicion that this support is being provided primarily to exact more work from chairs.
And second, a one-time workshop or orientation for new chairs can be truly inspirational and position you to succeed in this role. But regular follow-up is better. Recognizing that, an associate dean I work with here at Pomona College last year put together a rich monthly series of professional-development events for department chairs, led by experienced chairs, that was warmly received by all who attended.
A comprehensive, one-time event that introduces you to the role and responsibilities of chairs, soup to nuts, is crucial. But it’s too much information to take in all at once. Reinforcing it with timely, incremental refreshers can help that advice to really land and gain purchase.
