The path from faculty to administration usually starts with a stint as department chair. But then what? It can feel like you are diving into a pool without knowing how deep, long, or cold it’s going to be.
My career transition started a few years ago when I chaired my small department and realized I enjoyed it. I wasn’t quite sure what “being in administration” would look like for me, after 10 years on the faculty at my liberal-arts college, but I knew I wanted to have a collegewide impact. My long-term goal: Become a dean and then maybe a provost. In the meantime, I searched for administrative opportunities on my campus to boost my management skills and applied for a part-time position to direct the faculty-development center, while also chairing my department.
I officially started as the center’s director on July 1, 2021, coincident with the arrival of our new president. New leadership often entails a lot of changes — organizational and cultural — and the past eight months have attested to that. This past November, the president announced that she would be posting internal job descriptions for two posts: dean of the college and dean of the faculty.
Was this my chance? Admittedly, it was much earlier in my career than anticipated — I was only five months into the new job as the center’s director. But if I wanted to be a dean, why not throw my hat in the ring? I applied to be dean of the faculty.
When the day came to find out if I’d gotten the position, the president called and ripped off the Band-Aid early in the conversation. She was “going in a different direction.” My heart sank. Then she said, “But I am thinking of a different position for you.” She described the responsibilities — advancing campuswide projects (such as the college’s antiracism commitment), reviewing and revising our committee structure, and a host of other assignments — and asked if I was interested. YES! The job had no title, but I was excited by the prospect of learning more about how institutions of higher-education function.
As I write, I am in the eighth week of my new position as executive vice president and chief of staff — the title we landed on. When I started the job in early January, I immediately stopped teaching, chairing, and directing the faculty center and enthusiastically moved into my new (and smaller) office.
By the end of Week 1, I had to admit that I hadn’t fully thought through my transition. Don’t get me wrong: I love the job and the career path I’m on. But as it turns out, there are quite a few differences between the faculty and administrative worlds that I wasn’t fully prepared for. So for those of you mulling a move into senior administration, here are five factors to keep in mind.
A career move is not just about where you are headed — it’s also about what you’re leaving behind. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do four jobs at once, but in moving into full-time administration, I didn’t think through what it would feel like to leave my classroom, my departmental colleagues, and even my office of 10 years. I came to a small liberal-arts college because I love teaching. I’ve stayed here because I love the students. I don’t have either of those anymore.
What I have are meetings and emails. Just as I started this new post, I had two book chapters accepted for publication, I submitted an article to a journal, and I began revising a grant proposal. I also have a research lab with student workers who deserve the experience I promised them. Finding time for my research is proving extremely hard these days, but I am committed to doing so because I intend to apply for full professorship in the coming years. Time is always rare in academe, but I better understand its value now.
Be prepared for long hours on the campus and lots of meetings. My time is even more limited than most because I live an hour from the campus. The commute makes for some extremely long days. As a faculty member, my daily schedule was flexible, largely dictated by teaching commitments. I decided if and when I had office hours, committee meetings, etc.
Not anymore. My schedule is determined by an expert team of executive assistants who digitally tell me when to be where. Every night I check my calendar for the next day to see what time I have to wake up in order to get some exercise before work. Most days I’m up by 5 a.m., and my workday isn’t over until 7:30 p.m.
Long days make it difficult to maintain my community-service commitments, too. I used to volunteer with Big Brothers Big Sisters, but had to stop because my work hours overlapped with mentoring meetings. I am still on two nonprofit boards, but those meetings feel burdensome now, not enjoyable. I haven’t decided if (or what) I will cut back, but I know I have to. Whatever time and energy I have after work is for my fiancé and my dogs. Reducing my outside activities is a tough decision I didn’t anticipate making.
Consider whether your skill set is a good match for leadership positions. Despite the long days, I am energized at work in a way I haven’t been for the past few years. I love that every day is different. I love that when I drive home in the evening, I’ve usually solved at least one problem and moved the institution forward in some small way.
I’ve always been incredibly organized and detail-oriented, and this job requires both. I am often juggling six or seven projects at once, each with shifting timelines and evolving goals. Some of my work is high-level visioning, but most of it is translating ideas into practice — something at which I excel.
What’s been more difficult for me is the collaborative nature of administrative work. As a professor, I wrote something and submitted it. As an executive vice president, I’m learning to request input from others before I click “send.” It can be hard to slow down and triple check my work when there is so much to do, but I am enjoying being pushed to develop a new work style.
Understand your reputation. My struggle with teamwork is not new. In my faculty department, my education colleagues were quick to tell me that sometimes I worked so fast, they felt left behind. But they also told me that they trusted my decision-making, so things usually balanced out.
In the last two months I’ve learned just how important trust is when you are a leader. My administrative “team” consists of dozens of people spread across the college, many of whom I hadn’t met until I accepted my new position. So imagine my surprise when, after the job announcement, I received congratulatory emails from all sorts of people with whom I had never worked before. Having people’s trust is critical given that the position I hold is brand new to the institution. I can’t imagine the difficulties I would face if people didn’t believe in me.
Set aside your ego. People’s confidence in my efficacy is tempered by their constant critiques and questions. As someone who is very strategic, it can be frustrating to have decisions challenged as if I pulled a resolution out of a hat. I am also aware that some faculty members no longer see me as “one of us” but as “one of them,” and don’t fully understand my decision to join “the dark side.”
I don’t intend to waste what precious time I have defending my career decisions, and I always welcome feedback on my work. But these days it feels like people bring problems to me much more often than solutions.
Maybe that’s the nature of administration. I’m grateful that I’ve always had thick skin, because senior leadership is not for the faint of heart. There are tough decisions to be made, and someone will always be unhappy. However, accepting that reality doesn’t make it easier to be blamed for circumstances beyond your control.
I’m still new to all this but my initial sense about life in administration is that you will do the job better if you are honest with yourself about your satisfaction with the work. I jumped in the deep end of the administrative pool so I feel fortunate that, thus far, it looks like I will swim, not sink.