Education Commons^™

Practical Strategies For Establishing Yourself As A Responsible Leader, Butler Cain

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Establishing a reputation as a responsible leader within higher education is a practical and achievable goal. It creates opportunities for individuals and programs, it helps build trusting relationships, and it effectively positions people for professional advancement. These strategies can help establish and maintain a positive reputation for leadership.

Leadership Doesn't Have To Be Lonely: Creating Cross-Institutional Community, Jerry Schnepp, Lisa K. Hanasono, W. John Koolage, Mary-Jon Ludy, M. Elise Radina, Jolie A. Sheffer

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters and participants will build communities of support through engaging in interactive co-writing surrounding shared challenges, opportunities, and solutions for academic administrators as servant leaders.

Creating An Academic Department Vision: Processes, Challenges, Rewards, Costas Spirou, Steve Mclaughlin

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Department chairs are expected to lead academic units by managing numerous aspects of the academic enterprise. Participants in this session will focus on the process of creating a department vision that is inclusive by engaging various stakeholders while considering the university/college strategic plan and other institutional initiatives.

Creating A Culture Of Outreach And Partnerships, Jeffrey Ward

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The presenter will share his experience building a culture of outreach and partnership development between the university and external stakeholders. Describing his college’s Council of Outreach and Arts Entrepreneurship, the presenter will share partnership building best practices that are generalizable to various departments regardless of discipline, size, scope, or mission.

Confronting The “Dark Side” Of Higher Education Administration: Building Relational Capacity Among Academic Leaders, Jared Rawlings

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Unethical leadership exists in higher education and the purpose of this session is to present current research about “dark” organizational behavior, explain the impact of unethical leadership on populations in higher education (faculty, students), present central features of relational capacity, and model practices for academic leaders to build relational capacity.

Frame Your Leadership, Rebecca L. Koltz, Melissa Odegard

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Participants will engage with Bolman and Deal’s four frames of leadership model to gain insight and look at issues facing their departments from multiple perspectives. Come to this presentation and learn what frame(s) you use most and understand how to interact with others on your team by using different frames.

Transitions Of Self: Assuming Or Leaving A Chair Role, Denise Bullock

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

We experience multiple transitions throughout our lives. Transitioning from faculty to chair is one of those key transitional moments in which our sense of self shifts with the change in role. Participants will work through a series of exercises to discover, analyze, and plan for that transition of self.

Leadership Networks: A Strategic Approach For The Department Chair's Development, Leda Stawnychko

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The interactive workshop will begin with a 20 min introductory presentation drawing on the results of an empirical study conducted at a comprehensive research university in Canada. The participants will be invited to analyze the importance of networks in the context of their own leadership development and to explore strategies to develop and nurture them.

Career Trajectory And Aspiring Deans, John Buckwalter, Leslie Durham, George Low

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

While universities have processes to assist faculty to progress through their academic careers, most institutions provide little formal assistance to department chairs considering career progression to a deanship or other higher level administrative leadership positions. This interactive session provides practical guidance in an interactive format to those contemplating pursuing advancement in academic leadership.

Applied Servant Leadership: A Practical Approach, Christopher Jochum

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Leadership is a people business that requires courage, character and vulnerability. This workshop enables participants to explore the facets of servant leadership by developing their own personal mission statement, learning how to effectively address conflict, and understanding the value of building relationships with students, faculty and staff.

How To Effectively Serve Your Department By Being An Influential Leader, Shelley Rouser, Charlisa Edelin, Renee Marine

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

For this workshop, we will invite Chairs to critically think about their role as a servant leader and how to pull six levers of influence to drive change. We will open the discussion with research and knowledge about the different types of leadership and concentrate on why influence is essential. Following the discussion, we will collaborate with Chairs in a consultative model on some influential servant leadership successes and challenges in a working session focused on generating practical next steps and workable solutions to the problems being faced.

The Culturally Intelligent Leader, Sean F. Daly

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Research has shown that a culturally intelligent (CQ) leader will have a positive impact on organizational culture, satisfaction, productivity, and retention. Moreover, data shows that CQ has a strong positive relationship with job satisfaction and perceived transformational leadership.

This training program is designed to help leaders develop a greater awareness of their motivation and understanding of cultural intelligence while also helping them to develop strategies and an action plan around improving their level of CQ. The suggested audience for this are experienced managers who have had some interaction with a culturally diverse population and want to serve their population better.

Negotiating Conflict At The Intersection: Identity And Problem Solving, Toni Alexander, Lesli K. Pace, Melissa Odegard

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

An interactive workshop focused on improving self-awareness and understanding of conflict management strategies to improve effectiveness in conflict resolution as a chairperson.

Hollywood Leadership Theory, Part 2: Examples From World Leaders, Christopher Barrick

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Following the success of last year’s presentation at the 39^th Academic Chairpersons Conference, Part 2 of the Hollywood Leadership Theory continues to demonstrate how leadership advice can be found in television and movies as readily as it is in journals and books.

Giving Up The Chair Role And Rejoining The Faculty, Stephen F. Pyle, David A. Line

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Chairpersons often return to faculty with little planning or preparation. For many, this transition can lead to role confusion, performance issues, loss of relationships and feelings of inadequacy. This interactive presentation, informed by research, will equip chairs and administrators with critical planning components in support of successful return to faculty.

Establishing And Maintaining A Personal Leadership Network, Jared Rawlings, Christopher Jochum

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

In this session, two academic leaders will share lessons learned during their first years leading a department. This session will include advice related to establishing and maintaining a personal leadership network.

Are You Blue? Personality, Communication, And Leadership, Hillary Gleason

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This workshop will identify participants' dominant personality styles utilizing the True Colors questionnaire developed by Don Lowry in 1978. To that end, there will be a discussion on each color's communication and leadership strengths, weaknesses, and stressors. This is a fun activity that requires movement and most people enjoy. Finally, participants will be paired up with rotating partners and given a departmental chair scenario wherein they need to communicate and lead by utilizing what they have learned about dealing with the personality types of the colors. This exercise will help participants develop a strategic approach to their communication in order …

Embracing The Tension: A New/Ancient Approach To Problem Solving, Rick Olsen

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This workshop will illuminate four important concepts and approaches to problem solving and problem navigation. Participants will then work individually and collectively around problems of shared interest to deepen their understanding of these concepts. The running example by the facilitator will be faculty retirements.

Focus: The Development Of A Community Of Academic Leaders, Lina Prada Angarita, Nayibe Rosado Mendinueta, Katina Katinac@Uninorte.Edu.Co

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This presentation reports the development of a community of practice for academic leaders in Colombia, South America. Document analysis from 2016 to 2020 helped to characterize the nature of the activities, the purposes, the products and gains. There is evidence of a change of purpose, agency and awareness.

The Department Chair And Creative Leadership, Julia Hovanec

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Leading a department in the ever-changing and, at times, tumultuous landscape of higher education calls for creative problem-solving and divergent thinking. Participants will engage in specific creative leadership strategies using creativity as a reflective practice and as a means to lead boldly. The goals are to spur change while cultivating an inclusive department.

College Reconfiguration: Building Faculty Support, Maureen E. Wilson, Dawn M. Shinew, Tracy L. Huziak-Clark, Deborah Wooldridge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Following a year-long discussion, deliberation, and feedback process, faculty and staff in the College of Education and Human Development at Bowling Green State University voted overwhelmingly in support of reconfiguring from five schools and one department to three schools. We discuss our journey and outline the initial benefits, challenges, and lessons of this new configuration.

How To Retain Your Best Faculty Members, Jeff Buller

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

As department chairs, we devote a great deal of time and energy to recruiting excellent faculty members, but we spend far less time and energy trying to retain them. Superb college professors are vital to a department’s success, but they are also highly competitive in the marketplace. They have options and, if they begin to think that they can do better (financially or otherwise) elsewhere or even outside of academia, they’ll start looking elsewhere. In this best practices workshop, we’ll explore how to apply certain strategies to our work at the departmental level so as to increase the likelihood that …

The First 100 Days As An Academic Department Chair, Dr. Sara Rutledge

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This session will highlight lessons learned from the presenter’s first 100 days as an academic department chairperson. Topics covered will include: daily operations, faculty, students, alumni, enrollment, retention, academic planning, assessment, accreditation, compliance, governmental relations, articulations, technology, communications, marketing, community engagement, data management, budgeting, reporting, event planning, and initiatives.

The Chairperson : Faculty, Administrator And Academic And Crisis Leader, Domenick J. Pinto

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

For 36 years, I have witnessed the evolution of the role of chair as economic, social and student climates emerge. My workshop will summarize the challenges that chairs must now face in 2023. The session will help relatively new and new chairs observe various scenarios and discuss how to problem solve them.

How Covid-19 Clarified My Role As Chair, Mark Urtel

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenter and participants will reflect on and share their academic chair experiences and subsequent yet significant leadership alterations due directly to COVID-19. These transformations may be long- or short-term but are exclusive to being a department chair.

A Chairpersons Guide To Managing Time And Stress, Christian K. Hansen

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

In this interactive workshop we discuss time and stress management specifically from the perspective of a department chairperson responsible for leading an academic department through numerous internal and external challenges. The focus will be on practical strategies for effective use of time, not only at a personal level, but also at a department wide level.

Navigating Your Department Post Pandemic With Creative Wellness, Krista Bridgmon, Elizabeth List

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will discuss and participants will practice creative counseling skills including mindfulness, empathy, effective questioning, reflecting emotion and goal setting which will assist the evolving work-life concerns of faculty, staff, and students following the pandemic.

Teaming Up To Reduce "Sludge": Practical Guidance For Process Improvement, Kevin Van Winkle Dr., Timothy Mottet Dr.

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenters will share and discuss best practices for faculty and administrative collaboration to reduce “sludge” (i.e. inefficiencies in university processes) as a way to increase faculty and staff morale.

Fighting For Resources: Using Data To Effectively Advocate For Your Department, Craig D. Hlavac

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The Department chairperson is the primary spokesperson and advocate for the academic department. As many institutions continue to see enrollment declines and shrinking revenues, the ability for chairpersons to advocate effectively for limited resources has become even more important. Operating budgets, reassigned time, course offerings, and tenure-track faculty lines are all scrutinized with a focus on finding efficiencies. Today’s department chairperson must be adept at advocating for their department using data-based arguments. This session will review the most common data metrics used by deans to assess academic departments, and provide participants with clear, concise methods for using this data to …

“I’M Elected Chair? Now What?” Helpful Strategies For Newer Chairs, Gian S. Pagnucci, Alex Romagnoli, Ethan Krase

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

This session shares concrete strategies for helping department chairs navigate common problems more effectively and efficiently. With attention to managing email, handling complaints, constructing schedules, building relationships, and working with upper administration, the presenters offer practical tips to help newer chairs succeed.