Latest Updates
Building a Culture of Gratitude on Campus
Giving Thanks
November 28, 2024
Building a culture of gratitude on campus can help shape a learning community for the better, M’hammed Abdous and Annette Finley-Croswhite write.
Admin 101: The Friend Deficit in Leadership Jobs
Giving Thanks
November 16, 2024
How to build authentic personal and professional friendships as you climb the administrative ranks.
Colleges Are Still Failing Their Employees
October 23, 2024
Despite widespread rhetoric on social media about the importance of combating toxic workplaces and the expense associated with replacing versus retaining talent, the reality for many higher-education workers is that their experience on the job today isn’t substantially different from 2019 — raising the question of what, if anything, we learned from the pandemic.
How To Make Team Meetings More Productive and Inclusive
October 21, 2024
Drawing from research and expert advice, this article outlines practical strategies to combat meeting inefficiency in higher education through better preparation, streamlined scheduling, and increased participant engagement.
Admin 101: Making Friends in High Places
October 9, 2024
The assumption is true that the higher you go in administration, the fewer friendships you’ll have on the campus — sometimes for good reason.
Navigating Authenticity: How To Be Honest With Your Manager Without Overstepping
September 26, 2024
A lot has been said recently about authenticity in the workplace, but what does this mean when it comes to your relationship with your manager? Sure, you want to be genuine at work, but you also want to cultivate relationships that are high-functioning, predictable, and productive, and that serve your professional ambitions. So how can you develop good rules of thumb to decide what to share with your manager and what to keep to yourself?
Department Culture: Learning to Play Well With Others
September 13, 2024
How to deal with basic workplace drama and prevent it from spiraling into something worse.
The Power of Soft Skills
Transforming lab culture through effective communication and leadership
August 24, 2024
Most lab managers are academically trained and experienced scientists. This experience builds a repertoire of successful technical skills, often called “hard skills” because they pertain to things that can be easily quantified and measured. However, once these technically trained scientists earn the role of lab manager, they are faced with a wide array of non-technical decisions to make. Many of these responsibilities center around interacting with, influencing, and leading people. The skills most commonly associated with these activities are often called “soft skills.” This naming approach is ironic because, for many scientists, learning these soft skills is much more challenging than learning technical hard skills.
The Importance of Feeling Appreciated at Work
August 21, 2024
Burned out and continually seeking another job is no way to enjoy a career in higher education. But that's what's happening for many workers in academia. According to Gallup, more than a third of higher education professionals feel burned out and 40% of faculty and staff are either actively or passively looking for a new job. How are colleges and universities supposed to fix this problem when they continue to ask employees to do more with less? A simple "Thank you" might help.
Admin 101: 4 Ways to Counter Leadership Burnout
July 5, 2024
“Working too hard and too long” — a norm for the modern administrator — is contributing to the high turnover rate.
Ask the Chair: ‘When Did I Become a Bureaucrat?’
April 11, 2024
A new department head wonders if your scholarly reputation suffers merely by accepting that leadership role.