As a Division Director, how would you respond to the following question:
If your answer was 7 or lower, you may wish to consider whether you are in a job that will bring you the type of career fulfillment that you desire. We realize that this is a provocative statement, of course. Here’s what is behind our thinking.
Building the Faculty’s Capacity
ISM believes that the primary responsibility of an academic administrator is to develop the capacity of faculty to deliver the mission with excellence. Here’s the rub: Most academic leaders entered the education field because they love helping children learn, grow, and develop. At a certain point, though, you switched over from teaching to administration, whereby you traded one constituency (children) for another (faculty). In doing so, you are still responsible for helping people learn, grow, and develop—the only difference is, now the people you are directly helping to grow are adults, who in turn help develop the children. These are very different jobs. Both are very important; you just need to be sure that you’re doing the one that you really want to do.
Here’s the good news … you’re still doing the “teaching” that you love. We might call it “coaching and mentoring” instead of “teaching” —but you’re still helping people grow through well-timed conversations, observations, encouragement, positive reinforcement, constructive criticism, and the like. Make no mistake, though—your primary audience is adults.
Looking Ahead: The Joy of Coaching and Mentoring
If your unending desire is truly to get back into the classroom to lead the fifth graders through their module on the explorers … you’re probably in the wrong job. Identifying the problem gets you half way to the solution. The object now is to find your way back to the position you really want to be in … and, you’ll be great at it (again)! For everyone else, we’re glad that you’re in the right role. There are many invigorating days ahead of coaching and mentoring faculty and helping them grow … so that they can help children grow.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Human Resources Vol. 10 No. 5 Constructive Conversations, Coaching, and Mentoring
ISM Monthly Update for Division Heads Vol. 9 No. 1 Management by Walking Around, Coaching by Asking Questions, and Other Tips for Division Heads
ISM Recorded Webinar Teacher Evaluations Part 2: Administrators’ Role Evaluating Coaching for Professional Growth
Additional ISM resources for Consortium Gold Members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 37 No 1 Developing Faculty Through Coaching and Mentoring
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 37 No 2 A 21st Century Teacher Evaluation Model
