Developing Capacity

The Student Affairs Collective hosted another great #sachat on Thursday, April 24. The topic was "the glorification of busy." Every week I am amazed at the turnout of student affairs professionals on this chat venue and I struggle to keep up with the conversation - we make Twitter move rapidly!

Being busy as a professional is a tricky thing. What is busy? How do you define what you mean by busy? This is probably an unfair question in April. Most of us in student affairs are in one of our busiest times - staff selection, student organization turnover, professional staff hiring, room selection, etc. We are hypersensitive to our schedules right now so the timing of the chat was perfect.

I struggle with "busy" often. I choose to allocate time to work and time to life how I see fit. Not everyone agrees with the way I do it and I don't always agree with the way others do it. But I own my own definition of busy and try not to talk too much about it. The idea of "busy" is tied closely to our perceived self-worth and our need to validate our competence as professionals. We get competitive and we try to "one up" one another by comparing schedules and number of hours spent at work. It's unfair and it's unhealthy. Stacy Oliver wrote a great blog post about this very topic about a year ago and I reflect on it often when rationalizing the amount of work I think I have to do or that I see others do.

I hate the phrase "I don't have time." We do have time. We always have time and, in fact, we all have the same amount of time in a day and in a week that our colleagues do. It's a matter of how we want to use the time and asking ourselves about the importance of how we have chosen to use our time. If your answer to a request is "I don't have time," then you need to either re-prioritize your time or just be authentic with your answer and tell us why you don't want to do it or that don't have the ability (yet) to get something done. Honesty works - covering up the truth with "I don't have time" doesn't work.

There's a big difference between one's ability to WORK HARD and the CAPACITY one has to accomplish many things. We all know people who work constantly but never seem to accomplish much - and the inefficiency is often mistaken for hard work. The act of always saying we are too busy is a mask for our own self-consciousness about our lack of capacity. 

We need to think critically about how we help new professionals develop capacity. We need to stop rewarding those who might work longer hours and stop judging those who try to find that elusive balance we hear so much about. Capacity is the ability to take on responsibility and fill up our bucket. Some people have bigger buckets than others, but we can help each other understand the volume and pace of work that we are all capable of handling. Some of it's innate, some of it is learned. But instead of focusing on competition, we should focus on helping others grow their capacity to do more and to do it better.

I welcome your thoughts on how we can work to help others develop capacity. Is it innate? Is it learned? Share your thoughts here or find me on Twitter @pottscharlie

GAC Talks - Digital Identity & Social Obligation

The Gustavus Campus Activities Board hosted the inaugural GAC Talks event on Saturday. Modeled after TEDTalks and St. Olaf College's STO Talks, this event was created to provide a venue for brief presentations/talks that would ultimately inspire action.

I was approached about three weeks ago by a couple members of the Campus Activities Board asking if I'd be interested in speaking. They had been trying to find some faculty or staff who would be willing to speak and decided to ask me. I was humbled and honored to be asked but was not sure at all what I'd speak about. Hannah, the student who talked to me to ask about my interest, said she was told I could probably put together a good talk on digital identity and social media. Okay... I can do this.

I contemplated topics for a few days and settled on "Digital Identity & Social Obligation." A couple of conversations with colleagues and a couple fun weekly SAChats on Twitter inspired me to focus on this topic. So my talk is a little less than 15 minutes about how we might be handling this communication revolution and three key things to remember as we adapt and change. The result of my planning and preparation is below and I hope you choose to watch.

Here's the link to the VIDEO.

The event was great and the other speakers were fantastic. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have contributed.

Feedback? Thoughts? Send it my way at cpotts@gustavus.edu or on Twitter @pottscharlie (or #GACTalks)

A Response to ACPA Statement on Rising Cost of Higher Education

The ACPA leadership team wrote a thought-provoking piece in mid-February calling to question blame that is being directed at student services for the rising cost of higher education in the United States. The statement includes a reminder about the pedagogical potential of all spaces and programs on campus and how our work outside the classroom has a significant effect on student learning. In addition, the authors outline several factors that have created growth in staffing and programming among student services, which has led to the belief that "administrative bloat" is one of the causal factors in increased cost of higher education. While I agree with the authors that external factors have led to increased staffing and therefore increased costs passed along to students, we in fact should shoulder some of the blame. Let me explain.

An analogy you likely have heard and that a former colleague of mine would often use is that the high-stakes game of college admission (particularly at tuition-driven institutions) creates a market that student services often struggle to meet. He would tell our student services offices that Admission was in the sales business and they were selling families and prospective students on the notion that our institution was similar to a luxury vehicle. Like a luxury vehicle, our institution was top-of-the line, set the standard for the industry and had all the bells and whistles. And while rising cost was an issue, what's a little bit more money when you were getting the best thing out there? The problem was - or so the analogy goes - that while the luxury vehicle was being sold out front, the work behind the scenes in the maintenance shop was really only suited to handle used cars that could get by without much attention or with inferior service. So while costs are high up front, the level of service being provided could never live up to the needs of the customer who had high expectations for a superior experience.  Keeping up with the front of the house does not necessarily mean more administrators, nor can it necessarily mean a bigger budget or more programs. So how do we keep up and insure that our services are up to par for the entitlement that ever-increasing tuition costs are creating while at the same time removing the blame that is being placed on us?

The leadership team's article says that the compounding factors that have caused administrative bloat are partially to blame for rising costs. So it's not the additional staff, per se, but rather the issues that have led to increased staffing that are to blame. I would agree with that sentiment, but I don't think it frees us from responsibility. What we have right now is a problem of adaptation vs innovation. When budgets get pinched and tough questions are asked of us, we tend to adapt the current services and programs we have to meet an emerging need. We enhance one aspect of what we do and scale back on another. This adjustment masks the deeper need for change and re-inventing our services.  While adapting and tweaking programs and services is healthy and necessary, it also allows for the perpetuation of our ability to cling to "what we've always done."  While we know we should always be assessing and re-thinking the services we provide, the adjustments we then make are often just temporary until we have to adjust again. Adaptation ends up being the band-aid; innovation is systemic and can create sustainable change.

Disruptive innovation has shaken American higher education to its core. New methods of delivery, new opportunities for connection between faculty and students and a shift in how we think about the value of traditional education have us talking. What started as static in the background of our conversations has now been amplified and what is invigorating to those of us who see the potential is also scaring those of us who adhere to traditional views of higher education. So how can we incorporate the disruption and stir things up in our own areas of the field? How do we re-think the services we offer? We should look at structure, at the scope of our reach, at maximizing our willingness to share perspectives on knowledge and by leveraging our influence through social media and new technologies. 

To get back to the analogy of the luxury vehicle, innovation will allow us to demonstrate our ability to create sustainable systemic change and provide service to our students that matches the high expectations they have upon agreeing to join us for their college experience. An increasingly higher price tag should equate to increasingly better service. Higher education cannot and should not be immune to the open market.  So are we partially to blame for rising college costs? Absolutely. But it is hard for justify that thought; when I look around my own institution, I feel we are under-staffed and over-worked as we try to serve our students. It is clear that there are many systems and processes in American higher education that are on shaky ground - and some that are broken. In times of budget cuts and blame, agency matters. We have the ability to take ownership of our capacity for change and innovation and to create change that will strengthen the understanding that our students and parents (and our critics) have about our vital support of the academic mission of our institutions. The seismic shift in higher education is happening and so far many of us have tried to maintain our balance and stay alert - but it is time that we take our place alongside the innovators.

This year's ACPA conference is about re-invention and the timing could not be better. Let's use the opportunity to talk about innovation and change and prepare ourselves for what lies ahead - these are challenging but exciting times to serve college students.

You can find me on Twitter @pottscharlie or email him at cpotts@gustavus.edu

The Fear of Failure

I spent a few days at the end of January at the ACUHO-I Chief Housing Officer Institute in Atlanta. It was an awesome experience for which I am grateful. Tremendous connections with colleagues from institutions around the country and intensive sessions around topics of all sorts related to college housing.

I was excited to take advantage of the opportunity but apprehensive about what to expect. I often feel I'm still pretty new to this job (this is the middle of my third year) and sometimes I feel naive about my role among colleagues. I've spent my entire career at small, private institutions in Minnesota - a vastly different experience than just about everyone I meet at national conferences.

The conference set-up was fantastic. Detailed, thorough presentations by talented, dynamic chief housing officers and a lot of structured small group time to digest and reflect. The institute faculty were tremendous and provided support, guidance and advice throughout the four days. My small group faculty member was Dan Pedersen, the director at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Funny to travel 1,000 miles to connect with someone at an institution that's less than two hours from your home campus. Dan was calm, reassuring and ready to share knowledge with our small group and I owe him a debt of gratitude for making the conference environment so welcoming.

I realized quickly that I felt I was in over my head at the institute. As I took a seat next to folks from the University of South Carolina, Colgate, the University of Florida, etc, I realized that I was not sure how to talk about my experience at Gustavus. Though tremendously proud of my institution, I found myself referring to it and to my experience here as if it was inferior. "Oh just this small private school in Minnesota," or "You've probably never heard of us...," etc.

I'm often motivated by my fear of failure. I think on some level many of us - whether we are honest with ourselves about it or not - are worried that the world will discover that we're frauds. The world will find out that we are just faking our way through, under-qualified and not up to the challenge. I know it's unhealthy to have fear be a motivator - particularly when talking about work. The fear of failure coupled with some grade-A introversion makes it difficult to thrive at events like the CHO Institute. What could I possibly have to share that these people don't know? What if I open my mouth and I don't say the right thing? What if they find out I'm a fraud? After all, my only qualification for attendance was that I paid the registration fee.

I quickly became overwhelmed by what I don't know. 

But then I started to realize I had an authentic story to tell about my own experience. Sure, I don't manage my budget the way a Big Ten public institution would. No, I don't have a staff of 30 to run our operation. No, I haven't been responsible for a major construction project. But I do have experience. I have a unique perspective on issues and I have the ability to both absorb and transmit knowledge that is useful.

Student housing has an incredibly supportive network of professionals. Dan told our small group a couple of times that it's not necessarily about what you don't know, but more about how you take in the knowledge that's shared by the competent professionals that surround you. Each of the faculty members was an "expert" in a specific area, but each readily admitted they didn't know everything about everything - that they are, to some degree, still figuring it all out, too.

My feelings at this institute made me think more deeply about that fear of failure and how it drives much of what I do as a professional. I read an interesting piece in Forbes last spring. It was column called "5 Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Failure," and I actually called it up again while in Atlanta for the conference. 

The article summarizes that a lack of failure means a lack of risk-taking. And as someone who's pretty risk averse (I live in Minnesota and won't walk out onto a frozen lake in the winter. Just too risky. And yes, I realize it's two feet of ice), this is a big challenge for me to accept.

The article encourages us to:

1. Embrace our mistakes - I makes lots of these. Owning them and learning from them is always the hard part, but it will help me understand why it's okay to fail.

2. Stop trying so hard - Pushing hard and only making minimal progress can certainly feel like failure. Usually the solution is right in front of us if we find out how to see it.

3. Ask for help - I hate asking for help. But not asking for help is what almost assuredly leads to my failures. Suck it up and ask for help. As the wise Mr. Pedersen said at the CHO Institute, everyone has their own expertise to lend and it serves you well to ask others for their input.

4. Say no when you're afraid to - I often just say yes because it's the nice thing to do or because it will cause less conflict if I do. And I need to remember this when asking those whom I supervise to take on projects.

5. Say yes when you're afraid to - Attending the CHO Institute was a "yes" to something that scared me. I knew going into it how I might feel in a room full of 50 accomplished professionals, but I took the leap and am thankful that I did. Focus on the great things that could happen with your decision and just say "yes."

I learned quickly that it's okay to be overwhelmed by what I don't know. Being overwhelmed and understanding the things I don't know is what creates for me a desire to learn. My fear of failure is often unfounded, but it keeps me motivated to develop personally and professionally. And I learned that we all know more than we think we do.

The lessons learned at a conference are not always what you intended.

How do you feel about fear as a motivator? Where have you learned your greatest professional lessons? I'd love to hear your thoughts - find me on Twitter @pottscharlie

The Power of Blogging

I seem to be at a mental standstill with blog writing. I have a few ideas - none fully formed. And I don't seem to have the motivation to write at this moment.

But I'm making an attempt to encourage colleagues to write. I was inspired by #SAchat folks to try my hand at creating a blog and now we have created a blog for our Student Life Division at Gustavus. We have a few entries ready to go for the month of February and the hope is that it will grow and develop as we begin to share more with each other in written form.

Check it out at http://studentlife.blog.gustavus.edu/

If you have thoughts on how to inspire others to write and/or have great examples of divisions or departments that do this now, please let me know! You can find me on Twitter @pottscharlie

Photo credit: http://todaymade.com/blog/5-ways-to-make-your-blog-better-today/

Rethinking Resolutions

The end of another year. I remember hearing people older than me talk about how the years go by more quickly the older you get. I can now attest to that fact - the years seemingly do just fly by now. The day to day demands of work, parenthood and school fill my time and I find myself surprised every 1st day of a new month when I realize another month, another season or another year has passed me by.

The year 2013 has ended and many of us welcome 2014 with open arms and an optimistic view. This is traditionally the time we create our list of resolutions. We've all done it... we create our list of things we'll do differently and better in the new year. Most of us stick with those changes for a week, maybe a month, before we settle back into the way we've always done things. Sure, sometimes a resolution will stick but it's often at the expense of some other part of our life.

The gym will be busier for a few weeks, we'll all eat healthier for a month and we'll all make sure we tell others we care about them more frequently through Valentine's Day. Then the resolutions will subside for most of us and we'll fall back into our routine.

We rarely treat resolutions like we do goals we set in the workplace and I think we should - it helps provide structure and opportunities for regular markers to judge progress. As you set your resolutions/goals, think about...

• Purpose - Why are you doing this? Is it to improve your life or are you doing it for others? Why is it valuable to YOU to set this resolution? What is the end goal?
• Who's involved? - Are you going to achieve this alone? Do you need assistance or support from others? Identify those who can/will support you and let them know you need their encouragement!
• Action steps - What are you actually going to DO? Write out a calendar, a list, a chart, stick figures with bubble thoughts... whatever you need to establish a set of action steps that will lead you to your goal.
• Progress updates - How and when will you measure your progress? Will someone else check in with you? Will you regularly reflect (in writing or by talking to someone) on your progress?
• Reward - Is there reward if the goal is accomplished? Or is the accomplishment reward enough? You know what will motivate you, so decide if a reward for achievement is needed and then do it!

Some of you are thinking "Wow, that's over-thinking it." If you have trouble setting detailed personal goals or if you aren't interested in highly-specific goals for the new year, I encourage you to re-frame your thinking about resolutions. Instead of a laundry list of extremely specific things you want to change that may only lead to disappointment (i.e. run a 5k in a specific time; write 15 professional blog posts; etc), generalize your resolutions by creating a mindset about how you'll approach the year. These might be less measurable than if you used the method above, but they are general enough that they can lead to positive, healthy choices in your life. Some examples:

• Pledge to work hard.
• Pledge to do the very best you are capable of doing.
• Pledge to choose your attitude.
• Pledge to choose your own approach to the balance of WORK and LIFE.
• Pledge to be realistic about your limitations and your potential.

However you think about resolutions or goals, make 2014 fantastic!

Let me know about your resolutions - find me on Twitter @pottscharlie or email pottscharlie@gmail.com

What Do We Mean When We Say "Managing Up"?

What does it mean to "manage up"?

During a recent Student Affairs Chat (#sachat) session on Twitter, a conversation about supervision challenged some of my thinking about the topic. That week's #sachat session (on October 31) was the first week that our professional staff did a team chat. We reserved a meeting space, had lunch, watched the chat unfold on a projector using Twitterfall and engaged in conversation with colleagues from around the country.  The topic happened to be about supervision, which led to an interesting conversation on Twitter as well as in our meeting room since I was with the staff I supervise.

The Twitter conversation seemed to move between how professionals supervise student staff and how professional staff supervisory relationships are created. A string of comments led us into a conversation about "managing up." No one in our room could accurately define what we mean when we say "manage up," so I'd like to examine it here.

The notion of "managing up" makes me a little anxious. My first thought was that the idea sounded manipulative and self-serving. My basic initial understanding was that it involved managing the relationship with your supervisor to give yourself more control (or the perception of more control) over your work environment.  How could that be healthy for an organization?  As a relatively new supervisor with a tremendous amount of room for growth in all facets of supervision, I am continually analyzing whether "managing up" is healthy or unhealthy in my own department and division.

So what is "managing up"? Allison Vaillancourt wrote a piece in July 2013 in The Chronicle of Higher Education's "On Hiring" blog called "Are you managing up?" Vaillancourt defines managing up as "the practice of engaging with the person above you in the organizational food chain in the way he or she prefers to be engaged and acting in alignment with his or her priorities." All judgements aside about her use of "food chain" for her definition of organizational structure, I think she makes some good points. Vaillancourt clarifies that managing up is different than sucking up in that it "requires adapting rather than selling your soul."  The definition that Vaillancourt provides is really about the ability to analyze the culture and dynamics of an organization under the influence of a specific leader - who are the go-to people? What matters most to the leader? How do you shape your ideas to resonate with the priorities of the leader?  Okay - I can get on board with this definition. It makes sense to me and makes the term feel a little less manipulative.

Jennifer Gould and Joshua Hettrick presented a session at the 2012 NEACUHO Fall Drive-In Conference titled "Managing Up: Engaging your supervisor in productive ways."  The transcript of the presentation provides some insight into another way of defining "managing up."  Gould & Hettrick give a list of guidelines for how to manage up effectively. Where I struggle with their guidelines, though, is that what seems to be intuitive about good supervisor/supervisee dynamics is being framed as "managing up." This is an interesting development (maybe not a new one, but certainly more of a revelation to me than I thought it would be).  The need to shift the sense of power to the entry- or mid-level professional feels very much like a Millennial generation thing - that ideas like "communicate effectively," "no surprises!," and "provide solutions, not problems" are no longer just basics of organizational dynamics but now must be commendable efforts by those who are actively trying to control the dynamics of their relationship with their supervisor.

I am concerned about professionals now (including those in my generation) who feel that supervisors must adapt entirely to the preferences and style of work of the supervisee. If a relationship is not always positive or there are consequences to ineffective work production, then the perception is that a primary reason is some dysfunctional supervisory style. While I certainly think that there is a shared responsibility for the supervisor and the supervisee to work together to create an effective relationship, I'm not convinced that it needs to be a 50-50 share on the compromise. Call it old school or call it callous but I feel that a majority of the adjustment should be to on the shoulders of the supervisee to adapt to the priorities of the supervisor and/or leaders of the organization.

Are there bad supervisors? Absolutely. But generally those in supervisory roles are tasked with different levels of understanding and vision for an organization and therefore approach roles and responsibilities differently, which can often lead to tension or conflict - both healthy and unhealthy - between supervisors and supervisees. So while "managing up" can be an effective way for a supervisee to try to gain control on their work environment and relationships, it can also be misguided. We tend to know much more about our own role or those that report to us than we do about the roles of those who supervise us - I know the ins and outs of the Area Coordinator positions I supervise much more than I understand the pressures and responsibilities of the Vice President to whom I report. I work hard to understand the multiple dimensions of my Vice President's job and I feel that sort of relationship management is more about perception and awareness than it is control.I feel my perceived approach to relationship management promotes a stronger interpersonal working relationship, but I would tread very lightly into trying to manage any part of that relationship that dealt directly with the functional aspects of her job.

TJ Logan's Student Affairs Feature article about self-awareness speaks to this idea of "managing up" and clarying how the supervisor-supervisee relationship functions. Logan discusses the value in understanding one's role and being more self-aware about the ability to influence or control decisions. He ends the piece by saying "It is not just about engaging and having a voice. It is about doing those things in the most effective ways possible."  So while it is important for a professional to determine the ways to be engaged in decision-making and leadership, it is also incredibly valuable to be self-aware and understand that - as Logan writes - "If you always have something to say, people will stop listening." Understand your role in an organization and be mindful of how and when trying to "manage up" will be most beneficial to your team.

So is "managing up" manipulative? Is it healthy? Is it beneficial to an organization?  Upon further examination and thinking in the context of how I interact with my supervisor (and how my staff interacts with me), framing "managing up" in terms of organizational efficiency and by making transparency a priority makes me feel a little more at ease with the idea.

How have you heard the term "managing up"? Do you find yourself utilizing techniques of managing up that allow you to be more productive or allow your team to function more efficiently? Share your thoughts with me on Twitter (@pottscharlie)!

Tweet