I know that many of the Faculty Coaches in the CEE Facuty Development Program have leadership, supervisory and/or management positions with their institutions and so I wanted to resurface a brief blog to overview, in bullet point form fashion, seven principles for leading a diverse educational team. Of course, much of what we discuss in the Faculty Coach Consortium may be in line with the workings of the CEE program, teaching methodologies, and instructional tips and techniques to share with our instructors. From time to time though, I hope that we can also address our supervisory roles and share best practices along the way.
I used these bullet points in a presentation that I had the honor to give at a conference in Portugal. For now, I would like just to list them and open potential discussion for any or all:
- Communicate vision - organizationally, departmentally, etc. - to enable employees to see the whole picture, the strategic direction, mission, purpose and core values amidst the demands of daily operations and responsibilities
- Lead by example
- Create and maintain a supportive environment - statistics show that a significant factor of employee attrition is due to feeling a lack of support from one's supervisor
- Identify and provide resources - this enables employees to have what they need to do their jobs and tackle special projects and requests
- Enhance Diversity - Enhance as opposed to minimize the diversities among your staff
- Coach employees on an upward career path - ensure that specific expectations are clearly developed and communicated
- Maintain a performance-based environment - An environment where planned outcomes and results are paramount to personality differences
Please note too that there are some excellent management and leadership courses already included in the CEE Faculty Development Program, plus even more that are available outside the program at a competitive rate. Two of my favorites are ML113 (Team Management) and ML118 (Coaching Skills).
I look forward to any discussion points, comments and questions!
