GENERAL RESOURCES FOR ADMINISTRATORS

PROFESSIONAL COACHING

• The Center for Creative Leadership is recognized as a top-ranked, global, nonprofit provider of leadership development and a pioneer in the field of global leadership research.
• The Kardia group understands that working in academia is a “meta-profession” requiring skills and expertise across a wide array of roles – with very little training along the way. Coaching helps navigate these multiple demands, customized to individuals, situations, and institutions. We make smart people smarter in all the roles associated with the intellectual endeavor. Learn more about coaching services, our coaching FAQ, or short coaching.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• An interesting article: How to Chair a University Department and Not Be Terrible At It
• 5 Tips on Surviving Your First Year as a Department Head
• Click here to access the article, How Healthy is your Academic Department, which introduces a resource called the Academic Unit Diagnostic Tool, or AUDiT. The AUDiT resource (snapshot here) uses a green, yellow and red color scheme to depict the early warning signs for how good academic units can decline or, conversely, how to identify and prioritize the problems of a challenged department as part of an effort to improve it
• Click here to access the article Creating and Sustaining a Culture of Excellence, which utilizes the AUDIT tool
• Dealing With Dysfunctional Academic Departments, an article from Inside Higher Ed
• To Chair or Not to Chair?
• Becoming a Department Chair: To Be or Not to Be – if you are on this page, it may be too late for you, but an interesting read nevertheless
• Conflict Management: a number of useful resources out of The University of Iowa
• Email and Conflict: Tips and Resources
• Enhancing Departmental Climate: A Guide for Department Chairs
• Enhancing Departmental Climate – A Chair’s Role
• Successful Strategies to Enhance Departmental Climate From the ADVANCE Program at Virginia Tech
• Communication Skills for Chairs

Book Suggestions for Chairs

• Academic Leadership: A Practical Guide to Chairing the Department by Deryl R. Learning
• The Academic Chair’s Handbook by Daniel W. Wheeler, et al.
• The Department Chair Primer by Don Chu
• The Essential Department Chair: A Comprehensive Desk Reference by Jeffrey L. Buller
• Reframing Academic Leadership by Lee G. Bolman and Joan V. Gallos
• A Toolkit for Department Chairs by Jeffrey L. Buller and Robert E. Cipriano

CONFERENCES

* The Academic Chairpersons Conference is an annual forum where academic chairpersons, administrators and faculty from all areas of higher education share the most successful, innovative ideas and strategies to assist each other in becoming more effective in their positions.

* The ACE Leadership Academy for Department Chairs is a 2-day workshop that prepares department chairs for their roles as institutional leaders who can advance their programs and contribute to the larger mission of their colleges or universities.