Coach Yourself!: Navigating Your Path as a First-Time Academic Manager Congratulations on stepping into the role of an academic line manager! You’ve moved from being an excellent academic professional—perhaps an inspiring teacher, productive researcher, or…
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Managing academic staff can be challenging, particularly if you’re a first-time line manager navigating the delicate balance between fostering autonomy and ensuring adherence to deadlines. Academics, driven by intellectual freedom and creativity, sometimes do not…
As a manager or mentor of a disruptive early-career academic with potential, you might face the challenge of navigating the fine line between encouraging their ambition and addressing problematic behaviours. This case presents a particularly…
“If you knew you couldn’t possibly fail, what would you try?” This is a favourite staple of executive coaches, and for good reason. It strips away everything that inhibits your achievement, and gets you to…
This is by far the most common reaction when discussing the scholarly outputs of an academic, or an academic department. Writing is seen as a potential luxury that has become an inconvenience. Of course, it’s…
In academia, research transformation is a crucial goal for universities seeking to stay at the forefront of knowledge creation. Academic managers, responsible for leading and motivating staff, can face the challenge of dealing with disengaged…
Dear Past Self, As an academic, you are constantly driven by the pursuit of knowledge, seeking to make meaningful contributions to your field through rigorous research. However, I know that the journey can often feel…
Those that practice regular reflection, and have an operational system in place, witness some significant benefits in their development. At the very least, you will be more aware of how you behave – and while…
In agriculture, cultivate makes us think of preparing the soil for planting and tending to crops. When we cultivate we improve something; we foster growth, perhaps by focusing on a particular situation, person or characteristic….
Coaching is a popular topic, particularly in the world of business. Executive leaders employ personal coaches to have developmental conversations, to explore hypothetical scenarios, and to encourage self-awareness. It follows that the practice has expanded,…
I’m chatting with an academic colleague about student engagement. He is struggling with one particular class. The students turn up frequently enough to avoid triggering attendance monitoring processes, and it’s creating havoc in the group…
I think that it’s fair to say that if you hear `performance management’ in an academic context, then it is referring to a negative situation. People tend to be ‘performance managed’ when their behaviour or…
For a long time the practice of ‘coaching’ has been associated with sport, and more specifically it refers to a role whereby a ‘coach’ assists a ‘coachee’ to improve their competitive performance. The coach offers…