Academic Affairs, Human Resources, and the Office of the President have collaborated to develop a set of 24/7 resources for academic leaders. See below for our featured article of the month, and scroll further for resources by topic.
These resources are part of the UM System's Academic Leadership Development initiative.
Featured Resource
Now Available: Academic Leadership Development (ALD) Conference Materials
Materials are available for some ALD breakout sessions. Click the title below to access. For more conference information, please click HERE.
- Owning Your Role: Navigating Difficult Dilemmas Facing Academic Leaders (Provost Panel)
- Difficult Conversations: Accountability, Candor and Understanding
- An Update on Our Finances and Budget
- Upholding Standards in a Pandemic: Thoughts and Discussion
- What We Know About COVID-19 Now
- A Leader’s Biggest Challenge: Dealing with Difficult People
Resources for Understanding and Mitigating Burnout
Faculty Well-Being and Career Paths: What Campus Leaders Need to Know, Chronicle for Higher Education (Watch webinar)
How to Prevent Employee Burnout, Gallup (View collection)
Burning Out, Inside Higher Ed (View article)
Burnout is Coming to Campus, EdSurge (View article)
The Resilience Center (View website)
Wellness & Leadership in the Context of COVID-19
Leading and Working through a Pandemic, Harvard Business Review (View collection)
Productivity and Happiness Under Sustained Disaster Conditions, Chronicle for Higher Education (View article)
How to Talk to Your Team When the Future is Uncertain, Harvard Business Review (View article)
How Will the Pandemic Change Higher Education? (Collection), Chronicle for Higher Education (View collection)
How Working Parents Can Support One Another, Harvard Business Review (View article)
Women at Work: We're Beyond Stretched (Podcast Episode), Harvard Business Review (Listen to the episode)
FutureU (Podcast Series) (See all episodes)
- Managing Campuses During the Coronavirus (Listen to the episode)
- Keeping a University Financially Sustainable During the Coronavirus Crisis (Listen to the episode)
Additional resources for staying healthy and upbeat
From having to rapidly flip a course online to adjusting to life in a (perhaps makeshift) home office, COVID-19 has required a lot of the University's faculty members. This isn't easy, and it's important in times like these to make sure you're taking stock of your wellbeing. These resources can be helpful to anyone, whether you're feeling overwhelmed or isolated or simply looking to be proactive about staying engaged and healthy.
- Connect with other leaders.The Academic Leadership Development Initiative is hosting weekly zoom sessions to give faculty leaders (e.g., chairs, deans) a chance to come together and discuss leadership challenges, perspectives, and strategies specific to this time. These sessions are scheduled for the following dates and times. For more information please contact umaaleadership@umsystem.edu.
- Friday, April 3, from 9 - 10 am, Summary
- Wednesday, April 8, from 9 - 10 am, Summary
- Friday, April 17, from 12 - 1 pm, eLearning Panel Discussion Summary
- Thursday, April 23, from 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Summary
- Wednesday, April 29, from 12 - 1 pm Summary
- Thursday, May 7, from 1:30 - 2:30 pm, Women Working Through COVID 19 Summary
- Tuesday, May 12, from 12:30 - 1:30 pm, VUCA & Design Thinking Summary
- Monday, May 18, from 3 - 4 pm, Finding Joy in and at Work Summary
- Wednesday, May 20, from 4 - 5 pm or Thursday, May 21, from 12 - 1 pm, Perspectives, Policies, and Tools for Budgets
- Friday, May 29, from 10 - 11 am, Maintaining Faculty Morale & Motivations Summary
- Wednesday, June 17, from 9 - 10am, Mental Wellbeing
- Monday, June 29, from 11am - 12pm, Addressing Anti-Blackness on Campus Webinar Discussion
- Tuesday, July 14, from 10 - 11am, Deconstructing White Privilege Video Discussion
- Thursday, July 30, from 4 - 5pm, How to Be an Anti-racist Book Discussion
- Try Sanvello. Sanvello is a premium resource based in cognitive behavioral therapy designed to promote healthy habits and mental hygiene. Free for all UM System faculty members signing up with a university email, Sanvello offers a suite of features from guided meditation, daily mood tracking, coping tools, and more. It even includes a community aspect that allows you to share your own and learn from others' wellness tips. Click here to get started.
- Join your colleagues for free mindfulness or yoga Zoom sessions. Available to all UM System faculty, staff, and students.
- Yoga Sessions
- Every Monday at 3:00pm: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/129131172
- Every Thursday at 8:30am: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/143606161
- Mindfulness Sessions
- Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 12:00pm: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/939301627
- Yoga Sessions
- Take it from the experts. Mindi Thompson, a licensed psychology and associate professor of counseling psychology at UW Madison, wrote an excellent piece on faculty wellness in Inside Higher Ed that's worth a read. Among her tips:
- Be mindful of your consumption of media, email, texts, etc. Consume news and other media only during specified blocks of time.
- Stay active and prioritize your physical and emotional health. Spend time outdoors, listen to music, invest in hobbies, and remember that taking care of yourself is a first step to supporting others.
- Maintain connections with others. Schedule a Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime call with your colleagues, friends, and family. Send a text to someone you haven't talked to in awhile or give them a call.
- Exercise patience and compassion. A lot is being asked of you in a short period of time, so don't expect things to be perfect. Take time to reflect, to decompress and practice coping skills. We will get through this.
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Institutional resources: KeepLearning, Zoom Tutorials, University Coronavirus Pages: MU, UMKC, UMSL, S&T
Resource by Topic
Getting Started as an Academic Leader
Articles
- 10 Suggestions for a New Department Chair (The Chronicle)
- Tips for New Online Faculty Deans: A Faculty Perspective (Faculty Focus)
- The Work Starts Before You Start (The Chronicle)
- Perspectives: Preparing for New Leadership Roles (Association of American Medical Colleges)
- Five mistakes made by poor academic leaders (University Affairs)
- Petty Principles for Leaders in Higher Education (Academic Briefing)
- Five Phrases Every Academic Leader Should Know (The Chronicle)
- Four Phrases an Academic Administrator Should Never Say (The Chronicle)
- Deciding to Lead (The Chronicle)
Reports & Guides
- Starter Kit: New to the Administration (The Chronicle 2018) ($44.00)
- Reframing Academic Leadership (Bolman and Gallos 2011) ($29.59)
- Admin 101 (The Chronicle, routinely updated)
Managing the Budget
Articles
- Learn How to Follow the Money (The Chronicle)
- Understanding College and University Endowments (American Council on Education 2014)
- Budgets in Higher Education: The Keys to Successful Financial Management (HigherEdJobs)
- Budgeting for Institutional Success (Higher Education Today)
Infographics
Books
- Effective Practices for Academic Leaders: Budgeting for Department Chairs (Krawitz 2007) ($20.00)
Websites
Legal and Ethical Issues
Articles
- Managing Student Complaints (Faculty Focus)
Research
- Navigating the Legal Landscape for Deans, Chairs, and Directors (Kent State University 2010)
- Legal Issues Department Chairs Often Face (Gomez 2015)
- Selected Legal Aspects of Academic Administrative Leadership: An Orientation for New Academic Administrators (Jenkins 2003)
- Hiring and Promotion Legal Issues for Department Chairs (Euben 2000)
Podcasts
Websites
Stay Sharp
In the fast-changing industry of higher education, it’s important to stay abreast of current events in higher education. Staying well-informed can help you learn from the mistakes and successes of other institutions, anticipate issues before they arrive in your inbox, and think creatively about daily issues and challenges outside the context of your own institution. Below are a series of sources to get you started.
Podcasts
- Re:Learning (The Chronicle)
- Blue & Goldcast (University of British Columbia)
- Higher Ed (NPR)
- EdSurge on Air (EdSurge)
- Leadercast (paid resource)
- Research in Action (Oregon State University)
- The Radical Self-Trust Podcast Channel (Katie Linder)
Newsletters
- Academic Leader (monthly): Provides practical advice for department chairs, academic deans, program directors, and other leaders within academic affairs. Learn more.
- Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day (daily): Quick, practical management advice to help you do your job better.
- Inside Higher Ed Weekly News Update (weekly): Your need-to-know digest of the week’s news, delivered every Friday morning.
- Academe Today (daily): Keeps you up-to-date and summarizes the latest events in higher education as well as highlights from the most current issue of The Chronicle.
- Diversity Matters (weekly): Weekly updates with news, essays and career advice about diversity in higher ed, sent each Tuesday.
- Inside Digital Learning (weekly): Weekly, in-depth coverage of technology and the learning experience, sent each Wednesday.
- Washington Post’s Grade Point (twice weekly):The latest in news, debates and issues in higher education for students, teachers and more. In your inbox twice a week.
Websites
Inclusive Excellence and Climate
Articles
- How to Stop Yourself From Being Overworked and Bitter (Inside Higher Ed)
- Advice for Department Chairs: Six Steps to Building a Healthy Department (Faculty Focus)
- Deans, Chairs & Academic Leaders: Tips to Enhance a Department’s Teaching Climate and Culture (University of Toronto Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation)
- How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence (Harvard Business Review)
- Gender Stereotypes in Deliberation and Team Decisions (Harvard Business Review)
- Approaches to Building and Sustaining a Diverse Adjunct Workforce (Academic Briefing)
- Overcoming the Pipeline Myth: Department Chairs as Transformative Diversity Leaders (Academic Briefing)
Videos
Podcasts
- Women’s Brains Aren’t Wired That Way (Blue & Goldcast) (32 min.)
- If You Had $45 Billion, What Would You Do to Improve Education? (Re:Learning)
- The Community-Building Power of Ritual in Education (NPR Higher ed) (17 min.)
- The Biases We Bring to Information and Learning (NPR) (~15 min.)
Books
- Diversity’s Promise for Higher Education (Smith 2009) ($32.95)
- Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (Banaji and Greenwald 2013) ($15.55)
Websites
Institutional Resources
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) resources
- UM System Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- MU Division of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity
- UMKC Division of Diversity and Inclusion
- UMSL Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- S&T Office of Institutional Equity & Inclusion
Mental Health & Well-Being
- MU Counseling Center
- UMKC Counseling Services
- UMSL Counseling and Disability Access Services
- S&T Counseling Services
- Missouri Partners in Prevention
Presentations
- Presentation to the UM System Board of Curators on Student Mental Health & Well-Being
Difficult Conversations and Conflict Management
Articles
- Time to Overcome Your Evaluation Avoidance (The Chronicle)
- Advice for academic leaders on handling troublesome units (Inside Higher Ed)
Videos
- Radical Candor: The Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss Kim Scott (~21 min.)
Podcasts
- Best of ‘Higher Ed’: Effective Correction (NPR) (~17 min.)
- Enjoying and Embracing Conflict, And Other Leadership Lessons Learned (NPR) (~19 min.)
Books
- Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most (Stone 2010) ($15.73)
- Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity (Scott 2017) ($15.37)
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Articles
- Which Metrics Are Actually Useful, and How Can You Tell? (The Chronicle)
- 3 leadership behaviors you need to make your organization data-driven (Elsevier)
- How to identify (and respond to) the data denier (EAB)
- Using Analytics to Transform Decision Making in Higher Education: Patience is a Virtue (EvoLLLution)
Change Management
Articles
- Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail (Inside Higher Ed)
- The Challenge of Leading Change: Some Remedies for Resistance (Part 1, Part 2) (Academic Briefing)
- Advice for academic leaders on handling troublesome units (Inside Higher Ed)
- How to Make Sure They Heard What You Actually Said (The Chronicle)
- How Do You Decide Which ‘Great Idea’ to Back? (The Chronicle)
- Inspiring Change with Your Strategic Plan (Academic Briefing)
Videos
- How great leaders inspire action with Simon Sinek (~18 min.)
Books
- Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion (Boyatzis 2005) ($30.41)
- Managing Up: How to Move up, Win at Work, and Succeed with Any Type of Boss (Abbajay 2018) ($22.18)
- Leading Change (Kotter 2012) ($19.74)
- Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions (Kotter and Rathgeber 2016)
Time Management, Balance and Self Care
Articles
- How to Deal with Constantly Feeling Overwhelmed (Harvard Business Review)
- Time Management Strategies for Academic Leaders (Faculty Focus)
- How Administrators can be Both Academic Leaders and Find Time for Themselves: Balancing Leadership and Life (Inside Higher Ed)
- It’s About Time—or Rather, Time Management (The Chronicle)
- 4 Ways to Have More Fun as a Faculty Member (The Chronicle)
Videos
- The Space Between Self-Esteem and Self Compassion with Kristin Neff (19 min.)
Podcasts
- How Practices for a Healthy Mind Could Promote a Healthy Body Too (NPR Higher ed) (~15 min.)
Books
- Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope, and Compassion (Boyatzis 2005) ($30.41)
Websites
Performance Management
- How to Be a Radically Open Department Head (The Chronicle)
- Sample Faculty Conduct Allegation Form (UMKC)
- Sample Three Year Planning Tool (MU)
- Sample Comparative Data Tool (S&T)
- New research says relatively simple interventions are effective in addressing faculty workload imbalances and inequities (Inside Higher Ed)
- Faculty Performance Management: Plan, Coach, Develop: Key Take-Aways (UM System)
Reviewed 2020-12-22