"And the day came when the risk to remain in a tight bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anaïs Nin.

Dr. Robert Vallerand, a professor of psychology at the University of Quebec, Montreal has studied passion which he defines as “…engaging on a regular basis in an activity that we dearly love, find important and that resonates with who we are.”  His research identifies two forms of passion: obsessive passion-where the passion controls the person – and harmonious passion – where the person controls the passion.  Guess which one is useful and which one is harmful for a career changer?

When considering career plans or career transitions, one is often advised to “follow the passion” and a career path will emerge. However, there are two problems with this: 1) There is no direct correlation between “doing what you love” and the money your earn (I think most academics have experienced this!); and 2) Dr. Vallerand’s research showed 15-25% of his respondents did not even have identifiable passions.  If you are considering leaving academia, instead of relying on passion to determine the next step, ask yourself these questions: Read more>>

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison

Now is the time of year when academics typically say to themselves, “I have a great big junk of time so I can get all that writing done that I have been putting off,” whether it’s their master’s thesis, dissertation, articles or books.  But the truth is, most academics squander their break, procrastinating on the writing and generally frittering away the time visiting with family and friends, just like the rest of the world does.  Here are some tips to keep you writing through the holidays:

1. Enlist the support of your family and friends to ensure you get your writing time. Explain that you are going to need to work during the break, much as you love them and want to spend time with them.  This puts everyone, including you, on notice about your intention to work. Because you may be in unfamiliar surroundings, find a visual symbol to let others know that you are thinking and writing: one friend used a red hair ribbon and explained it meant, “Do not interrupt me because I am working,” to her family.  Friends and family are generally happy to abide by the rule knowing there will be a time when the symbol comes off, and it will help you stick to the plan to write instead of schmoozing.

2. Prioritize by planning reasonable chunks of work time. Accept the fact that you are not going to get as much writing done during the holiday season.. Take out your calendar and pencil in a scaled back version of your typical writing schedule for the next 4-6 weeks. If you have been writing one hour a day, plan on a half hour instead, or cut 6 hours a week down to 3. Mark off times you know you won’t write, like New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, and lessen your guilt up front.

3. Write every day. Don’t expect to binge write.  As always, I recommend writing in small chunks instead of waiting for big blocks of time that somehow never materialize, and you never even get started with the writing. Even when you can’t actually write, you can still make notes on what you need to do, references to look up, or arguments you want to make.

4. Pick your time and go off-site. Going to a coffee shop, park or library works well if you are good at ignoring distractions.  Having been raised in a family of four children born in a span of five years, I find it extremely easy to ignore the bustle of a coffee shop, and sometimes it even helps my concentration to shut out the noise. If you are entertaining family or other visitors in your own home and have an office, make use of shutting your door and placing a sign on it that indicates you are working.

5. Use academic libraries during the holidays. If you are tired of writing, take a break by visiting your nearest academic library because it will most likely not be as crowded.  Make sure to check the hours before you go, though, because they often have reduced hours due to unavailability of student staff.

6. Maintain momentum by keeping a writing journal. Keep track of how much you are actually writing by keeping a bound journal. Why bound?  It’s both portable and your will not lose papers with good ideas on them. Note the when you sat down to write, what you did (a phrase or two, no need for paragraphs), the amount of progress you made (word or page count), how long you spent, and most important of all, where you will begin again the next time you sit down to write. Maintain the journal even on days when you don’t write, with your ideas or other things you want to do.

7. Write while traveling. Whatever way you choose to travel, plane, train or automobile, you can still get a lot done. Many airports now have banks of desks with plug-ins for laptops; trains have a lounge car, and if you don’t get carsick and someone else is driving, you can even work then.

8. Keep your EYES on the prize. EYES is an acronym to help you remember healthy habits

• E is for Eating right: Pay attention to feeding yourself the right things at the right time. The body makes extra ghrelin, the appetite-boosting hormone, in response to anxiety. That may cause you to crave food high in carbohydrates and fat. Eat low fat foods that are rich in protein to help suppress ghrelin production;
• Y is for Yoga or another spiritual practice: Attending weekly services or other meditative practice can protect against age-related memory loss and thinking problems, lower your blood pressure, help you stay connected to the wider world and enhance your sense of well-being;
• E is for Exercise: Aerobic exercise also decreases the hunger hormone ghrelin, and lowers stress.  It reduces depression, by setting off pleasure chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine, making you feel calm, happy and euphoric. It reduces anxiety, and the effects last for hours.
• S is for Sleep:  Most people need eight hours of sleep for 16 hours of “awake” time. It’s counterproductive to sleep too little and spin your wheels at night attempting to write. What you write may not make sense when you are overtired, and you will be less productive in the long run.

9. Be aware of your own limits: During the holiday season of parties, we often find ourselves indulging in alcohol more than we would during the normal course of the year. Moderate your intake alcohol, and don’t plan to write when you might be hung-over. You might serve yourself better by going back to bed.  Also, be aware of your own limits concerning time spent with relatives and friends, as some people find this extremely stressful.

10. Reward each planned chunk that gets finished. If you are slogging along paragraph by paragraph, but have managed to finish an entire section of your piece, take time to celebrate. Reward yourself in a way that refreshes you: go to the movies, have a cup of tea with cookies, spend time with your partner time.  This will make it easier to return to the task later.

So, those are my tips for being out of your usual routine and still get your writing done over the holidays!

On bravely through the sunshine and the showers! Time hath his work to do and we have ours - Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s that time of year again.  Perusing the application deadlines, scanning Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the specialty journals in your field, looking for job openings and deciding which ones you are going to apply for, and then getting all those packages together.  Whether you are about to graduate and look for your first tenure-track job, or you are seeking to move laterally for greater responsibility and pay, here are 5 tips for keeping your academic job search organized:

1.          Start by thinking it through. Prior to your job search, I recommend you take some time to assess your current progress toward degree completion, long-term career goals, and requirements for personal and career satisfaction. Thinking about these issues not only helps you plan for the future, but also will make you a stronger job candidate by allowing you to more persuasively express your interests and convictions in your cover letter, CV, and interview. Take some time to weigh these ideas:

• What kinds of positions are you considering? Are you willing to consider non-teaching, research jobs or post doc?
• What specializations are you comfortable teaching?
• What are your preferences for a specific type or size of institution?
• What types of positions are you reasonably qualified for? Are you going to apply for the “outliers” or are you going to stay with what you know well?
• What are your geographic preferences?
• Are there personal issues and lifestyle requirements that may influence your search? Spousal hires, children school age, etc.?
• When will you realistically be prepared to begin a full-time position? Are you really going to be ready to start a new job fall semester 2011?
• Do you need to be more assertive about setting up interim completion dates for finishing and defending? Is your advisor helping or hindering in this process?
• What happens if you accept a position prior to completion of the dissertation? Will you realistically be able to write if teaching four courses?  (This may be a moot point now, as most institutions do not need to hire an ABD candidate with so many already finished PhDs on the market, but it still bears consideration.)

2.          Stay organized. If you are applying for multiple positions, you will quickly find that it is easy to lose track of the status of each application. It is very important to organize your materials from the beginning of your search, as it will help you be sharp and prepared in the event that you are unexpectedly (and happily) contacted for an interview via telephone.

3.          Keep a notebook. Maintain organized files of position announcements, materials submitted, and information about respective institutions in a notebook. Make sure you have pockets to put materials in, so you don’t have to three-hole punch everything you want to keep. If you get an on site interview, you can take just the folder portion that applies to a particular job and go. Things to keep in the notebook:

• Position announcement. (It’s also good to keep this if you get hired for your tenure file.)
• A copy of all application materials submitted.
• Acknowledgment letters received.
• Notes about any conversations with members of the search committee.
• Notes from interviews and relevant telephone conversations.
• Additional information gathered about that institution from the web, particularly about specialty areas for other members of the department, to enhance collegiality.
• A copy of letters of acceptance or rejection.
  • A note about notes: These are for you to help you remember; since you are not in the hiring position, it’s ok to write next to a name, “Bald guy interested in ancient Celts of the Steppes.”

4.          Keep a log. In addition, you should probably also maintain a centralized record or logbook of dates associated with each position at the front of the notebook. This can help you prioritize applications, meet crucial deadlines, and better manage the entire process.

5.          Keep materials electronically. It’s easy to maintain an electronic file of your own materials (cover letter, CV, etc.), and where possible, you may want to include electronic files from your correspondents. However, you will likely need to retain hard copies of the materials you receive back from the institution.
Remembering to organize your job search from the outset by following these simple recommendations can greatly reduce the stress of the job search and enhance your ability to enjoy the holiday season as the season for hiring next year’s faculty moves forward into the spring.

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists~ Eric Hoffer (1902 - 1983, American social writer and philosopher)

At this point in time, anyone who has school age children has settled them into this year’s routine of classes and homework.  The adults in their lives have settled back into their routine of work, supervising homework, and getting all the rest of the household management done.  Perhaps it is time consider the question, “Should I go back to school?”

The answer to that is: it depends. Pick up any magazine, newspaper, or tune into your favorite news station and you will see how we are fast becoming a global economy. Are you prepared? How will it impact your skill set? Computers have changed everything in the way we work, no matter what our jobs, in just a few short decades. The worldwide web combined with cloud computing is going to change the way we handle, store and retrieve information even more in the years to come. Employers are demanding complex thinkers, fresh ideas, and a variety of skill sets from employees that will help navigate this global economy.

So, what should you do?  Ask yourself: What do you see yourself doing in your work life if there were no perceived obstacles in your way? Give yourself the freedom to brainstorm without editing your thoughts. Do not allow yourself to play the “yes, but” game, giving the reasons you cannot do something before you even try it.

Here are seven ideas to prime the pump:

1) Learn a new language.

Because English is so widely spoken, it has often been referred to as the lingua franca of the modern era. Worldwide, approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language and 96% of Americans speak English. Linguistics professor David Crystal of Bangor University in Wales calculates that non-native English speakers now outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1 (2005). However, with 836 million speakers, Madarin Chinese is actually the most widely spoken language in the world. Spanish, with 329,000,000 speakers worldwide ranks third, followed by Arabic and then Hindi.  So learn one of those languages if you already speak English.

2) Keep up your computer skills.

Even if it’s just learning to operate a new program that you haven’t used before, from Powerpoint to Quickbooks, give it a shot.  Learn what it takes to keep a website updated.  Figure out how to blog and use your social networks.  95% of all hiring employers now look at a Linked In profile before they decide whether or not to set up an interview.  This includes academic jobs.

3) Read the latest books and trade magazines.

You are already reading the specialty journals, but it pays to know about the wider world. Check out the New York Times Book Review for hot nonfiction sellers.  Be aware of trendsetting ideas to see the big picture, and figure out your place in it.  Relax by reading biographies of people you admire, whether it’s a historical person like Abigail Adams, or a current mogul like Warren Buffett. Check out websites that relate to your area of expertise, and have fun looking at sites like Big Think or TED. You are bound to get some insights you can incorporate into your learning.

4) Keep your C.V. updated, even if you are not currently looking for a job.

You just never know when someone is going to come along who finds you interesting and capable.  Be ready to show them exactly what you have done, and how you have kept your skills updated.  Look at the academic jobs being advertised in your field.  How have they changed from the time you were offered the position you now have?  Could you still get that job if you interviewed today?

5) Go back to school.

Whether you decide to pursue another degree, or just to take an informal course with a topic that interests you, challenge your brain to expand.  Common wisdom once held our brains were fully formed by about age 20, and would not change.  Through MRI brain scanning, we now know that the brain is capable of creating new pathways, firing new neuron connections, and make unexpected connections.  Enhancing the neuroplasticity of your brain can keep you on a path of life long learning.

6) Teach what you don’t know.

There is no better way to learn something new than to teach it to someone else.  If you have an interest in a particular topic, or a skill you want to learn, go ahead and offer to teach it.  You will be staying 1-2 steps ahead of your students, but as long as you are ahead, that’s fine.  The trick with this is knowing the main points about the topic that the students should know when they finish, and not going off onto too many interesting tangents.  New professors have plenty of opportunity to experiment with this.

7) Work with an academic career coach.

If you’re feeling like you need a change or change happens to you (for instance, you are denied tenure), start working with an academic career coach to plan your future. A good strategist will help you:  a) describe what you want; b) explore your options; c) create and implement your action plan; and d) celebrate with you when you get exactly what you want for an exciting and fulfilling career in or out of academia.

As the slogan of the US Army between 1980 and 2001 declared, are you ready to “be all that you can be?” Take some risky action today by learning and using something new.

Photo by J. Berlin.

Now that we have come to the end of the semester at most colleges and our young people have processed through commencement  (including my youngest daughter!) on their way to life outside the school environment, a little common sense advice seems in order.  No matter where you work, or what you do, there are things you can control, and things you cannot.  It’s good to get a handle on the ones you cannot, so you do not spend unnecessary brain power and body energy stressing about them.  This also frees you up to handle the things that are actually within your own control and makes your life easier.

Here are five tips about what you cannot control, followed by what you can do:

1. Weather: There will be days when the weather dictates what you can and cannot do.  Storms ground airplanes, bridges wash out, and high winds knock out power lines. Frustration and anger aren’t going to change the outcome.  Do what you can to rearrange your schedule, then, let it go. Be prepared for the inevitable delays.  If you are traveling, take a good book, your laptop, and a charged cell phone, so that you can use those inevitable delays productively.

2. Traffic: Getting to work on time and ready to start the workday is certainly important, but sometimes even the best laid plans come to naught.  Your normal commute may be 45 minutes by bus or car, and you left your home base in plenty of time, but, whoops, there’s a wreck at a major intersection. It’s not going to help to sit in traffic fuming and spewing out obscene words.  Breathe, and let it go.  Besides, don’t you think the person involved in the wreck might be having a worse day than you are?

3. Equipment failure: From airlines to office equipment, it always seems that the machines break down when you most need them to work.  The copier gives out when you are running a 30 copies of a report due tomorrow; the computer suddenly boots you out of a document you had nearly perfected; the car refuses to start when you have exactly twenty minutes to get to an appointment.  Again, railing away at the machinery will not help.  Instead, choose how to handle the situation: is there someone you can call for help?  Another place to make copies?  Move your mind away from fear of the problem into creating a solution.  It’s more likely to get resolved, and you’ll feel better, too.

4. The economy: Yes, we are in a recession.  Yes, it may be hard to get the perfect job.  But, remember, everyone had to start somewhere.  There are still plenty of stories about people who started at the bottom and learned all there was to know and later became a leader in their field. In this day and age, it is estimated that the new college graduate will have 8-9 different jobs, and 4-5 different careers. Own your own labor, and your attitude toward it.  If you are happy with the work you have, happiness will spill over into other areas of your life.

5. Other people’s life choices: According to the US Department of Labor, work is the place we are most likely to actually interact with people of another race or culture in the globalized world. It is not going to help to criticize your colleagues about their choice of life partner, their culture, their parenting styles, their spending habits, or their work ethic. You are only in charge of you, your own attitudes, and beliefs. Listen and learn, understand what emotions may be behind the words, and make good choices for yourself with greater awareness.

One caveat: If you are working with someone you believe is doing something illegal, you want to either report the situation immediately to someone with higher authority, or get out of the situation as quickly as possible.

If you look at this list, the biggest commonality around what you can control is your own attitude.  It’s clear that this is something within anyone’s control, no matter where they are on the career path.

(Photo by M. Landells, 2010)

“The problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished,” said George Bernard Shaw. “We send from 100 to 300 messages a day [but] we hear only half of what is said to us, understand only half of that, believe only half of that, and remember only half of that,” writes Kathy Walker, Kansas State University.  That’s because 90% of our communication about emotions and relationships is done without words through speech, gestures, facial expressions, and posture.

Communication through speech is uniquely human. We have every communication tool you can think of at our fingertips today, using the internet for Sykpe, Twitter, Facebook and email, and still have difficulty truly communicating with each other.  Much of what we call communication today is actually a one-sided conversation.

Good communication takes place one interactive conversation at a time.

We need effective communication to share our thoughts, feelings, or ideas. If we are part of a company or an educational institution, we need to understand and share the mission of the organization to succeed. True communication is necessary for a diverse group of people to make good decisions for the future.

Here are five tips to help you communicate more effectively in any situation:

1. Identify the purpose of the conversation. Why were you having a conversation?  Were you expressing frustration or making a correction?  Or, were you trying to help instead? In What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2007), Marshall Goldsmith suggests: “Judge less, help more.”

2. Listen with intention.  Listening with intention is also referred to as “active listening.” Give the person speaking your full attention. Concentrate on allowing them to speak without interruptions.

3. Acknowledge thoughts and feelings first. Emotions are fundamental to humans in making decisions, so they are a key component of communication.  If the emotions are not acknowledged, clear thinking may be blocked.

4. Test your interpretation. Ask clarifying questions to make sure you understand.  Try paraphrasing and reflecting back to the speaker using “I” statements such as, “I think you are frustrated with this situation.”

5. Deliver an effective message.  In a dialogue, the other side of listening is speaking. Whether you are the supervisor or the employee, it is necessary to agree on what the actual issue is before it can be addressed. This requires that you are clear about the outcome you want (that the project, book, or strategy document needs to be finished on time and on budget). Brainstorming options is essential here.

Effective communication is a learned skill that anyone can master. A true conversation involves both speaking AND listening. Healthy organizations and healthy relationships develop one conversation at a time.

Photo by D. Breezy (2010)

I turn away and shut the door, and on the stair
Wonder how many times I could have proved my worth
In something that all others understand or share…
–From Meditations In Time Of Civil War by William Butler Yeats (1923)

Five Actions to Promote Collegiality

Collegiality is on my mind this month.  Maybe because of all the vitriolic rhetoric we Americans are being subjected to on the nightly news. Or maybe because I know of two people turned down for tenure this spring whose academic record was sound, but reading between the lines, there was a judgment that the person had failed to be “collegial.”

Collegiality is simply the relationship between colleagues. Colleagues are those explicitly united in a common purpose. In a good department, colleagues respect each other’s abilities and have a sense of shared responsibilities, from teaching to providing public forums for students and faculty to share new research in their area of expertise.

A key component of success within the department and the higher education institution as a whole is the department chair. The chair can promote or impair collegiality.  Faculty members are people, too, and some are a delight to be around, and some are difficult, or as many psychologists like to say today, “challenging.” Promoting collegiality requires several components:

·       A willingness to find the middle (compromise) ground
·       A willingness to give and take, rather than engage in power struggles
·       Including all faculty in major decisions while de-emphasizing status differences
·       Sharing information, and clarifying performance expectations

A healthy department invites expression, exploration, inquiry, and mutual trust. On the other side, there are the dysfunctional departments where bad behavior is tolerated or brushed aside, and there goes real communication and true solutions to problems.

Jacqueline Waggoner, an assistant professor of education at the University of Portland, describes three types of  “difficult colleagues” in Teaching Careers: The people who think their needs are the most important, the bullies who have temper tantrums, and the conflict avoidant who make excuses and never get their assigned work done.   What’s a colleague to do?

Try these five actions:
1.     Model positive communication behavior, and do not allow anyone to get away with making negative statements about anyone else.  Focus the discussion on the topic at hand, not the individual.  Do not ignore hurtful comments: it leaves other people feeling unprotected. Worse, it provides tacit permission for the behavior to continue.
2.     Remember you can only control your own reactions, and not what someone else says.  Practice detachment, and try to see some value in the suggestions comments, even if your initial reaction is to disagree.  You may be surprised at the areas where you do actually agree on a solution.
3.     Decide how important this decision really is.  If it is a small decision, let it go.  If it’s a big one, it probably needs more time or information for consideration. Consider postponing the discussion.
4.     Keep your sense of humor.  Smile. Even better, laugh. This can both relieve tension and really put things in perspective.  It feels good and it’s good for you.
5.     Celebrate success. After a successful meeting or interaction, acknowledge it. Schedule a department lunch or happy hour just for fun, and make sure everyone feels welcome. It will allow you to know people outside of the professional situation, and foster understanding. This builds a solid relationship for facing the next difficult situation.

Need help promoting collegiality?
Contact me at:
CoachHillary
@www.TransitioningYourLife.com
to set up a 30-45 minute complimentary session.

As my free gift to you, go to my website to download my
Special Report: Visioning and Goal Setting.

Ask the Coach A free monthly group call is available through Stress and Success in Higher Education. If you would like to ask an acacemic coach a specific question, or would like 10-15 minutes of laser coaching on a specific topic, please register for the April 15th session by emailing:
CoachHillary
@www.TransitioningYourLife.com

If you found the information in this blog helpful, please forward it to your colleagues.