The New Department Chair: 100 Daily Reflections for Mindfully Designing Your Term

The New Department Chair: 100 Daily Reflections for Mindfully Designing Your Term, written by a chair with over a decade of experience at three universities, consists of 100 reflections about being a department chair. Using theory, personal stories, and practical advice, readers are provided with 100 opportunities to think through how they approach the complicated responsibilities of being chair. Topics include the precarious nature of academic management, the emotional labor of the position, advocacy, diversity and inclusion, budgeting, imposter syndrome, department meetings, bullies, social media, working with deans, enrollment management, and others. This collection serves as both a guide and a mentor in print for chairs as they wrestle with the complexity of their roles. It’s not a manual but instead an invitation to engage the position with purposefulness and direction.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction 1: Your New Professional Identity 2: You Don’t Have to Be a Reluctant Chair 3: Understanding the Chair Position at Your University 4: Changing Relationships with Your Colleagues 5: The Power Paradox: Leading without Levers 6: The Slippery Slope of Accommodation 7: Chairing from a Beginner’s Mindset 8: The Art of Information Management 9: Boundary Spanning (Betwixt and Between) 10: A Chair’s Inbox 11: Department Meetings as More than Agenda Items 12: Creating an Agenda for a Department Meeting 13: Cultivating Constructive Dialogue in Department Meetings 14: Effectively Participating in College-Wide Chairs’ Meetings 15: Setting Goals 16: The Power Paradox of an Academic Middle Manager 17: Big-Picture Budgeting 18: Your University’s Budget Model and Where You Fit In 19: Budgeting Strategies and Tactics 20: Grade Appeals as Pedagogical Process 21: Becoming Privy to Department Drama 22: Informational Asymmetry, Confidentiality, and Managerial Trust 23: You Are Chair of Students, Not Just Faculty 24: Networking with Other Chairs 25: Agenda Interrupted 26: Advocacy and Influence from the Middle 27: Writing Memos for Resource Allocation Requests 28: Student Misconduct 29: Inappropriate Faculty Behavior 30: Unilateral Versus Multilateral Decision-Making 31: Focus on Where It Counts: The Pareto Principle and Demanding Faculty 32: Generous Leadership and the Power of Sharing Recognition 33: The Emotional Labor of Being Chair 34: The Visible Chair 35: When to Address Problems with Collective Policies 36: When to Address Problems with Private Conversations 37: Mentoring Junior Faculty 38: Working with Senior Faculty 39: Supporting Part-Time Faculty 40: The Art of Annual Reviews (The Big Picture) 41: Strategic Approaches to Annual Faculty Evaluations 42: Do Not Play Politics with Your Course Schedule 43: Course-Scheduling Strategies 44: The Summer Schedule 45: Your Department’s Social Media Presence 46: Digital Dilemmas 47: Academic Bullies 48: Practical Advice for Handling Academic Bullies 49: Committee Assignments 50: Classroom Teaching Observations 51: Your Department’s Approach to Online Education 52: Imposter Syndrome 53: Your Relationship with Your Dean 54: Your Relationship with Your Dean Continued 55: Your Relationship with Your Office Associate 56: Your Relationship with Your Provost 57: Supporting International Faculty 58: Assembling a Search Committee 59: Candidate Selection and Search Committee Processes 60: Your Increased Legal Liability 61: Strategies for Navigating the Legal Aspects of Being Chair 62: Hallway Diplomacy 63: Keys to Relationship Building in Your Department 64: Approaching Virtual Meetings 65: Effective Strategies for Virtual Meetings 66: Status-Based Inequality in Your Department 67: Fundraising and Interfacing with Donors 68: Departmental Culture 69: Your Blind Spots 70: Inclusivity, Diversity, and Departmental Culture 71: Enrollment Management 72: Recruiting New Students 73: Retention 74: Transfer Students 75: Students Switching Majors 76: Crisis Communication 77: Public-Facing Events and Public Speaking Anxiety 78: Your New Raise 79: Formal Discipline 80: One-on-One Meetings 81: Maintaining Your Scholarly Agenda 82: Higher Ed in Flux: Chairing through Uncertain Times 83: Your Department Website 84: Beyond Reluctance: Chairing toward Unexpected Opportunities and Growth 85: Contemplating the Pursuit of Upper Administration 86: Embracing Feedback: Learning to Listen and Adapt 87: The Value of Classroom Engagement 88: Leading Meaningful Assessment 89: Gossip, Trust, and Leadership 90: Chairing through the Tenure Process 91: Justifying Your Decisions 92: The Calculus of Change 93: Parent Complaints 94: Balancing Academic Leadership and Academic Management 95: The Academic Cycle 96: Performing as Chair 97: Summer and End-of-the-Year Planning 98: Authenticity and Pragmatism 99: Effective Communication 100: Lessons Learned and Paths Forward Index About the Author

About the Author :
W. Benjamin Myers is professor of communication and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Toledo.

Review :
Stepping into an academic administrative position as chair or director? Do yourself a favor and buy this book! The short day-by-day format will help you create excellence in your faculty and students, manage stress, see the forest through the trees, mindfully reflect, and remember your core values – all one bite at a time.yone who has become a department chair will find Myer’s unvarnished anecdotes about his missteps, lessons learned, and solid advice resonating with their own experiences. The benefit of these reflections lie in the way the author has personally navigated the paradoxes, vulnerabilities, challenges, and ambiguities of this managerial-leadership role that he says is akin to being a diplomat. Particularly insightful are sections on budgets, appeals and grievances, conflictual and productive relationships with all stakeholders, and chairs’ own legal liabilities and responsibilities for those whom they supervise. This is a must read!! Stepping into an academic administrative position as chair or director? Do yourself a favor and buy this book! The short day-by-day format will help you create excellence in your faculty and students, manage stress, see the forest through the trees, mindfully reflect, and remember your core values – all one bite at a time. As a new chair, you often don’t know what you need until you need it, and this book will help any new chair anticipate what they will need. Myers offers a communication-based “field guide” to being a new chair—one that is timely, thoughtful, comprehensive and generous. The 100 reflections may be read in any order, at any time, according to frame of mind or the always-arising needs of the moment. Myers draws on research and experience to capture the unique rewards and challenges of the department chair role. The book moves beyond equipping chairs to merely survive, and instead models a mindful approach to thriving in the role through a few minutes a day spent in purposeful reflection. Despite acknowledging that all departments and institutions are different, I found the anecdotes highly relatable. I wish I had this book when I was starting out in the role.