Increasing Competence and Confidence

A colleague recently lamented on Twitter:

“Finished prelim FY14 budget…another year of no pro devo conferences for this guy. Oh well, it’s more $ directly benefiting students!”

That’s 140 characters of sadness right there!

For divisions of student affairs to make ends meet, professional development, particularly conference attendance and travel, may need to be an area to cut. However, there’s two big problems with this line of thinking: first, cutting staff professional development means they may not have access to education on some of the issues they most need to learn about. For example, if your state uses a graduation formula for funding, then you better know how to retain students. But what happens when your entire work has been focused on planning events, advising students about policies/procedures, offering services and programs, and organizational management practices and you haven’t considered retention conversations as part of your work. While these things may influence student retention, it doesn’t mean that you know how to use retention of students as your FRAMEWORK. How do you go about developing the competence and confidence to have the conversations and focus on the right topics to influence retention without some training?

While I would encourage divisions of student affairs to think twice about cutting conference and travel funds, the second issue is that when we think of professional development as ONLY going somewhere else and having to travel to get there then you miss the mark and professional development becomes something done once a year versus something that is integrated into your approach to work. While it stinks that you won’t head to your favorite association’s annual meeting, you can rethink professional development in a way that uses the human and fiscal resources you do have. Here’s a few ideas:

1. Form a reading group: discuss an article from a book or journal a few times a month. Put those association magazines and journals to use. You can use wikis to form discussion groups.

2. Determine an area of improvement, possibly one of the ACPA/NASPA core competencies, and meet with a colleague on campus who you believe is already strong in this area. Interview them about how they developed their skills. Develop an ongoing mentoring relationship.

3. If you’re in a location with multiple institutions around you, coordinate some in-service trainings using each other as resources. For example, here in Memphis we could have staff from student life at Rhodes, LeMoyne-Owen, Southwest Community College and many others meet to discuss best approaches to leadership development. And treat the day as if you were at a conference. You don’t have to go to your office before or after. Use the full day!

4. There are lots of free or low cost webinars offered by associations. If you’re a Campus Labs or Map-Works client, there are numerous assessment webinars that come with your package – and know that there are likely other services being used by other places in the university/college at which you work that may provide similar “free” services.

5. Coordinate a monthly call with colleagues across the country who do similar work to you. Pick a topic and have everyone bring two to three questions they have about the topic. Have people provide thoughts. For questions you can’t answer, have people commit to finding resources and sharing with the group.

6. Is it time to begin classes toward that next degree?

What matters is that you’re thinking intentionally about your professional development. Try creating an individualized plan using the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies, possibly using this model that we’re beginning to apply here at U of M.

There’s value to coming together to learn. Ideally, divisions of student affairs can fund your participation at national or regional conferences, but when that doesn’t happen, it doesn’t mean to stop focusing on your development. Look around you and you’ll be able to find creative ways to keep learning without breaking the bank.

I’ve been to Vegas before and I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought about my ethics as a student affairs professional until going there for a professional conference. Personal time with friends at my bachelor party (not quite The Hangover but admittedly there were similarities) and a friend’s wedding were reasons I spent several days in Vegas in 2005 and 2006. While I know I can’t completely disconnect my personal and professional ethics, these were times for me and not my work. I certainly wasn’t thinking of the ethical principles of student affairs work during either visit.

Many people see me as someone who asks colleagues to make good decisions at conferences: I believe that it’s your responsibility to represent your institution well and to use their resources well. It’s not a vacation. You’re working.

I had a few folks talk to me about their challenge with a convention in Vegas, particularly because student affairs professionals must be good role models for students. You might read that as student affairs professionals should not have fun, but I read it as we make decisions to act in ways that reveal our values and permits students to see our authentic selves. At the least when WE act in ways that counter what students perceive to be our expectations of behavior for THEM we might be seen as hypocritical.

I think I have fun and sometimes that involves consuming alcohol. I’m honest with students about decisions I make. I can justify those decisions and feel ok with them – a basic part of handling ethical decisions. So how did that play out in Vegas?

Upon reflection, I think it is great that we had our convention in Vegas. It is the perfect place to examine your ethics. It’s a great test for us as professionals. So, let’s consider some actions I took that may present ethical considerations for me while representing my university and myself.

Did I partake in drinking alcohol? Yes. I had two to four drinks a night each time spread out over at least three hour spans. Typically wine or beer, except for those two straight bourbons while playing blackjack.

Did I visit any establishments in which people remove their clothes or are scantily dressed? No unless you count Cirque de Soleil.

Is playing 90 minutes of blackjack a problem? Possibly. I played from 5:30-7 before the IU reception. I could have been at a meeting or session.

I went to sleep between 11-12 each night. Slept no later than 6:30 each morning. I could have stayed up later, but I had stuff to do the next day or had just done enough that day – I’m not old but 41 year old Dan can’t rally the way he used to. Bedtime wasn’t set for me. I chose to go when I needed. If I had been up later I hope I still would have gotten up as early and went to as many sessions as possible.

Did I skip sessions? See above. Between three presentations, meetings, and attending others’ sessions I participated in about eight hours of structured professional development each day. Spent many more hours talking to colleagues about important student affairs topics and lots of conversations on other interests I’d say we’re good for me professionally because they were good for me personally. Spending time with your best student affairs friends is just good!

There are other considerations that may be ethical dilemmas.

Did I go to a state in which issues of social injustice exist (see views on AFA or NASPA in Phoenix during 2010 and 2012). Yes. Prostitution is legal. Women are objectified for money. Guess as we throw around social justice, inclusion, intercultural competence as a value we better be prepared to address all issues not just the ones popular right now. Then again, if we only had student affairs conferences in states with no laws that undermine our associations’ values we’d likely just end up in Vermont or Iowa. Neither of which are places people want to go for conferences!

I’m happily partnered. I don’t hook up. I’m safe there.

Are these considerations that everyone should examine? I don’t know. I do. I firmly believe that these are my considerations and I don’t tell you that they should be yours. I do know that student affairs professionals struggle with all of these issues.

The only judgment I make is that I believe people should use their institution’s resources appropriately and go to sessions, not use it as vacation. After that though, I don’t judge. Drink all you want. See whichever sex naked as much as you want. Gamble away. Ultimately, you will need to reconcile to what extent these are or are not compromises to your ethics, those of your institution and those of the profession. At some point we will have to defend our actions to colleagues – just be ready to defend your decisions.

In today’s Inside Higher Ed, Maria Stewart addresses perfectionism and the inability to acknowledge mistakes. The article couldn’t come at a better time because I’ve seen a few examples lately of folks in our field aiming to defy reality:

Student affairs professionals are not superhuman. We make mistakes.

I believe Dr. Stewart’s points apply well to us: admit the mistake, explain the reason why it was mad, determine how it will not happen again, and seek forgiveness. These are all things we can do better. We can be transparent about our faults. We can receive forgiveness and deal with those who will  not accept our apology. I think the biggest problem is when we are called for the mistake and then our hubris emerges: it was not a mistake. It was someone else’s fault.

And we make the same mistake again.

When considering our competence and confidence to do this work, we have a lot of expectations on us: attend to the distinct needs of diverse populations of students while also doing what is best for all. We have to mitigate risk and attend to the law. We have to abide by ethical principles. We have to act in alignment with student affairs values and principles. If we are doing these things, making the effort, and the mistake happens, then we learn from it and move on.

I believe that if we ground our work in an intentional way and exercise due diligence, then when the mistake occurs most will be willing to forgive and most likely the majority will at least forget.

What have been your mistakes? How did you move on from the mistake? What did you learn?

I finally finished reading “Learning is Not a Sprint” edited by Darby Roberts and Kathy Collins. The books’ great overall but I feel two of the chapters are particularly important for student affairs professionals to read.

In chapter five Katy King explains the responsibility student advisors and student employee supervisors have for helping students learn. Based on the DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice) project conducted by higher education scholars in 2005, she identifies 10 strategies to promoting learning in advising and supervising roles. I won’t dive into the ten practices, as you could buy the book and it would make this blog too long, but King argues that all we do should focus on learning. Period. She writes that filling the roles of mentor, teacher, supervisor, leader and follower can help students learn from those who advise and supervise them. King does well to apply several concepts and frameworks to basic advising strategies. She ends with the resolution that this is a shared journey between advisor and student and it is one that each person will be all the better for as a result of experiencing.

In chapter six Krista Jorge Bailey brings forth the concept of the “student learning focused” advisor/supervisor. She explains that student affairs professionals have an obligation to develop the skills needed to teach the students with whom they work. She acknowledges that this may be a difficult process, as it’s a paradigm shift for many. She explains John Kotter’s Leading Change model, which has been applied in so many different contexts including higher education. Through providing tactics for each of the eight steps of the change process, Bailey helps us to see how we can better integrate learning.

I’d recommend reading “Learning is not a Sprint” for these two chapters alone – both can aid in increasing your competence and confidence to enact the ACPA/NASPA Core Competencies of Student Learning and Development and Assessment, Evaluation and Research. I believe these chapters by King and Bailey bring forth great ideas to integrate learning approaches into our work.

Have you read “Learning is not a Sprint”? What are your thoughts about key takeaways?

I’ve embarked on a project lately – I want to hear from colleagues about why they view the competencies of the student affairs profession as important and how they have gone about developing skills, attributes, values and knowledge that make them “stand out” as models of excellence.

Within our division of student affairs, I’ve interviewed one person that I believe stands out for each competency. We’ve got lots of examples of people who do really great work and know what they’re doing, but this project focuses on not only having the competence but listening to their stories of how the skill evolved and what kinds of watershed moments have facilitated the growth of that competence. It isn’t always about being the best but rather these staff members stand out as having the work ethic and commitment to improve on an existing foundation of success. It may be the director of student leadership and involvement who has worked hard to clarify his professional purpose and approach to enacting this approach  (Personal Foundations) or the coordinator of a student success program geared at first-generation students who believes that theories of learning and development should guide her work (Student Learning and Development).

In a soon to be released Division of Student Affairs newsletter, I’ll share the interviews I conducted with these staff. In the meantime who in your division of student affairs would you hold up as a role model for each competency? What makes that person “special”? Take the time to have the conversation with her/him to learn about their journey and how you can increase your competence and confidence in enacting the competencies that are needed to do good work in student affairs.

A lot has been written about authenticity in student affairs work. In the ACPA and NASPA Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners, the Personal Foundations competency states that at the intermediate level one should be able to “identify the effect between one’s personal and professional lives, and develop plans to manage any related concerns”. Ultimately, we have been asked to bring our “authentic selves” to our work with students.

I believe the concept of authenticity has a ton of baggage that comes along with it: as the concept exists somewhere within the parameters of what YOU think is appropriate and what OTHERS in the profession think is appropriate. You have to be ready to know just how much of the REAL you is appropriate to share. You also have to know when your work and professional selves intersect and when they are separate. Ultimately, you have to reconcile to what extent your approach to authenticity aligns or counters with the perspectives of others and the expectations of the field. It is for you to reconcile and if you can come away saying “I am authentic” then that’s great. If you come away thinking that you have a hidden or contradictory self then you might consider what needs to give. Either way, a harsh reality is that you will be asked to explain yourself. Just have your response ready and prepare to disagree with someone that your idea of authenticity and theirs may differ.

What issues do you think place your authenticity into question?

To what extent does our walk and talk need to be synonymous?

What can you do to “manage related concerns” and strengthen your personal foundation?

January 1st came and went; many student affairs professionals assuredly made a resolution to achieve “life/work balance”.

Maybe the resolution should be reconsidered and clarified:

Do we actually work more/less than other salaried professions with comparable educational credentials? Teachers? Association executives? Nonprofit community leaders?

Are we looking at a definition of balance that is based on the myth of a 40 hour work week for those in salaried positions?

What is it that consumes our time? How could we approach our work differently to properly influence the lives of our students and complete the duties of our position in 40-45 hours?

In the course of your day, how much time do you spend on Facebook? Twitter? Walking to get coffee at the student union? How much time are you WORKING vs. BEING IN THE OFFICE/ON CAMPUS and what is appropriate in terms of expectations of WORK?

Do you fit in time during the work day to participate in professional associations? Listen to webinars, read journals, etc for your professional development?

Do you appreciate what is likely a good 20 days paid-vacation a year off between holiday breaks that many in the private sector don’t receive?

Are you happy in your work and willing to make the concessions of time and income to stay in student affairs? If not, what needs to change? If your skill set was applied in some other career would you work less/make more?

Does your environment feel healthy in general and is there a sense of collegiality and support for achieving the level of balance that works for you? If not, what needs to change?

In my dissertation research, one participant talked about an “integrated self” in her description of life as a student affairs professional. As a graduate student she knew that others around her saw her as inbalanced, but she believed in the work she did. She was partnered and had other things to do, but checking her email at 9 at night was something she believed she needed to do to maintain some sanity. Good or bad, she recognized student affairs was a profession that required her to integrate her personal and professional selves rather than hope they could remain compartmentalized.

There’s a lot of literature in student affairs and other professions that address productivity and issues with salary/hours work conflicts. There’s resources such as PayScale that can help you to understand salaries of professions and how we compare. Ultimately, student affairs is about reconciling expectations (of success, influence, economic security, etc.) with realities (we will often fail and be frustrated, we won’t be paid what we think we’re worth).

Additionally, the life/work balance we all want should be driven by our individual goals; not someone telling you what is and is not appropriate. If you are convinced that you’re off balanced because of what YOU believe to be your professional goals and values, then it’s time to reconsider the resolution to be more balanced and figure out what needs to change to allow it to happen.

What would life/work balance mean to you?

I work in student affairs assessment. I came up through working in fraternity/sorority life programs and leadership. I have not worked on a campus directly with students in fraternities/sororities for six years though I have done consulting in this area and continue to volunteer in a range of ways. A person asked me why I continue to attend and see value in the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Annual Meeting (AFAAM) because I no longer work in this functional area. There are three main reasons I continue to see value in active involvement in and attendance at the AFAAM.

First, I think functional area associations do more than just educate on the functional area. Many of the skills that are explained as necessary in the ACPA and NASPA Professional Competencies document as intermediate and advanced can be learned in the functional area association. The functional area is often just the context in which you work, but AFAAM has workshops on multicultrual competence, assessment, supervision, etc. While explained in part for a F/S Life Office, these are skills we need in any area and skills we can continue to develop/improve across the career span.

Another reason is that I approach any information as learning. I don’t tend to go to some of the workshops that are a little more activity oriented – such as how to plan recruitment – but there are plenty of sessions at the AFAAM that while I’ve likely attended a session on the topic before, I can pull something new from hearing it again.

Finally, I believe in mentoring and generativity in the student affairs profession. I go to AFAAM and often do several workshops or participate in activities that help graduate students with resume preparation. I get a lot out of contributing to help others and in turn I develop increased competence.

Are you involved in a functional area association even though you’re a mid-level generalist or working in a different functional area? Why do you stay involved?

I have been engaged in student affairs professional activities since December 1996 when I attended my first Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors meeting in Orlando. Participation in committees made sense for me – I tend to like to get involved and contribute. Over time I’ve held lots of positions in five different higher education associations, authored lots of articles, made many presentations. I tend to read/skim every issue of association magazines and journals

My inclination for involvement is why it is so important that I be intentional: I can get distracted by the bright lights of new journals, conference attendance, and volunteer positions. While it is important to be engaged, managing a commitment to professional development should only come second to doing your job well in the first place.

Recently I developed my individualized professional development plan as a part of our Division of Student Affairs initiative. I chaired the committee that developed the template and I am excited to see how staff adopt the concept.

I have focused on the Core Competency of Human and Organizational Resources and developed four areas of focus:

1. Demonstrate applications of appropriate supervision techniques for staff (intermediate)

2. Implement advanced accounting techniques that include forecasting, efficient use of fiscal resources, and interpretation of fiscal records (intermediate)

3. Determine if the message (verbal and written) communicated is congruent with the desired outcome for the intended recipient or audience (intermediate)

4. Describe how various fundraising strategies are facilitated by student affairs professionals (intermediate)

It is on these competencies that I will focus the next couple of years. I will be intentional about placing myself into position to develop and strengthen these skills.

If you were me, how would you go about developing your professional competence and confidence in these four areas?