Human and Organizational Resources

The Ongoing Search for Student Affairs Competence: Becoming the Well-Rounded Student Affairs Professional

Dan

The search for competence: it’s the framework I have used for this blog since its inception just over a year ago. The ongoing quest to be our best is a part of a career in student affairs. Through the simple search for competence we actually can become better and more confident in our work.When we become better we are more equipped to serve our students. The best student affairs professionals I know put students first, but they don’t sacrifice their own learning: they are deeply committed to ongoing professional engagement and development.

However, I believe that the majority of student affairs professionals do not focus on developing the entire set of skills and prefer often to focus on only a few at a time (and possibly only a few at all). I am convinced that our pursuit to be really good at one thing will ultimately be a downfall in modern-day student affairs work. We can’t afford for you to rock at advising when your understanding of legal issues is dismal. We can’t afford for you to be a great supervisor but have zero concern with assessment of your programs.

Student affairs is an ironic field: those who come into the field through a student affairs preparation program, are typically taught to be generalists but new professionals often go into functional area positions that are specialists such as residence life, advising, fraternity/sorority life, and career development. While our generalist skills might come in handy now and then, we default to what defines us as specialists: advising residents in your learning community, helping students schedule their classes, aiding leaders in managing complex organizations, and counseling students as they determine potential career paths. We focus so much on specific skills that those we don’t (or choose not to) use routinely just go by the wayside. The best athletes practice all parts of their game and work all parts of their bodies – therefore, shouldn’t the best student affairs professionals practice every part of ours?

Enhancing our competence in all areas of student affairs work requires an intention that many student affairs professionals lack: as we are so responsive to the demands of our students, we often forget to take the time to determine pathways for strengthening our competence and confidence in all the skills necessary to student affairs work. We are not bad professionals for this, in fact if the metrics that people around us care about is how accessible we are to students, then you might be perceived well; however, are you truly developing the competence you need to interact with all of those students? What skills would make you even better at serving your students?

Well-rounded student affairs professionals are important to our field. We have to create environments in which all staff are clear that expertise in an area is good but some level of understanding in all areas is expected.

At the University of Memphis, we have been intentional about creating a framework for ongoing professional development. All training sessions tie back to the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competency areas. Next week we will have our annual Spring Break Professional Development Challenge; participants are encouraged to take part in as many sessions as they can fit into their week (it is spring break) and each session addresses at least one of the 10 professional competencies. I love this week and almost 40 of our staff must also appreciate the opportunity because they have signed up for at least one training!

It’s our hope that this intention will help our staff realize what they know now, what they need to know, and how they can fill the gaps between what they are expected to do and their current skill set. To help others, I have highlighted those I find to be most engaged in their work and ongoing professional development in our weekly newsletter. We can all learn from examples and aspire to be like those who are the most focused on high levels of professional engagement and ongoing development.

We also have developed an individualized professional development plan, using the Competency areas, that can be used to help staff figure out how to accomplish their professional goals. The value of professional development has become an ethos here: coming down from our VPSA, through her AVPs and permeating the director/associate dean level.

Personally, I believe we can do even more! I’d love to see all staff be held accountable for demonstrating at least the basic level of the ACPA/NASPA Competency areas. What if we had to prove annually that we worked on one attribute within the  basic level of each competency area? What if our work was evaluated on our demonstration of each competency level? It would require a high level of intentionality and we’d be laser focused on being the best we can be in order to make a difference in the lives of students. We have to be more intentional to become the well-rounded student affairs professional we are needed in modern day higher education.

What are your professional goals? What competencies do you need to work on to reach your goals? How would you rate yourself in each of the 10 Professional Competencies?

Sometimes change sticks, and sometimes it hangs there for a bit and slides down the wall

Dan

When spaghetti is ready it will stick on the wall. When it’s not, it just slides down, indicating to the chef that more time is needed. It’s an interesting analogy to the concept of change.

Change happens all the time. Each of us are likely engaged in some change effort right now. I’ve led some change initiatives and have been fortunate to be involved in lots of discussions that involve “making a change”. I tend to like change.

However, change can be really uncomfortable, particularly when people don’t know all the facts. Those in the highest positions are trying new things – seeing what sticks. Leaders have good intentions to be transparent – discussing issues, positing approaches, suggesting systemic change approaches. Transparency is by and large the best tactic…BUT, people read into messages and decisions. Sometimes transparency breeds speculation, particularly in times of significant change.

The rest of us are asked to respond to ideas that might come across as etched in stone when they’re nothing more than a passing conversation between two people who have decision power. When ideas are thrown out there they have implications as people struggle to work through logistics of implementing new and different ideas only to find out days (maybe hours) later that it was only an idea. Those tasked with implementing the change ideas are going to spend a lot of time answering the questions of nervous staff who feel threatened or at risk. It’s obvious that saying “give it some time and we’ll know for sure” is not an effective spin strategy.

It’s almost like we need some way to know what’s a change that is sticking and what is a change that is up for discussion. Perceptions of idea traction can be deceiving. Really, we should just assume that nothing is finalized until someone says it is.

What we all should take from change initiatives is that leaders are looking to address financial, structural, political and other forces that are at play. Those things keep happening around us and leaders must respond by indicating they are working toward improvements and change. Problem is that the rest of us have to take a wait and see or hold on tight while we change directions yet again.

How do you perceive change? What aspects make you feel uncomfortable? When have you seen change stick well?

Discovering Your MOOC: For What Would YOU Want to be Known?

Dan

I spent the last four days as a fellow at the Interfraternity Institute. I was tasked with helping participants make sense of their experiences and facilitating dialogue in small groups. However, I learned a lot and a lot that while influencing fraternities and sororities are really issues of higher education and student affairs.

Allen Groves, the dean of students at University of Virginia, did a session on issues in higher education. He focused significantly on issues such as the financial climate (so little money), legal issues (so much documentation), and the press towards increasing opportunities for access, affordability, and ease of getting a degree (so many options). One of the things he talked about was MOOCS (Massive Open Online Course). He was so interesting, engaging and informative I told him that he should do a MOOC on issues in higher education! He’s clearly a well-read and well-versed administrator with his finger on the pulse of issues in higher education. I would take his class because he’s an expert – almost a master – of the topic, particularly law and finance.

It got me wondering – what could be my MOOC? On what would I educate thousands of people if I had the opportunity? Ultimately, for what would I want to be known? And what learning experiences should I expect that thousands of people would actually want to listen to me? This isn’t about presentation style or reputation. It’s simply about what I might understand so well and so thoroughly that I should have the guts to declare I am an expert and to invite thousands of people to learn from me.

I present on lots of things, but I wouldn’t go near the idea of a MOOC. Declaring ourselves the expert, requires us to be absolutely intentional about our development as professionals. It requires us to determine our strengths, interests, skills and to focus on some specific aspects of this work to become the expert – not just a person who reads something and then can facilitate it well. There’s lots of people who can facilitate almost anything. I know lots of good to great facilitators, but I’m not sure all of these people should be declaring themselves as “expert” and opening up their message to the masses. Watching Dr. Groves reminded me that I have more work to do even on the things at which I am good. I’ll continue in my small world while letting experts tackle some of these big issues in the big MOOC based world.

What kinds of things do you feel you have expertise in?

How have you developed that expertise?

Are you so good at that subject that thousands should want to hear you?

 

Intentional Professional Development Plans

Dan

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?