Moving to management 2010 February 19
Before I moved to my current position as Head of Library Technology, I was the systems department at my previous job. That meant I had to do almost everything when it came to library-specific technology and applications. It was rewarding and allowed me to do a lot of things the way I thought best. Now that I run a department, albeit a small one, that is no longer the case. I need to let the people in my department have the freedom to do their job (which luckily for me, they are excellent at). This creates a bit of a sense of loss of control. I don’t have time to micro-manage everything to make sure everything is done my way. As long as things are getting done in a timely manner that serves the goals and mission of the Libraries, than all is good. This seems logical but when I first moved into this role and was doing more managerial tasks than before I felt a bit lost, I missed doing everything my way. While I am not a Vice President and I still do plenty of hands on stuff because of the size of my department, I related to the blog post on Insider Higher Ed by Kent Barnds. In his blog post, Making the To-Be List, Brands makes 6 recommendations for those moving to an administrative role. They are:
- Do not mourn and dwell upon the loss of control
- Redefine “doing”
- Embrace delayed gratification
- Serve as a real mentor
- Listen actively
- Applaud others’ successes
I think he offers some good advice and I would recommend anyone thinking about moving or who has recently moved into a more managerial or administrative role to read the post.