Leadership: An Intersection of Roles

I have been doing someone leading on external evaluation review teams since the beginning of this academic year, September 2022. Some of this work has been done remotely and some has been done in-person. As I enter the new role at my university on July first, I was contemplating how much of the leadership I have been doing in evaluation work will transfer over to this new role.
When I am a lead on an external review team, my job is to know what all team members skill sets are and who they are as people to help build the most productive and collaborative team. Knowing each person’s background, I can assign specific documents and assignments to them based on how I believe they will best contribute to our end goal, a thorough evaluation where we can identify a teacher preparation programs strengths and can make recommendations for them to improve. I think that this portion of leadership, will translate well in my new role at Salem—as I see direct links between the Department of Education’s evaluation we received, and how that is driving changes, and the important role and skill set faculty and staff have in addressing these changes. As faculty, I know the curriculum which impacts student’s content and pedagogical knowledge. As faculty, I have also served in some roles that staff serve—advising (on a much smaller scale), field supervisor training and some jobs of the field office and working with specific community initiative programs in the school (the Center for Inclusive Scholars). I have served in a number of roles so understand each role’s function and I think this could be valuable in my new leadership role—just like knowing the background of each team member in an evaluation leads to collaborative success on the evaluation team.
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One other major aspect of leading an external evaluation review team is keeping the program informed on the findings, talking leadership through the findings before they are made public (to the whole program), and developing a relationship with leadership so that they understand the credibility of the findings and have a clear pathway forward towards continuous improvement. I think this constant communication aspect of leadership is something people feel is missing from the current organizational structure in our school and in the university. This is the portion of leading an external evaluation review that takes the most out of me, but I know the importance of it. I think this will also be the portion of my new role that will take the most out of me—but it is the part that actually gets people to feel valued and like they know what the pathway forwards is and what is going on.

The lead is distinctly different that the other reviewers on the team because they are the person providing direct feedback in oral and written form once all of the activities for the week have concluded. The lead in the final review meeting speaks on behalf of all the reviewers to deliver the final review based on where the preponderance of evidence resides. This final oral debrief is accompanied by a finalized written blueprint of the findings and pathway forward within a month of the review. I think this aspect of leading may play into my new role as I become a figurehead for the School of Education, much like I represent the reviewers in an evaluation. I think because I have been faculty for so long, I may serve to some as a figurehead for faculty voice in administration decisions, but I know I will also may be seen as being on the “dark-side” and therefore “other.”  This new role, however, will require me to clearly articulate and provide a well written and communicated blue-print that is a pathway forward for the School of Education in the coming years.

I think there are some similarities between the leading I have been doing externally and what I am being tasked to lead internally. I think I am ready to move beyond program-level and department-level leadership, and it’s through the external review leadership that I can see this big picture. I’m not very open about what I have been doing as a consultant outside of my ‘day’ job, and to the level I have been doing this work. I think one of the mistakes I made is not letting others know about my accomplishments, and the work projects and ‘asks’ I have had at a national level. I struggle with how to do this, remain humble, and not put this behavior out as what everyone needs to achieve (or the ‘norm’) knowing others work-life balance needs are all individually different.