Transitioning from rank & file lecturer to senior management

[promomo]

Associate Prof here; just accepted a 0.6 Deanship (research-focused) at my RG institution. Relishing the role; chance to make a difference, loads of opportunity for learning, etc. But apprehensive about the transition.

Any tips for keeping my research going? Grants with postdocs will be even more important for me now, though not quite sure how I'll find the time to apply.

And how the heck do I avoid just being completely absorbed/swamped by the new role. Is that even possible?

Then there's a new identity. I love my immediate colleagues, have been fairly active in the Union in recent years, and wondering how to navigate those values as a senior leader.

Senior leaders, hit me with your tips of maintaining a management/research balance, not to mention a work/life balance. On the latter, I've done OK in recent years, largely due to having been bought out of teaching. Reluctant to go back to silly hours per week, every week.

I think some of your questions are unanswerable without knowing research field and responsibilities contained within the role.

I would consider associate dean middle management. Associate deans don't usually manage budgets or staff, and large strategic decisions are taken at higher levels. This makes it easier in terms of maintaining good relations with other academic staff but it is often hard to make a big difference in roles where you don't directly manage staff or budgets.

Block out specific time in your diary for research and protect this. If the role is 0.6 either block out two days per week or specific mornings/afternoons. Do this well in advance and don't bow to pressure to put meetings in blocked out times. Don't feel like you have to reply immediately to AD business during time that is blocked out for research - very few things would be so urgent that they couldn't wait for your next working day as AD. Don't agree to deadlines that aren't viable without working much more than 0.6. If the role is consistently more than 0.6 argue for a deputy or other appropriate support (admin or academic).

And congratulations!

Congratulations promo! My experience is distinctly middle or probably more like junior management :) . I'm only 0.4 FTE and haven't done it for quite a year yet (of which a good portion was taken out by being off work from an accident).

But in any case, I echo qudylogra above: keep to your 0.6 FTE. If your place is anything like mine, random adminstrators will start putting things in your calendar. Make sure you block out any time you can't have an admin meeting - e.g., marking time, writing papers, working on grants. And then use that time for what you've blocked out (um, instead of visiting MN? But I finished commenting on my student's paper... :) ) If you can, plan days or morning/afternoons for your Deanship, and stick to it the best you can (meetings make this very difficult - my plan was 4 afternoons a week, but I keep having morning central meetings and afternoon PhD student meetings as that's all that works for all parities...). I actually had a time tracking spreadsheet due to my disability, to make sure my flex time kept full time hours, and I've now used it to make sure I'm not going too high above 0.4 (I'm at 0.45 currently - I call that pretty good). If you can make or get some kind of time tracking thing, that might be useful to keep yourself on track.

When you're asked to sit on one more committee or do one more task, don't be afraid to remind people that you're only 0.6 FTE - if you are full up and it is something you want to do, perhaps take the opportunity to ask to trade out a less-desired activity: many more senior people will be 1 FTE and often 'forget' that the more junior of us have other responsibities.

For work/life balance, I absolutely do not check email evenings/weekends. At least in my role, nothing is so urgent it can't wait for working hours. I had been planning to not even check my central-role email until the afternoon, but I'm just so curious about what's in there I need to check (it tends to be more "fun" than paper rejections, marking requests and other things I find in my personal email...). Figuring out how to turn off my brain from all the new responsbilities is something I'm still working on...