Strengthening Departmental Leadership: A Team-Building Guide for Chairs in Colleges and Universities Hardcover - 1994

From the jacket flap

This book is a practical guide to developing the survival skills that chairs need in order to function as leaders and build cohesive teams in departments.Those who become department chairs for the first time often find that their experience as faculty members does not equip them for the transition. The conflicts inherent in representing administration to faculty colleagues as well as taking the concerns of the faculty back to administration can leave department chairs feeling alone, overwhelmed by paperwork, and unsupported. Strengthening Departmental Leadership is a practical guide to developing the survival skills chairs need to function as leaders and build cohesive teams in departments.Drawing on her experience working with over 6,000 department chairs at more than 125 campuses in the United States and abroad, Ann F. Lucas presents specific practical techniques for overcoming the most common problems that chairs must struggle with, including:

• team-building with members of the department
• creating a supportive communication climate
• facilitating faculty development
• motivating faculty--particularly difficult colleagues, poor teachers, and mid-career faculty
• handling faculty evaluation and making feedback interviews meaningful
• managing conflict
• developing an effective relationship with the
• developing coping mechanisms to ensure their own survival.