Peak Performance for Deans and Chairs: Reframing Higher Education's Middle

by Susan Stavert Roper, Terrence E. Deal author of Leading with Soul and Reframing the Path to School Leadership

Overview

Deans and chairs, like other leaders everywhere, often rely on narrow views of their organizations that capture only part of the real picture. As a result, they miss out on a rich array of options available to them. Peak Performance for Deans and Chairs molds deans and chairs into better leaders by teaching them a new way of thinking about their universities, colleges, and departments. Reframing is the ability to examine a situation through multiple lenses, which not only enhances understanding of challenges leaders face but also suggests strategies for moving forward. Entertaining and realistic scenarios show deans and chairs grappling with common problems as they attempt to implement change, manage the faculty, deal with budget cuts, and win over the 'higher-ups.' Some leaders are successful; others fail. This book analyzes the behavior of chairs and deans through the political, structural, human resources, and symbolic frames. Lessons learned from the negative as well as the positive scenarios are highlighted, enabling deans and chairs to easily adapt them to their own situations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607095385
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/16/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Susan Stavert Roper served in the roles of both dean and department chair for 19 years in California and Oregon. She taught in an annual leadership academy for new deans across the country, served as chair of her state's association of education deans, and organized a network of chairs and deans to support educational reform K-16. Terrence Deal is the author of more than 30 books on leadership including, Reframing Organizations (2003). He has served on the faculty of Stanford, Harvard, Vanderbilt and the University of Southern California and is an international consultant to educational, business, health-care and religious organizations.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Trapped Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Chapter 2 The Way It Is: Ferreting Out Root Stresses and Plotting New Tactics
Chapter 3 Change: Stifling Bedlam and Taming Turbulence
Chapter 4 Faculty: Confronting Creeps and Cliques
Chapter 5 Resources: Stepping Up to Cut Backs
Chapter 6 Bosses: Winning over the Higher-ups
Chapter 7 The Way It's 'Spozed' To Be: Leadership in Action
Chapter 8 Conclusion: Practice and Perseverance

Editorial Reviews

This short book provides a welcome addition to the literature on performing well in the role of dean and chair. Written by two individuals, one an administrator at a university with almost twenty years of experience in the roles of dean and chair, and the other a respected author on leadership, the book combines humor with insights into the complexities of serving as an institution's dean or chair. The book also contains a helpful bibliography with many recent titles that is worth its own exploration....This book would have profited me during the beginning of my tenure as dean, especially in avoiding some of the common mistakes that new deans and chairs make. I would highly recommend this resource to anyone who is considering becoming a dean or chair or who presently is one. This engaging book of case studies can make a difference in how one leads and interacts with others.

Teaching Theology & Religion

Peak Performance is essential reading for college and university deans and chairs. Reader-friendly, the stories of failure and success are well told and provide new insights into solving seemingly intractible problems in leading faculty and providing exemplary leadership. This is the book for both aspiring and new deans (and seasoned and retiring leaders) to read to enable them to rethink and reenvision their roles and responsibilities. It offers new ways of doing so in helpful and meaningful ways.

David Imig

During this economic period when colleges and universities have to do more with less, this timely book presents a multiple frame lens to assist chairs and deans in providing leadership that minimizes conflict and promotes solutions. Through the use of scenarios that are thoughtful, practical, and often humorous, the authors illustrate a broad range of possible strategies for analyzing complex problems in ways likely to be valued and respected by faculty. This highly readable book is a solid contribution to the field.

Ann S. Bayer