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From "Leading With Soul" and "Whitewater Survival Strategies" to "Good Practice in Student Affairs"...
A Book Review & Applications for Professional Staff Training
By Tara Loomis,
Associate Director for Student Development
Rochester Institute of Technology
One of the most rewarding and invigorating aspects of my job is planning and creating professional development opportunities that meet my staff's wide array of needs. I challenge myself to be as creative and innovative as possible while utilizing resources from both our profession and the field of organizational development. While it is essential that we foster our professional staff's abilities as student affairs practitioners, I also strive to help them develop as leaders, managers, and successful members of complex organizations. I'd like to share with you several resources that have proved extremely helpful as I continue to focus on this goal.
Interested in enhancing your supervision skills and creating a meaningful work environment?
I recommend reading L.G. Bolman and T.E. Deal's Leading With Soul: An Uncommon Journey of the Spirit. Leading With Soul is written as a series of personal narratives followed by practical applications of each lesson taught. The book suggest that in order to really empower your staff you need to discover your "gifts" as a leader and then be able to "give" those gifts to your staff. The four gifts illustrated in the book are love, power, authorship, and significance. The gift of love is given by showing genuine caring and compassion for your staff. The gift of authorship encourages others to take the initiative and put their personal signature on their work. Power goes hand and hand with authorship and allows others space to grow and develop while making a difference. The gift of significance focuses on the importance of rituals, traditions, and celebrations within organizations.
Leading With Soul encouraged me to rethink the concept of supervision by creating a list of my own "gifts" that I could give to my staff as their leader. These include opportunities to take risk, encouragement, humor and vision. I am constantly reinforcing this notion by asking my staff "what gifts do you bring to this team?"
Dealing with change and the unexpected?
If you are dealing with change and the unexpected, then Peter Vaill's Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water might be an appropriate choice. The concepts offered in this book center on strategies and modes of learning within organizations. The premise of the book is that we can effectively manage change if learning becomes an integrated discipline practiced as we do our jobs. Instead of fearing change and instability we can reframe our thinking and approach it as exciting, challenging, and an opportunity to grow.
Our institution recently underwent a major change in leadership and received a whole new directive from our vice president. Often changes such as these are difficult for young professionals (and even more experienced professionals) to understand and see as learning opportunities. I felt that it was my responsibility to challenge my staff and myself to embrace these changes and find comfort in chaos. As I read this book, I learned new ways to deal with change and instability. By presenting these strategies and concepts to my staff we were able to approach the year with an open mind and the willingness to work with, instead of against, the changes.
Seeking ways to put theory into practice?
If so, G. S. Blimling, E.J. Whitt, and Associates' Good Practice in Student Affairs: Principles to Foster Student Learning is a must-read. Each chapter is dedicated to one of the Principles of Good Practice for Student Affairs, a joint document sponsored by the American College Personnel Association and the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. This book offers a wonderful combination of theory, research and useful applications.
I recently used this book to assist me in designing a seven-day workshop during fall training in which I focused on one "principle" each day. Each morning we discussed a theoretical principle and each afternoon we attempted to implement that principle into practice. Staff members were expected to read each chapter in advance and come to the table each day prepared to participate in the discussion. On the first morning, for example, we discussed the principle engages students in active learning. The chapter, written by Marcia B. Baxter Magolda, offers a definition of active learning and illustrates how to use the principle in the field. In the afternoon session, we used the information to create new initiatives, improve some of our programs, and eliminate a few that were no longer relevant. I found this approach to be a great way to balance my younger staff members, fresh out of graduate school and eager to use theory, with that of my seasoned staff who were in need of re-energizing.
Closing Thoughts
Professional reading and its application create two levels of development. The first level is with the reader, who must understand the principles of the book and determine strategies to apply these in a training format. The second level is with those in attendance at the training program that process the information and determine strategies to apply what is learned on a day to day basis.
Have you read professionally lately?
About the Author
Tara Loomis received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Loyola University in her native city, New Orleans and earned a Master of Arts in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from The Ohio State University. She was an Assistant Hall Director at OSU for two years and a Resident Director at Tulane University for three years before moving to the northeast. She began her career in New York at Syracuse University as a Complex Director before leaving to become the Assistant Director of Residence Life at SUNY Geneseo. Currently she is beginning her third year as the Associate Director for Student Development in the Center for Residence Life at Rochester Institute of Technology. Tara's primary responsibility is overseeing the programmatic and staffing aspects of residence hall and apartment living as well as Greek housing.