On Being Presidential. A Guide for College and University Leaders

A practical resource, this book combines tips, checklists, exercises, and stories to outline concrete processes that improve the way leaders, managers, and anyone within an organization responds to conflict. Beginning with a series of questions and self-diagnostics, the authors show you how to: maintain emotional balance in the face of conflict; implement constructive communications techniques; help others deal with conflicts that are causing organization problems; establish norms for handling conflict; use specific approaches for addressing conflict more effectively. «A must-have guidebook for the new age of global business. This book shows every leader how to turn feelings of fear into feelings of safety, suspicion into trust, and competitiveness into collaboration.» –Jim Kouzes, coauthor of the best-selling book The Leadership Challenge and Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University «Craig Runde and Tim Flanagan use their vast experience to give us Developing Your Conflict Competence. Move beyond negative workplace conflict to positive and constructive outcomes with the simple tools and suggestions in this must-read field guide!» –Marshall Goldsmith, best-selling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Succession: Are You Ready?, and the upcoming MOJO «I've read the authors' first two books, Becoming a Conflict Competent Leader and Building Conflict Competent Teams. Their latest book pulls it all together by providing models, examples, and thought-provoking insight. It will be required reading for my senior management team.» –Deborah Jallad, president/chairman, Accredited Surety and Casualty Company, Inc.

Praise for Development for Academic Leaders «Penny Hunt has opened the door on what many academics consider the mystery of fundraising success. In a straightforward and direct way, the book explains what is most important for academic leaders to do and understand. It articulates roles and responsibilities and offers practical counsel for long-term success. Penelepe's own highly successful and collaborative approach to fundraising shines through on each page. This should be given to every new dean and department head who hopes to make a positive contribution to philanthropy for their academic program.» ?Lynette L. Marshall, CFRE, president and CEO, University of Iowa Foundation «Development for Academic Leaders is a significant addition for deans and academics of every rank who know a great deal about academic research but who know nothing about raising money. This book will get boundary spanners outside of their campus silos and serve as a bridging instrument to the outside world. With its conceptual framework, its illustrations, its metrics, its model conversations/ discussions, and its breadth, it will help any campus official who works with the public to raise the right kind of awareness and to help potential donors find the right fit for their giving.» ?Don Chu, dean, College of Education, Health, and Human Services at California State University, San Marcos; author, The Department Chair Primer, Second Edition «Everything I know about development work I learned from Penny Hunt! I have been privileged both to be her colleague and to attend her seminars on development, and am thrilled now that other academic leaders will be able to benefit from her sage but practical advice in this indispensable guide.» ?Dwight A. McBride, associate provost and dean, The Graduate School, Northwestern University; former dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago «Any academic leader who wants to master the development process will benefit from reading Development for Academic Leaders. Penny Hunt's thorough experience, her empathy and her sheer intellect position the work of fundraising in a way that is manageable, friendly, even fun, for the scholar who has made the transition to chair, dean, provost, or president and is daunted by new responsibilities and bottom lines. Development officers will gain insight on working with academic leadership to navigate the internal political landscape and bring greater results in the short term and stronger institutions in the long term.» ?Thomas J. Minar, vice president, Development and Alumni Relations, American University

A comprehensive handbook for leading a successful nonprofit This handbook can educate and empower a whole generation of nonprofit leaders and professionals by bringing together top experts in the field to share their knowledge and wisdom gained through experience. This book provides nonprofit professionals with the conceptual frameworks, practical knowledge, and concise guidance needed to succeed in the social sector. Designed as a handbook, the book is filled with sage advice and insights from a variety of trusted experts that can help nonprofit professionals prepare to achieve their organizational and personal goals, develop a better understanding of what they need to do to lead, support, and grow an effective organization. Addresses a wealth of topics including fundraising, Managing Technology, Marketing, Finances, Advocacy, Working with Boards Contributors are noted nonprofit experts who define the core capabilities needed to manage a successful nonprofit Author is the former Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation This important resource offers professionals key insights that will have a direct impact on improving their daily work.

An invaluable resource for HR professionals and executive coaches, this book focuses on how to reduce the time needed to prepare high-potential (HIPO) leaders for next-level positions. Providing the leading trends, tools, and techniques in the industry, the book demystifies the process of HIPO development. It includes a powerful five-step process for increasing leaders' readiness, as well as a complete set of tools for running workshops on developmental planning and coaching. This text also serves as a core text for the author's Executive Coaching Certificate Programs.

Soft skills are the cluster of personality traits, social graces, communication, language, personal habits, friendliness, and optimism that characterize relationships with other people. In increasingly competitive environments, soft skills training can be a vital resource. Soft Skills Revolution offers trainers, organizational leaders, and HR professionals a handy guide for building their soft skills through a variety of methods including individualized exercises and activities and structured training programs, as well as informal learning, mentoring, and coaching. The book offers readers information on the background of soft skills development, and suggestions for enhancing soft skills through traditional learning programs as well as informal learning approaches. Soft Skills Revolution contains practical guidance for creating an engaging learning experience that highlights such important concepts as: Components for Clear Communication The Power of Yes Listening and the Language of Acceptance A Nine-Step Model for Problem Solving Interventions for Moving a Team to Results Giving Helpful Feedback Moving from Conflict to Cooperation In addition, The Leader's Connection section is designed for upper level management and facilitators who want to help organizational leaders integrate the book's important concepts and skills into their interactions with team and staff members. «Kamin's engaging writing style, deep and down to earth at the same time, makes this book an easy learning experience of the 'hard' soft skills we all need to master. By developing these soft skills we can make our world a better place!» —Isabel Rimanoczy, Legacycoach, Director Minervas, Women Changing the World and author of Big Bang Being «Kamin has mastered the challenge of bringing soft skills to life. Her simple definitions, clear examples, references to seminal authors, focused questions, conceptual frameworks, and helpful hints invite and encourage the reader to make these soft skills her/his own.» —Ernie Turner, president, LIM LLC and author of Action Reflection Learning

In the years following the publication of Patrick Lencioni’s best-seller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, fans have been clamoring for more information on how to implement the ideas outlined in the book. In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni offers more specific, practical guidance for overcoming the Five Dysfunctions—using tools, exercises, assessments, and real-world examples. He examines questions that all teams must ask themselves: Are we really a team? How are we currently performing? Are we prepared to invest the time and energy required to be a great team? Written concisely and to the point, this guide gives leaders, line managers, and consultants alike the tools they need to get their teams up and running quickly and effectively.

General Education Essentials «Full-time and part-time faculty in any discipline and at any size campus with any type of mission can pick up this volume and learn something that will help her or him improve teaching and learning.???»—From the Foreword by Terrel L. Rhodes, vice president for Curriculum, Quality, and Assessment, Association of American Colleges and Universities Every year, hundreds of small colleges, state schools, and large, research-oriented universities across the United States (and, increasingly, Europe and Asia) revisit their core and general education curricula, often moving toward more integrative models. And every year, faculty members who are highly skilled in narrowly defined fields ask two simple questions: «Why?» and «How is this going to affect me?» General Education Essentials seeks to answer these and other questions by providing a much-needed overview of and a rationale for the recent shift in general education curricular design, a sense of how this shift can affect a faculty member's teaching, and an understanding of how all of this might impact course and student assessment. Filled with examples from a variety of disciplines that will spark insights, General Education Essentials explores the techniques that can be used to ensure that students are gaining the skills they need to be perceptive scholars and productive citizens. «This is THE ONE BOOK for academics to get up to speed about reforming general education.» —Jerry Gaff, senior scholar, Association of American Colleges and Universities

The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide In this dynamic resource, Tom Adams (an expert in succession planning who has worked with hundreds of organizations) shows how intentional leadership development and properly managed leadership transitions provide nonprofits with the rare opportunity to change direction, maintain momentum, and strengthen their capacity. This accessible guidebook is filled with illustrative stories, instructive lessons, best practices, and practical tools that can be used to ensure a successful nonprofit leadership transition. «It is terrific to have a book which so effectively addresses the unique challenges and opportunities of leadership in the nonprofit sector, replete with sound advice and concrete examples. Tom Adams brings a wealth of experience and savvy to the topic. Paid and volunteer leaders of nonprofits at all levels will benefit from reading it.»—Irv Katz, president and CEO, National Human Services Assembly «The guide is one of its kind in providing a realistic frame for the world of nonprofit leaders. It is long overdue in the sector as a real tool for leaders. Maybe even more important, it helps nonprofit boards of directors and philanthropic organizations to understand the connection between their investment in leadership and achieving organizational goals.» —Diane Bell McKoy, CEO, Associated Black Charities «Rich with instructive examples and advice, this book is grounded in the reality of nonprofits. It will be an extraordinarily useful guide to nonprofit organizations of all types and sizes.» —Ruth McCambridge, editor in chief, Nonprofit Quarterly «Make no mistake: attracting and retaining top talent should be priority number one for the nonprofit sector. Adams's book offers practical advice for how to embed this priority into the sector's DNA. All who care about nonprofit effectiveness would be well-served to give this book a close read.»—Kathleen P. Enright, president and CEO, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations

Step-by-step guidance for shaping better writers while keeping faculty workloads manageable Effective communication is a critical skill for many academic disciplines and careers, and so colleges and universities and their faculty members are rightfully committed to improving student writing across the curriculum. Guiding and assessing student writing in classrooms, general education, and departments takes knowledge, planning, and persistence, but it can be done effectively and efficiently. Written in the concise, accessible style Barbara Walvoord is known for, Assessing and Improving Student Writing in College: A Guide for Institutions, General Education, Departments, and Classrooms offers administrators, program chairs, general education leaders, and classroom instructors the guidance they need. The book provides concrete suggestions for how to: Articulate goals for student writing Measure student writing Improve student writing Document that improvement The book begins by addressing four basic concepts: what we mean by writing, what we mean by «good» writing, how students learn to write, and the purposes of assessment. Next, Walvoord explains the various approaches and methods for assessing writing, urging a combination of them adapted to the institution's purposes and political context. After this introduction, successive chapters offer realistic, practical advice to institution-wide and general education leaders, department members, and classroom instructors. Walvoord addresses issues such as how to engage faculty, how to use rubrics, how to aggregate assessment information at the department and institutional levels, and how to report assessment information to accreditors. The chapter for classroom instructors offers practical suggestions: how to add more writing to a course without substantially increasing the grading load; how to construct writing assignments, how to make grading and responding more effective and time-efficient, how to address grammar and punctuation, and how to support students whose native language is not English. The book also includes four helpful appendices: a taxonomy of Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Writing in the Disciplines (WID) programs; sample outlines for faculty development workshops; a student survey on teaching methods instructors can use to inform their choices in the classroom; and a student self-check cover sheet designed to help students take ownership of their own learning and responsibility for turning in complete, correct assignments. Practical, step-by-step guidance for each point in the assessment and improvement process creates a cohesive, institution-wide system that keeps students, faculty, and administrators on the same page.

Praise for Best Practices in Faculty Evaluation «Jeffrey Buller, a leading and respected voice in higher education, has written a truly practical and highly useful book on the increasingly important topic of faculty evaluation. This highly readable book is a 'must have/must read' book for every dean, chair, and faculty member in all institutions of higher education.» —Robert E. Cipriano, author, Facilitating a Collegial Department in Higher Education: Strategies for Success; former chair of Southern Connecticut State University's Recreation and Leisure Studies Department «Buller has done it again. This latest book meets a never-ending need of all colleges and universities. It's the best treatment I've ever found of the critical dynamics of faculty evaluations—the associated history and philosophy, but especially how to get it right when conducting pretenure, tenure, and posttenure reviews. Every P&T committee, every chair, every dean will welcome a copy.» —R. Kent Crookston, author, Working with Problem Faculty: A Six-Step Guide for Department Chairs; director of the Academic Administrative Support Program at the Brigham Young University Faculty Center «Finally, a comprehensive volume replete with practical ideas and seasoned advice about how to effectively handle faculty performance evaluations. This author really understands the lack of preparation and confidence that most academic administrators feel when asked to function as both judge and coach. If you need concrete strategies for dealing with all aspects of the evaluation process, this book won't disappoint you. The content and case studies are right on the money.»—Christine Licata, author, Post-Tenure Faculty Review and Renewal; senior associate provost, Rochester Institute of Technology