September 2019
Letter from the Editor
Welcoming New ECE Chairs
By Badri Roysam, University of Houston
Dear ECEDHA family and friends,
Welcome to the new semester, and I hope you like the new look of the ECE Source. ECEDHA is going through a major transformation organizationally, and the new logo marks yet another phase of this ongoing transformation.
A special welcome goes out to all newly appointed ECE department heads. ECEDHA is here to serve you. We are pleased to spotlight you in this newsletter. In this issue of Source, we are pleased to features articles for new Chairs from Don Gruenbacher (Kansas State University), Jerry Hudgins (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), and Steven Hietpas (South Dakota State University).
I know how it feels to move to a new department and start a new career path. Below, I have also taken this opportunity to reflect on my own first year as a new chair back in 2010, and write down some advice that I wish I had received.
In the Fall of 2010, I moved from being a Professor and a Center Director at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a private university in New York state, to being the ECE Chair at the University of Houston (UH), a public university in Texas. The change in culture and environment was not just dramatic – it was total.
Happily, I joined UH at a great time. The period from 2008 – the present has been an exciting period for the university with new leadership driving a dramatic transformation. As a new Chair, I was tasked with catalyzing upward changes at the department level. Although it is quite well known, to the point of being a cliché, that “change is hard,” it turns out that I had totally underestimated the difficulty of implementing change in a new department. Before becoming the Chair, there were many principles and ideas that I considered “self-evident” that I took for granted. After becoming the Chair, I learned the hard way that my colleagues often saw things quite differently. I had to grow in ways that I had not envisioned before. As I look back over the past years, all the changes that I envisioned did happen, and more, and I am proud of that, but when I started in 2010, I had (naively) given myself only 3 years to bring them about! Furthermore, I encountered many bumps along the way that could have been avoided.
Which begs the question: what would be helpful advice to give to a newly appointed ECE Chair to get through the first semester? Below are some of my notes, and I welcome suggestions from you:
1. Meet with the Dean and explicitly get his/her perspective on the priorities for your department and the college. In the end, you serve at his/her pleasure, and you are expected to help implement their vision. Therefore, it is really important for you to be perfectly clear about the Dean’s vision and priorities. After you have met the Dean, try to get to know the Provost and President of your university to learn about their perspectives. You will find that their websites simply do not convey the vital operational matters that can only be learned firsthand through conversations. Do not immediately convey whet you learn with your faculty colleagues – take the time to get to know them first, figure out the best way to convey the college and university priorities, and only then do the communicating.
2. Get to know the previous Chair(s) and Associate Chair(s): A candid chat with people who have been in your position before is a great starting point. They can brief you about the department’s history (the good, the bad, and the ugly facts as appropriate), and alert you to issues that you will encounter in the near future. Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. During these conversations, it is best to focus on listening rather than on speaking. You may not realize it, but what you say during your first semester, even seemingly harmless things, can be interpreted quite differently from what you meant. It is best to avoid feeding the “gossip grapevine” at this early stage.
3. Don’t rush to take major decisions, or make changes. You will find that decision making processes vary greatly from one institution to another, and that institutional change is hard to implement. For example, some departments like to use a committee-driven process for decisions that may seem “minor” to you. This is the time to put your eagerness / impatience aside. Get to know the departmental culture first, and leverage the existing culture and processes to help drive decisions during your first year. Create a map of the different committees in the department, key individuals, and their roles. Focus on describing your desired outcomes or goals to the committees (the “what”), and let them work out the implementation (the “how”). Don’t micromanage committees, but be bold enough to not accept their recommendations when appropriate. Departments are naturally change resistant, but changes that are made via the existing process will be accepted more smoothly. In the end, the best decisions are the ones that achieve widespread buy-in from the faculty at large. After all, that’s what you are after.
4. Don’t rush to answer charged emails. They will show up in your inbox, sooner or later. You will find that emails can be surprisingly problematic, ineffective, and subject to misuse (by selective interpretation and forwarding, for example). A quick reply to charged emails can often cause lasting damage to relationships. It is far better to speak with your colleagues in person, or over the phone, and collaboratively work out solutions to problems. These latter seemingly old-fashioned methods have the all-important benefit of live feedback that can keep things from being misunderstood, misrepresented, or otherwise getting out of hand. It is also best to have your associate chair on tricky but non-confidential conversations when possible.
5. Take the time to get to know the faculty on an individual basis. Keep in mind that it will take many meetings, both formal and informal. Ask each colleague what their hopes, aspirations, and expectations are. Ask what they are frustrated about, and what excites them. Ask how they relate to their colleagues in the department and college. Avoid email, and prioritize face-to-face meetings. Make the effort to put your colleague at ease. Try to find out which faculty members are easy to work with, what they are good at, and vice versa. Make a cheat sheet of the key accomplishments of the most accomplished faculty members – you will need this information often. It is important to have a ready summary of great talking points about your department. It is especially important to get to know people who are known to be difficult to work with. Take good notes, and try to “connect the dots” as best as you can. These notes will prove invaluable, and help avoid misunderstandings later.
6. Meet other department chairs in your college/university. It is vital to invest time in getting to know the chairs of other departments in your college. They can be a valuable source of advice on the best practices for dealing with matters that will inevitably arise over time. It is helpful to be able to “compare notes” from time to time and keep up with the rest of the college and university.
7. Get to know your department’s financial and staffing structure. Most departments have a DBA (department business administrator), and this person will prove to be vital for you. Make sure that he/she provides a detailed and clear explanation of how financial affairs of the department work, the current financial status of the department, and any risks/opportunities that you must be aware of. You will probably learn that money comes in many “colors” (ledgers / books), and there are rules governing these colors. You will also find that the most flexible forms of money are the most precious, and that a smart DBA can maximize your flexibility, and vice versa. Like with the faculty, explicitly ask the DBA and his/her staff how they feel about the department. Take notes, and try to “connect the dots”, but do not rush to make staff changes.
8. Appoint a trusted Associate Chair (or several) when Opportune. After you become familiar with your colleagues, you may wish to appoint a trustworthy person to serve as your Associate Chair. Large departments may have or need more than one associate chair. A good associate chair can take care of a large number of day-to-day matters, and thereby free up your time to focus on strategic matters. He/she can also serve as an interface with the faculty, and alert you to potential issues that may arise. Importantly, a good associate chair can help you avoid or tackle potentially challenging situations, for example, grievances or potential lawsuits from unhappy students or faculty.
9. Get to know the university’s legal apparatus. Modern university life is full of complexities that we are not exposed to as regular faculty. As an administrator, your words and actions can have unforeseen / unintended consequences to students, staff, or faculty members. It is helpful to be able to call up someone in your university’s General Counsel office – they can help steer you away from trouble. Importantly, their advice is confidential, and protected by attorney-client privilege. In general, it is always a good idea to remain humble and seek advice from trusted sources as you navigate the complex world of academic leadership. It is well worth it.
10. Build up a “Leadership Library” of your own: New chairs are accomplished individuals with transformational ideas. What they lack, however, are the practical skills on how to implement these ideas. This is understandable, since ECE faculty are not often trained in the social sciences. Interestingly, there is an entire field of study devoted to managing teams of people effectively, managing tricky situations, and instituting change in organizations. Below is a minimal list of such books:
a. Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler. McGraw-Hill Education, 2011.
b. Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.
c. Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, by John M. Bryson, Wiley 2018.
d. Creating Your Strategic Plan: A Workbook for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, by John M. Bryson and Farnum K. Alston, Jossy-Bass Publishing, 2011.
e. Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, by Peter C. Brown, Roediger III, Henry L., Mark A. McDaniel, Belknap Press, 2014.
11. Sign up for a Chair’s Leadership Course if available. Many major universities have leadership training courses for Department Chairs and Center Directors. At first, this may seem like a waste of time. The initial portions of these classes may feel like an alien world in which a very different language is spoken. However, you will learn later that these courses are invaluable. They provide important insights on managing people and organizations – our core job. These insights are very different from signal processing or such other ECE topic, but they are respectable and effective. Most of these insights are based on scientific behavioral experiments, and a lot of data analysis by respectable organizations (e.g., Gallup). Importantly, these courses connect you to a network of other university leaders who speak the same “leadership language”, and who can mentor you in times of need.
12. Attend the ECEDHA Annual Conferences. The annual conferences of ECEDHA have special workshops for new chairs. They are invariable well attended and much appreciated.
I hope you find these notes useful. We at ECEDHA wish you total success as you settle into your new position!
Badri Roysam, D.Sc., Fellow IEEE, Fellow AIMBE
Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor
Chair, Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Houston
Houston, Texas 77204-4005
Phone: 713-743-1773
Email: broysam@uh.edu