For further information on Academic Career Advancements support and coaching book a free no-obligation chat with Dr. Loren M Hill at https://theacclivity.com/Consult/
Hey it’s Mark Kanty with Release Dynamics and I’m here again with Dr. Loren M. Hill of the Acclivity and once again you can find Dr. Hill at TheAcclivity.com and that’s the Acclivity with two c’s and we’ll make sure that there’s a link to her website right around this video somewhere when you watch it.
If you’re listening to this as a podcast it’ll be in the description below so you can learn more about Dr. Hill and some of the things that she can do to help educators advance their career in academia.
It’s a pleasure to be here with you Dr. Hill, thanks so much for taking the time to participate in this interview again today.
Hi Mark, thanks for having me on again.
You bet. So, Dr. Hill and I were talking as a matter of fact last time we were having a chat and we were talking about what’s going on right now in academia and in particular how educators are under stress and things that might be happening. And one of the things that Dr. Hill brought up is she’s finding that there are teachers and educators out there that are frustrated and that are thinking maybe it’s time to leave their current job because nothing’s happening. They’re not getting paid or maybe they don’t have any teaching assignments and they’re really getting frustrated and wanting to maybe flip the switch and move on to something else.
So, Dr. Hill, without me dominating the space. I know you’re the expert in this field so perhaps you could share with us what are some of the common problems that educators are facing right now that are stuck in that situation and how do you see them dealing with that? What are some of the obstacles or or maybe mistakes that they could make by pulling the switch too quickly?
Mark what I’ve been seeing lately is a lot of anxiety distress. We’re in as, we all know, very unique times with the pandemic, and people are thinking maybe I should quit; should I start looking for another job or even if they were thinking about leaving before they had some plans to transition out and they’re just like, oh my God, I can’t leave now because of the uncertainty right? They want to make sure they have a steady paycheck. We are also seeing cuts; enrollment is down, the way in which education is being delivered in higher ed is really changing rapidly and one of the things that I have noticed in my 25 plus years in academia is that actually the landscape is always changing. So there may be some things that happen to a particular institution or there may be some things that happen to the complete area of higher education but right now we’re seeing a lot of those.
We’re seeing the whole landscape of higher ed change and how it impacts each institution is a little different so then how that trickles down to the staff and the faculty and the students is really interesting and we are seeing a lot of things that we’ve never seen before but we’re seeing some things that we have seen before.
Wow so you know it sounds to me like you need to kind of, I can imagine you know when somebody is under stress there’s kind of that knee-jerk reaction we want to move quickly, and sometimes when we move quickly we make mistakes.
So what would you say would be a couple of the top mistakes that you see people making or that they might stumble into? What would you suggest that people watch out for and not do? What would be some of the mistakes that somebody that is thinking, ah maybe it’s time to quit; what would you you suggest to them?
So I’ve got three things that I think would be helpful.
First, do not make any decision. It’s like don’t wake up in anxiety and stress saying, I gotta quit today!
Don’t leave your job unless there’s really something illegal going on or something that’s really harming you in a way that cannot be rectified. So don’t leave but don’t make any decisions right now, have a strategy don’t leave have a strategy.
And then the third thing that I would say is don’t isolate. Find someone to connect to that you can talk to about what’s going on who’s outside, preferably of your institution. Because if you’re all there together and you’re experiencing some of the same things we can sort of engage in like a little bit of groupthink maybe or not seeing the larger picture so try to connect with someone who’s outside of your institution.
Excellent point! It reminds me of like the corporate, the old corporate saying about be careful of what’s hanging around the water cooler because usually there’s no good coming from those conversations. And yeah, the groupthink and it’s that downward spiral, of course now, where a lot of us are doing it virtually, but the proverbial water cooler is probably still there in the corner; so really good point, getting that you’re getting that outside perspective that we all need when we’re in that moment of stress and when we’re in that moment of crisis if you will in some cases.
Excellent point! Can you elaborate a little bit more about maybe some of the more proactive things that somebody could do within their organization? One of the things you and I had talked about was, just because things are quiet and you’re not getting work, but you’re also not getting laid off that you know there might be other things going on. So what are some of the proactive things that an educator could do instead of just kind of sitting and waiting, in other words, instead of being reactive how could one be proactive?
I love this idea of being proactive! I think we often have more in control than we think we do and so when we’re under stress or pressure then the tendency is to just kind of go inward and just be quiet or be still or use all your resources to kind of just be in survival mode but there’s a couple things that you can definitely do that would be helpful. And I would say again, it’s okay to be quiet and be internal but be reflective right, so take this time to take stock in what’s going on. See what’s going on at the university, ask your department chair or your dean or someone who may know and and rather than just coming up with like this whole narrative of, oh my God, they’re getting ready to fire me in five minutes, when really they’re not thinking about you. They’re at work, they are thinking about how to give you some more courses.
So what we often imagine can be very different from what’s going on in reality. So be reflective and reach out to see what’s going on. Also, I would say in addition to finding out what’s going on in the university, stay abreast of higher ed in its totality.
This is the domain or discipline or industry if you will, that you are working in or want to work in so it will behoove you to find out what is going on so that you are educated about what’s happening in real time.
Excellent, yeah excellent points, and yeah no need to be in, as you say, in isolation. There are lots of opportunities to reach out and figure out what’s going on and to be a solution; be part of the solution as people say. You know the saying is, be part of the solution not part of the problem.
So if you’re the old saying, how can I help just simply getting in touch with your department head or anyone for that matter and say how can I help? How can I be of service? How can I participate in this? What also comes to mind too, and you’re talking about taking inventory, I think really, these are times when we do have these types of pause. How many times are we busy busy busy and we go, I’ll do something to better myself? Well, now we’re in one of those times which is an opportune time for actual improvement and you and I talked a while back, about a month ago, I think, in one of our interviews.
One of our discussions and you brought up the idea of the transformation to digital and how there’s great opportunities, free opportunities, to learn just by going on Youtube and learning how to be an online educator, so how to teach and how to keep people’s attention and how to keep a classroom engaged when you’re using a computer as opposed to being live.
So I think that was an awesome skill set that you pointed out, that maybe a lot of people are thinking well, I can’t wait till the old days return, instead of realizing they ain’t returning. It’s time to upgrade and to figure out how to make these machines work for us and how to be that engaging, go-to person because that could be the difference between you being the one that’s chosen to stick around, and somebody else that’s laid off. If you can come in with a certificate or even showing demonstration that you’re savvy with teaching any level of education online, that could be a huge feather in your cap.
So I love the fact you brought that up Dr. Hill. As always, you just bring up some really good points and a level head, you know, to be calm and think this through and to really plan your future. I think one of the other things that maybe you didn’t mention that I’ll throw in there too is to think about your ideal future. What does your ideal career in education look like in the future? How do you incorporate that? What are the benefits of working at home? What are the benefits of being able to work remotely or in flex time? There’s lots of things that can help you think positively about your career in academia and how these transformations often bring really exciting changes that can benefit everyone.
So I’m gonna ask you one more question and that of course, relates to you and we all know that this is what you do. A big part of what you do, we know that you’re also a clinical psychologist and you’ve got a lot of other things on your plate but that you help educators to advance their careers in academia. So what are some of the benefits that someone could expect from working with you to help you transition through these changing times in the transformation that we’re under in education and academia right now? What would be some of those benefits of working with you?
Some of the benefits of working with me are that, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been in this field for over 25 years so I’ve seen changes in the landscape and I think I have come to see how things are going. I’m like, oh you know what, this is a great time to be thinking about a promotion or this is a great time to be thinking about becoming an adjunct because this is when the hiring cycle occurs or this is when the promotion cycle occurs and so really being able to have these one-on-one conversations where I can bring my vast experience to the individual is something that I think is helpful.
The other thing is that I am a very good strategist. So having a coach is great! I’m the biggest fan of coaches. I’m a coach and there’s different styles of coaching and my style is really about strategizing. We have to look at, as you mentioned before, not just where we are currently but where do we want to go in the future so the work that we have done in the past and the work that we’re doing now. How do we think about that for a year from now or five years from now so forward thinking strategy is also one of the things that people can expect to work with me and I’ll just add that working with me is fun, right, so somebody might say, well oh my gosh you know promotion how is that fun or trying to find a job how’s that fun?
Well it’s fun because I’m going to help you right? You don’t have to go at it alone. There’s some things that we do in my program that really are to lift the burden and you know this is also evident in some of my reviews and feedback is that, wow Dr. Hill, working with her was fun. Like that is actually something that’s been used or I see things completely differently or I started off really disheartened and now I’ve found a way to actually stay at my institution and carve out my niche and I’m now thriving.
Excellent, and it’s such great points you know. So often people can kind of feel down and look at a job or their work as being you know something that they don’t want to do but really it needs to be your career needs to be something you’re excited about that you’re passionate about and yeah we all get in the doldrums and particularly when we’re under stress and when we’re in moments of crisis that we are right now but having a mentor, having somebody that can kind of coach us back to that positive state of mind where we’re excited and we’re looking forward to the plan and making it fun because, hey if we’re going to do it eight hours a day, it better be fun! So I appreciate you bringing that up.
I just want to wrap up here by giving people a couple little things here. You can obviously check out Dr. Loren M. Hill online. Her website is www.theacclivity.com. If you wanna talk to Dr. Hill she is more than happy to have a complimentary session with you and chat with you and see what your needs are. Obviously there needs to be a fit in order to work together so there’s an opportunity to do that if you listen to some of the recordings, some of the podcasts, some of the interviews or see them on YouTube. You’ll get a real flavor for how the great tips and how Dr. Hill is able to just take all of those ideas you can imagine what it would be like working with her one-on-one.
If you want to skip straight to the chase and book a time to have a chat and see if there’s an opportunity to work together and whether Dr. Hill can help you, you can go to www.theacclivity.com/consult. Go straight to that link and you’ll end up on her calendar and you can find a convenient time to have a quick chat with her.
So those are some of the ways to get in touch with Dr. Hill and again you will see links around this video or in the podcast description below so to make it easy for you to get in touch we encourage you, both of us, to really look proactively right now at the landscape because with crisis comes opportunity. I know there’s a saying or something around that but there really is a tremendous opportunity as education goes through this transformation and it’s a time to be excited and to be out there and to be part of that transformation so I really encourage you to speak with Dr. Hill about that. How you can be part of the new education that’s coming down the road for us. Any other comments Dr. Hill?
I think you covered it all Mark.
Wow that’s great. I think our time spent together, now you’re giving me the outro so thanks again and yes please do feel free to connect with me on social media, book a consult,it’s a free consult, let’s talk 30 minutes. We can see what we have in common and if it’s a good fit and I look forward to meeting you.
For further information on Academic Career Advancements support and coaching book a free no-obligation chat with Dr. Loren M Hill at https://theacclivity.com/Consult/