Mid-Level Management Professionals at Conference

When I was a junior at UVM I turned to Jill Carnegie who was the Director of Residence Life and asked her where student affairs professionals go to die. As a student and someone who was looking at the field, I was curious as to why I never saw people over 40 in the field – where were all the people over 55? As I go back to this question of defining mid-level managers I can’t help but remember Jill and her laugh as we joked about the most organized and active nursing home ever, where all the residents did was challenge and support one another. As I think about my role as a mid-level manager I have decided that I am probably no longer a MLM and that I need to embrace my new role – one step closer to the home I guess. Maybe we all need to think of ourselves on the low end of the learning curve as the next level. Would our profession be more forward thinking if we did?

Thanks ACUI and Anaheim for another great conference – looking forward to bringing it all back – see you next year!

Like I said yesterday, my challenge as a MLM is to play both sides of the coin – please the people above me – not piss off the people below me - all while moving the organization forward. In moving us in the right direction it is important to me to have all the facts, I like to be certain something is going to work and above all I like to be current. Aren’t we all just a little afraid of being out of touch, of being considered too old to work with this new generation of students? Why else would there be so many sessions on bridging the generation gap, on the iPod generation, on things like Wikis.

Through the sessions I have attended today I reaffirmed some things about myself as a professional. First, I enjoy assessment – thank you Andrea and Trish for a wonderful session. Unlike others I don’t find it scary or overwhelming but I think this follows my love for change. Second, I thrive on change, on improving the process and finding easier ways to get things done. Third, I am a technology freak although not an expert on implementation. Bring on the Wiki, the automated database, and the new software package that somehow, someway is going to make my life as a professional easier. Lastly, I have reaffirmed the reason I am the professional I am – I love the path that has brought me to where I am and am proud of the professional I have grown into.

While I may not always admit it or give them credit for it, ACUI has helped me develop some professional networks and helped me establish relationships that reach beyond my professional life into my personal world. I was never involved in ACUI as a student, did not attend ACUI conferences or programs as a graduate student and only started coming when Smith started construction on their first Campus Center in 2002. I have worked my way up as a student union professional at Smith and ACUI has been along for the journey – I am thankful for the company. I can’t help but think about my responsibility to pay it forward. What I am going to do to reaffirm something for a colleague as my colleagues have done for me over the past few days? Maybe we should all take a minute to acknowledge what we have been given and to think about how we are going to settle up. We all clearly owe something and before the conference is over maybe we should all start repaying the debt.

You all know how it happens; you go to great sessions at the conference and steal a few fabulous ideas. You know that these ideas would go over well on your campus but the trick is how to get the buy in to get them implemented. The first part is getting buy in from the folks above you–convince them that this is something worth the time and resources of your staff. The second part is convincing your staff that this new idea is worth devoting their time and energy to. This is the challenge of the mid-level manager as I see it. No matter what level of mid-level you are talking about I think we all feel this pull and thus how I have approached the conference. I tend to look at the ideas I can really sell–those ideas that my staff won’t think I am crazy to pursue–the ones they will give me “the look” for even suggesting. I work with some pretty amazing people and the last thing I need is the look for suggesting a new idea–especially from Patrick.

I’ve decided that MLM have a lot of work to do at the conference – support staff members and students who are here, stay connected to the home office to make sure that things keep moving all while concentrating on your own learning. I’m a little stressed out just thinking about getting it all done! So as I sit in the How to Fill Up My Bucket session presented by the very energetic Kristen Salo from The University of Houston, I wonder if it is possible to fill up my “invisible bucket” with positive thoughts ad feelings to keep me going. Can I remember to keep filling my bucket without taking away from someone else’s? Can I keep people from taking from my bucket? I think ML Managers need to build a fortress around their buckets to keep people on either side of them from stealing from their bucket–I guess that would keep people from giving to my bucket as well and I that just defeats the purpose, right? So back to the ideas–how do we bring things back without getting beat up and having our buckets emptied in the process?

As I finish my second day I feel like I pose more questions than anything else but isn’t this what it is all about? Aren’t MLM encouraged to ask questions, to challenge and to push people in new directions. I’m off to the Small Schools Community of Practice Meeting, the opening banquet and of course to see Liz Mongrello kick some butt in the ACUI Idol – I just hope I can fill some buckets along the way!

It is that time again—another national conference—time to connect with old friends and colleagues—time to recharge your battery before the final push of the end of the year. I have been at Smith College for the past 8 years and in that time I have been the Student Activities Coordinator, Assistant Director for Student Activities and am currently the Director of the Campus Center—a position I have held for the past four years. I was an RA and worked as a Building Manager at the University of Vermont where my good friend Pat Brown told me about Student Affairs—went on to Syracuse for my MS in Higher Education where my love for the Shine Student Center solidified my career plans. I have attended a total of nine ACUI international and regional conferences and have tried to take something new from each one of them but something about this one feels different. I consider myself a mid-level manager and feel like it is time to make some decisions about what is next. I was excited to blog about my experience if nothing else than to really pay attention to the experience of the conference and my own learning. Where do we as professionals put ourselves out there, when do we take risks, where do we fall into habits that are comfortable? Do all mid-level managers feel caught in the middle or is it just me—too old to be considered new, but not experienced enough to be considered seasoned? Is it enough to be in the middle and what can I do to recharge and affect positive change for my team, my institution, and myself?

So on my first day of conferencing and blogging my experience as a mid-level manager I am struck by one question – how would you define a mid-level manager? Do you define this group of dedicated, hard-working professionals by title, by years in the field, by level of responsibility? Being in the Mid-Level Management Seminar this morning was good, but I was the one of very few that had Director in my title. In this sea of Assistant and Associate and Directors I couldn’t help but wonder if I was in the right place. I am all the things that Dr. Persons described—I am detailed orientated, I approach my job with courage and a steadiness, I am the communication link between my student affairs leadership team and my staff in the CC. I am a long-term thinker, have political skill and think renewal everyday. Now consumed with finding an answer I pose these questions to friends new and old—what is a middle manager? If new professionals are in the field 1-5 years are mid-level managers in the field 6-10? Should you be a supervisor of professional staff members to be considered mid-level? Are there levels of mid-level management—new managers vs. seasoned managers? At what point do you cross the line into senior level management—and will you know it when it happens?

For now just questions until tomorrow when I start to look for answers.

Follow Tamra Bates as she blogs for the Mid-Level Management Professionals at the ACUI annual conference in Anaheim!