3.13: Three Mindsets for Faculty

In this podcast episode, I explore three predominant mental models that faculty members often have about their roles within academia. 

The first model is the "freelance independent contractor" mindset, where faculty members see themselves as autonomous professionals who primarily set their own goals and priorities. They may view their relationship with the institution as transactional, valuing their independence and control over their work. 

The second model is the "employee" mindset, where faculty members see themselves as committed members of the institution, aiming to align their efforts with the organization's goals and expectations. This mindset often prioritizes collaboration and institutional success. 

The third model is described as "faculty as the moral compass of the institution," where faculty members view themselves as guardians of academic values and principles, sometimes in opposition to institutional agendas that prioritize financial or administrative goals over educational or ethical ones.

I acknowledge the complexity of these models and encourage listeners to reflect on their own attitudes and approaches to their careers. I emphasize the importance of understanding one's primary narrative within academia and how it aligns or conflicts with institutional culture and expectations. Additionally, I suggest considering whether adjustments can be made to better align with institutional goals or personal values.

Overall, the episode invites listeners to consider their own perspectives and experiences within academia, offering a framework for self-reflection and potential dialogue with colleagues and supervisors.

You can access Josh’s substack & podcast here:
https://joshuadolezal.substack.com/

Episode Details

Transcript

Hello, everybody. And thank you so much for lending me your ears for another episode of the mindful Academy. And full disclosure, this is the second time I've recorded this episode. And it's probably going to be shorter in this version than the longer one I recorded and through a way. And I'm just saying that at the outset, because I'm just going to acknowledge that I find this a little bit hard to talk about without seeing your face and knowing how you're responding to it. I'm learning that I love seeing people's reactions, right, I love being in conversation, I love making eye contact, I love having a sense of what's going on in the room. And so I'm discovering that my big, I don't want to say problem. But the hurdle I'm creating for myself in podcasting, is putting something out there and not seeing how it lands. And so I recorded a version of this that I just pitched because I wasn't even sure like the way it landed with me. So we're trying it again. And so what I'm going to talk about today is you're going to invite you to listen to what I think are three dominant, predominant models, mental models that faculty have about their jobs. And maybe you have a fourth one that I haven't mentioned that I'm not going to mention. But I'm going to talk about the three that I see most often in my groups when I when I work with groups on campus, and in my one on one coaching. And what I want to do in this second attempt to record this episode, is really tie mindfulness into this. And so I'm going to invite you to sort of think about how you define your job. And so I'll just throw that question out there. And then I'll give you sort of these three models that I see frequently. And then I'll ask the question again, and maybe I'll be able to ask it in another way. Or maybe it will resonate differently after I've outlined these three models. Okay, so three models of how faculty tend to approach the work that they do as an employee. So model number one is the freelance independent contractor model. And so, and I joke about this model, sometimes I refer to faculty who see themselves more as independent contractors, as you know, sort of the feral cat, so the academic world, they show up, when you put the good tuner out, that's a little cynical, and I don't really mean it. But the notion that your work, whether it's teaching in a class, or in a lab, conducting research getting published, being involved in professional organizations, that the university provides you with, you know, some letterhead and legitimacy to go do those things, but that your profession sort of, incidentally, overlaps with university. And even that sounds a little bit more cynical than I mean it. So allow me to grab my notes. Okay. So for the independent contractor model, perhaps it's, nobody is really assigning targets and goals, right? Nobody assigns hours beyond regular teaching and office hours. So the goals that you set for yourself are self imposed, right? Publishing goals, teaching goals, other sorts of scholarly goals, there may be expectations around x number of publications a week or X amount of dollars in grant funding. But that's the What the How you do that is your business, right? So that's something that an independent contractor mindset is going to value a great deal. The independent contractor model also is very aware that all aspects of the process to get to success are things that they can that they control or influence primarily. So you're not expecting all that much from the institution in terms of enabling your success, right. So the skills and abilities that you need in order to do your job are things that you have acquired on your own time prior to your employment, etc. Right. The independent contractor may not expect much more, or has come to not expect much more from the institution than a paycheck when it comes to acknowledgement and your responsibilities to the institution in return What are maybe the bare minimum, I don't know, like this, I see, I see various versions of the independent contractor model. One is I'm gonna go off and do my thing, I'm gonna bring it back in when it's ready for people to see and celebrate. But I'm very much sort of the steward and the steerer of my career. And then you can also see the independent contractor model that gets incredibly selfish with time and energy. And I think that that freelance model is it can be maladaptive and adaptive, depending on your context. So I'll just put to you as a listener in the academy. Is that freelance model of being a scholar or teacher? Is that something that resonates with you? And the the questions around that art? If so, what about it resonates with you? does it align with your value system in some way? Does it feel safer and more protected than other ways of interacting with your employer that might involve more emotional bonding? So think about? Is that a model that resonates with you? Does it resonate with people around you? How do you experience it, when you or others think of yourself as I'm here as an independent contractor, and not therefore a company person beholden to the institution. The second model is the employee model, where maybe you are beholden to the institution, you are tenured, this is where you're going to grow and build your career. And you are in a long term contractual relationship here, where your success and the success of the institution are linked. And in the employee model, the employee understands that the institution is setting the success parameters, and that you as an employee are looking to succeed within those success parameters. So maybe, shorthand for this mindset might be what do you need me to do now? Right, what can I do to make this smoother, better, faster, more enriching, etc? What can I do to boost enrollments. So if the in the employee model, you are showing up to the open house enthusiastically because you understand that a rising tide of enrollment lifts all boats, and you're going to be part of that, for example. Alright, and in exchange for you, being all in with your employer, you get belonging. You get a connection to something bigger than you. And it feels like more than a job. Even though on paper, it's a job. The third model is and I think I have this phrase from Kathleen Fitzpatrick's book generous thinking. The third model is faculty as the moral compass of the institution. And so I come from the humanities, right German language and literature. And my colleagues, English professors, foreign literature, professors, conflict, philosophy, religious studies, history. These people tend to find themselves representing this position a lot in my experience. These people want to be and have experienced themselves in the past as the moral compass of the institution. So if you find yourself maybe at odds, real value based odds with your institution, and its neoliberal, capitalistic business model, this may be you right, where the moral compass of the university the moral compass of the college is, teaching, deep connection, truth, beauty, meaning, collective meaning making, nurturing young minds, and not athletics, or a certain financial business model, that prioritizes the broad number of bums in seats over the quality and rigor of their experience. And the reason I want to talk about this or put this out there, and also the reason that I struggle with it is because I find that when I talk about it, it sounds judgy like there's a right way A to be a faculty member.

And I was talking with my friend and fellow podcaster, Josh Dolezal, who does the podcast, recovering academic where he interviews people who've left the Academy. And we were talking about, you know, can you be an employee who's all in and also builds your brand, which maybe is what the university wants from you, or maybe what culture wants from you, in order for you to be visible in ways that help a rising tide lifts all boats, right. So I understand that this is a more nuanced conversation than that me just throwing out these three models. But for the purposes of thinking mindfully about your career, what I think is potentially valuable here is can you identify the predominant strand of your story as a university employee? Do you first and foremost feel like you are or should be the moral compass, because that was the story I, I bought into, when I was a faculty member, I was very involved in governance. I was very interested and invested in how the university made its decisions, and felt that as a faculty member, it was my responsibility and job to do that. And therefore, you know, I needed to have good and smart things to say about it. Right? Do you feel primarily that you're here because you have a job and you understand your commitment to your employer might require some compromise might require you do things that you know, wouldn't be first on your to do list? Because every job involves, you know, 20% of things that you're not super wild about. But you're you identify first and foremost as an employee, and give the institution a pretty big role in the decision making there? Or do you really want to feel and strive to feel like an independent contractor where autonomy and not being beholden to an institution, not having a boss is really important to you? Right. And that was really important to me, too. So I see these three threads come up a lot. And I think being able to identify them and say, okay, my primary narrative is, you know, maybe 40%, this and 30%, that and 30%. The other thing, or it's 5050, or whatever the percentages are, and then look around you at your institution at your colleagues and say, okay, am I am I swimming upstream here? Or am I swimming downstream? Have I picked? Or do I naturally fall into a certain way of thinking about my role? And about my career and how I go about doing my work that meshes really well with my environment? And there's no friction? Or does my vision of what I'm doing here rub up against what either my colleagues do and expect or what the institution is doing and expecting? Because sometimes that can, that can be a big values gap between you and the institution that requires some exploration on your part internally. But sometimes it can just be a little shift like a Ha, okay, maybe if it's all the same to me, independent contractor or loyal employee? Maybe I can shift a little bit towards loyal employee, and that makes my path a little bit easier. Right? Maybe if I have some explicit conversations with my department head, or if I am the department head, I have conversations with my dean around, like, what am I doing, that you see, as expected as contributing to the overall good of our project? And should I be doing more of that? Do I want to do more? Maybe that's I've seen that be easy for people. Oh, okay. This is where I can partner with the University. I don't have to feel at odds with them all the time, because I love doing this. And they think it's a great thing. So instead of maybe fixing some of the gaps, just spend more time on the stuff that resonates really well. So the mindful question, there is the internal question around where what you value about your career? Alright. So I would be really interested in hearing, first of all, can you think of a fourth or fifth model? And then second of all, do you have a default mode that you find yourself falling into that is that mirror is one of the three or a combination of the three that I just talked about? As I said, I wanted to be a bit of the independent contractor and a bit of the moral compass. I know that those were my default modes, and I can talk later about how those have or haven't served me, as I've built a small business them, because they're the independent contractor really has gets gets to shine and also gets to see the struggle of being an independent contractor. So I'm interested in hearing if that resonates with people, you can find me on LinkedIn. And you can comment on this episode on LinkedIn. I'd love to see it. And you can reach out to me directly at Jennifer at Jennifer askey.com. We'd love to hear what you think. Thanks again for lending me your ears and I look forward to talking to you again soon.