Work in Progress: Coaching as a Midcareer Faculty Development Approach

This work in progress describes a piloted coaching program targeting recently promoted Associate Faculty at Michigan Engineering. As engineering faculty enter the workforce, they are supported through New Faculty Orientation, start-up funding, Launch Committees, and preassigned departmental mentors. It is after they have completed the tenure process that there is often a void of concerted effort to offer enriched career support. Simultaneously, this can be a time when feelings of isolation and disengagement emerge. The College of Engineering has implemented a program that uses individual coaching as a career development approach. The faculty members are offered coaching service and can craft the engagement frequency as well as the agenda topics in that coaching. This paper will highlight the approach and common themes that emerged from these coaching engagements. The themes may serve as framework for mid-career faculty development interventions more broadly. The next phase of the program will engage participants in an optional group coaching experience. The objective of the proposed group coaching program is to reinforce and build on the gains made by faculty who have participated in individual coaching and to emphasize shared experiences. Tags: Faculty Development, Coaching, Mid-Career Background – Mid-Career Faculty Promotion to Associate Professor rank places faculty in a new place in the academic life-cycle and can serve as an exploratory time with less pressure than the earlier Assistant Professor period. However, this is a time of transition that can often lead to isolation, confusion, and ambivalence [1] – a perfect time to increase support. The intention of the coaching program described in this paper is to help newly tenured faculty to explore their opportunities and identify resources they need to strive towards developing their leadership potential whether that be in research, in their academic discipline, as a policy maker, a change agent, or as an academic leader. Vague expectations, including less than explicit requirements for promotion to full professor can be demotivating and lead to disengagement [2]. Baldwin, et. al. [3] reinforce the challenges regarding the increased competition in research funding as well as the changing fabric of the academic identity at the Associate Faculty rank, requiring for increased collaboration. Once faculty achieve tenure they face a different set of pressures, including questions about identity, impact, leadership, and legacy [2]. Kiernan Mathews highlighted that The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE), based at Harvard Graduate School of Education, finds that the experienced associate professor (at that rank for more than 5 years) is less satisfied with his or her institution and department than is the recently tenured associate professor [4]. The COACHE report, as well as other references [1],[2],[3],[4], emphasize the need for mid-career support.