Identifying learning and growth opportunities encourages a faculty member with administrative responsibilities or professional staff member to reflect on what they do well and could do even better, and on what they could improve. Understanding their thoughts about learning and growth encourages the dean or department head to provide thoughtful feedback and also offer their own suggestions.

Examples of Learning & Growth Opportunities

Examples of a Conversation

Example 1

Faculty Administrator: "I have enjoyed the opportunity to develop my management skill in this role. One of the challenges for me has been developing my administrative capacity while still maintaining my faculty role – keeping my research going, in particular. I would like help and support in learning how to balance these roles and figuring out what it is important to maintain and what I can let go of."

Dean/Supervisor: "I am happy to hear you have enjoyed the administrative role. It has been good to see your development. Balancing these competing priorities is always a challenge. I am happy to carve out time in our 1:1 meetings to discuss this and develop some strategies. We can also explore external mentoring coaching through NCFDD or other venues so you can explore these issues with similarly situated peers."

Example 2

Professional Staff Member Example: "I am interested in moving into a leadership role within 1-2 years."

Manager Example: "I'm happy to hear that you're interested in taking on a leadership role. Let's talk more about what that means to you, and what kind of leadership role you envision. Learning more about yourself and how you operate can be a great place to start when you're figuring out how you can be a good leader."

Other Examples

• Matriculate into a degree program

• Complete a non-credit course or program – see Goodwin Continuing Professional Education for some examples

• Complete a program from Drexel HR

• Attend learning offerings from Drexel departments – see Office of Research or Office for Institutional Equity and Inclusive Culture

• Shadow an expert

• Complete a stretch assignment

• Find a mentor (internal and external)

• Request routine feedback (from manager, colleagues, etc.)

• Request an informational interview

• Join a committee

• Join a professional association

• Find a TED Talk to discuss with colleagues

• Use Google - find free assessments, read articles, and put your learning into practice – see Mind Tools for some examples

• Try MOOCs (Edex, Coursera, etc.)

• Portable learning (audiobooks, podcasts, etc.)

Video: 7 Tips for Asking for More Support From Your Supervisor