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The top two challenges facing supervisors in higher education right now are filling positions and maintaining morale. This is according to a survey released this year by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources that identified a “talent crisis” in higher education.
If you work in higher education, now is a great opportunity to advocate for yourself. Employees have more leverage than ever to ask for a promotion, more autonomy, or better resources. But there’s a right and a wrong way to go about advocating for yourself.
Sure, you can threaten to quit if you don’t get what you want. There are plenty of jobs out there. Institutions would rather avoid the expenses, operational disruption, lost knowledge, and reduced employee morale that occurs when employees leave. And although no one is irreplaceable, you might not want to play the “or else I’ll quit” card unless you absolutely have to.
“You better make sure that what you bring to the institution is really that valuable,” said Anthony Wheeler, dean of the School of Business Administration at Widener University. “You need to be sure that if you leave, the institution is going to be in a really tough spot. Because that is the ultimate threat.”
A better way to advocate, especially if you want to maintain mutual trust with your institution, is to provide continual feedback to your employer. As an expert in human resources management, Wheeler is well aware of the impact of “voice behavior” in organizations.
Voice behavior is defined as “expressions of concern with the intention of improving the ways things are done in the organization.” It guides managers’ attention to solving critical issues related to existing practices. Voice is considered the most effective way for employees to show that they care about their workplace.
“People who are experiencing discontent will become more vocal about what needs to change,” Wheeler said. “They will start to build allies and empower others, and in this job market, because it is so hard to hire people, self-advocating could cause your employer to change.”
So how do you advocate for yourself?
Well, that depends on a lot of things, especially if the source of unhappiness is your manager. In that case, you must involve a human resources officer, a dean, or a division leader. But generally speaking, good self-advocacy has three characteristics: it occurs continually, it is documented, and it recognizes mutual benefits.
- Occurs Continually: Self-advocacy is like networking; it needs to happen in good times and in bad, and not just when you desperately need something. Just as you shouldn’t wait until you need a job to tap into your professional network, avoid campaigning for something only when you have an immediate request. Continually remind people about the value you bring to an institution or the importance of having your employer address your needs.
- Is Documented: Don’t just advocate for yourself in passing conversations. Document your successes or your needs. For example, you can send your boss a weekly email about the projects you’ve completed. You can also share thank-you notes or other positive feedback from students or donors that demonstrate effective practices by you or your department. If you need resources, provide a ledger of missed opportunities and quantifiable gains that could be made if you had the sufficient budget.
- Recognizes Mutual Benefits: Make connections so that you don’t appear self-serving. Justify your requests or ongoing work with the institution’s values and objectives. This is the fundamental approach to self-advocacy, according to Wheeler.
“I always tell people to make arguments from a strategic perspective,” Wheeler said. “Especially in higher education, we know what our institutions’ missions and priorities are, so to be able to make strategy-aligned arguments is always better and will be more receptive. So if I say, ‘I need more resources for X, Y, and Z,’ the better I can connect X, Y, and Z to advancing the institution’s mission and adding value to the students, the better your chances are that you’ll be successful. It will be viewed as helping to advance the mission of the institution, as opposed to ‘Well, Tony just wants more.'”
Yes, you do want more. That’s why you’re self-advocating. And you might have to offer something in return. But the best bargaining chip is not what the employer will lose if you quit. It’s what they gain if you stay.
Disclaimer: HigherEdJobs encourages free discourse and expression of issues while striving for accurate presentation to our audience. A guest opinion serves as an avenue to address and explore important topics, for authors to impart their expertise to our higher education audience and to challenge readers to consider points of view that could be outside of their comfort zone. The viewpoints, beliefs, or opinions expressed in the above piece are those of the author(s) and don’t imply endorsement by HigherEdJobs.
