Leadership Development Session
2009 ADD TA Institute
Maggie Nygren, EdD
1
History
• We anticipate a substantial turnover in
UCEDD Directors
• For the past 2 years, under our TA
contract with ADD, we have been
exploring how we might assist Centers in
these transitions
• Workgroup assisted with the design of
the project: Brent Askvig, Carl Calkins, Elizabeth
Dykens, Michael Gamel-McCormick, Gloria Krahn,
Sarah Rule, Zolinda Stoneman, Barbara Wheeler
2
Transition Planning Model
This model was abandoned because we
found that in the majority of cases
– Directors were not in a position to contribute to the
selection of their successors, nor
– Establish processes for seamless transitions, and
– Many individuals in the Associate Director role
would not be viable candidates for the position at
that Center
3
Essential Qualifications Model
We next sought to determine the
essential qualifications to be
– Successful as a UCEDD Director
– Hired by a university or medical school to be a
UCEDD Director
4
Ultimate Goal
To develop the next generation of
leadership by making that information
widely available so that
– Individuals might make career decisions that would
position them for that role
– We could create or promote opportunities that would
support individuals’ development to become
Directors of UCEDDs or other entities with similar
values
5
Process to Date
Over the last 2 years, we’ve been
gathering data on what
– Skills UCEDD Directors need to do their jobs
– Resources they need to do their jobs
– Processes that universities/medical schools
use to recruit & hire UCEDD Directors
– Hiring qualifications of universities/medical
schools for that role
6
Data Collection Strategies
• An electronic survey of UCEDD
Directors/Co-Directors (66% response rate)
• A focus group of emeritus UCEDD
Directors (9 invited, 8 participated)
• Interviews with the chairs of committees
for UCEDD Director searches who were
in process or had recently concluded
(57% or 36% response rate)
7
What have we learned?
8
Skills UCEDD Directors need
to do their jobs
Most UCEDD Directors both lead the Center
and its manage day-to-day operations
– Political skills
– Leadership skills (including strategic planning)
– Administrative skills
• People skills
• Operations skills (HR, fiscal, monitoring/maintaining
productivity, etc)
– Skill set that consistent with the primary work or
funding of the Center (clinical, research, outreach,
etc.)
9
Resources they need to have
to do their jobs
• Credibility within the host institution, through
tenure or its equivalent, promotions, or other
institutional currency
• Projects (income and impact) that are
– Visible and valuable within the university & state
contexts
– Support university’s goals/strategic plan
• Staff with credentials necessary to fulfill
university expectations for scholarship, service,
and teaching
10
University processes to recruit & hire
UCEDD Directors
• A national search is by far the norm
• Internal candidates may be considered in the national search
• A search may take 9-12 months, which often results in a
substantial gap in leadership
• Search committees are far more common than the use of
headhunting firms
• The membership of search committees are based on university
policies, priorities, and politics
– It’s typical for a stakeholder to be included, but the definition of a
stakeholder varies
– Inclusion of the current Director on the search committee for the next
Director, while not unusual, is not the norm
• Searches may be undertaken to fulfill a vision for the UCEDD that
is not the same as it current vision
– Qualifications may be set by the Dean, generated by the search
committee, but are typically not based on external data sources
11
Hiring qualifications of universities
for the UCEDD Director role
•
•
•
•
Terminal degree
Research/scholarly credentials
Documented history of securing grant $
Sufficient experience to support their
appointment into a tenured or
administratively equivalent position
• Management experience
12
Qualifications Comparison
University-reported
hiring qualifications
Predicted by UCEDD Directors as
“very likely” hiring qualifications
−
Terminal degree
Research/scholarly credentials
Publication history: 52% (23)
Research: 48% (21)
Documented history of securing
grant $
Capacity to bring in grants/revenue: 91% (40)
Sufficient experience to support
their appointment into a tenured
or administratively equivalent
position
Tenureability 46% (20)
Management experience
Management/leadership credentials: 86% (38)
Disability expertise: 82% (36)
Community outreach/engagement expertise:
50% (22)
Familiarity with the UCEDDs: 36% (16)
Teaching: 23% (10)
13
To what extent has/did the applicant pool
match the identified qualifications?
• Very few applicants overall
• Very few of the applications received matched
the advertised qualifications
• Most had no direct experience with UCEDDs
• Many applicants had no experience in
disabilities or administration
• Tremendous variability in salary expectations
• The best fits were people at the end of their
careers with high salary expectations but were
judged as unlikely to stay more than 3 years
14
Looking back, was there any information that might
have been useful for the search committee to have
at the beginning of the process?
• Would have been helpful to spend more time defining
the skills necessary to move the Center where it
needed to go and then basing the recruitment on that
skill set
• Would have been useful to have known more about the
Center
• Should have been clearer about the required degree,
research expertise, and salary range
• Should have directly solicited Associate Directors in
the network
• If we’d had the budget, we would have used a head
hunter
15
What advice would you give to others as
they do searches for UCEDD Directors?
• Determine qualifications by
– Articulating the vision for the future activities of the
Center (and matching the qualifications to that
vision)
– Bringing in consultants from the network to analyze
existing capacity, review the strategic plan, and
suggest qualifications needed to achieve goals
– Reviewing job descriptions from other Centers
– Conducting informational interviews with Directors
of comparable UCEDDs
16
Recommendations from the focus group
• Universities should engage in a self-study prior to
initiating the recruitment, that is, determine its needs
and set goals before it starts looking for a new UCEDD
Director
• AUCD, as an outside source that could not be
perceived as influencing the search, should assist
universities in the recruitment processes by providing
– Director job descriptions from other UCEDDs
– Consultation to help the search committee understand what
expertise is required to meet UCEDD grant deliverables
– A list of comparable UCEDDs, so that the search committee
might engage in informational interviews with their Directors
– Provide any “profile” information that might be developed on
UCEDD types.
17
What should we do?
18
Breakout Questions
1. What is your immediate reaction to this
information?
2. How do you think this will impact your
mentoring of future leaders?
3. What kind of activities can we provide
to help people gain the experiences
they need to be viable candidates?
19