Survival Guide for College Managers and Leaders

by Collins, David

• ISBN13: 9780826490810
• ISBN10: 0826490816
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-23
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

"A Survival Guide for College Managers and Leaders is a distillation of the key skills and attitudes that you will need to possess if you are to survive and indeed thrive in such a situation. It highlights examples of good, bad and questionable practice from college leaders and managers of all ages. It is a handbook of practical advice and tried and tested approaches to the many problems and challenges that you are likely to face." David Collins CBE This is the definitive survival guide to leading and managing a FE College for College Leaders and Senior Managers. The tremendously experienced and successful College Principal, David Collins, covers every aspect of running a College, from shaping the organisation and communicating a vision to planning and marketing the programme right through to dealing with people and improving quality. Accessibly and engagingly written, and packed with real-life examples, this book will prove essential reading for ambitious senior staff in the FE sector.

Table of Contents

The author	ix
Series foreword	xi
Series Editor's introduction	xv
Introduction	1
1 Preparing to lead	4
The job	4
Leaders and followers	6
Where do you fit in?	8
Have you got what it takes?	9
From application to first day	9
Deciding on an operational approach	11
Creating an image	12
2 Entering the fray	13
The first days and weeks	13
When to listen and when to speak	15
Dealing with history	15
Time management	17
Space management	21
Activity management	25
Setting the climate	28
Managing expectations	29
3 Shaping the organization	30
Whose organization is it anyway?	30
Mission — What's the point?	30
Vision — Where are you going?	32
Values — How are you going to get there?	33
Strategic aims and objectives — Steps along the way	34
Determining policies and procedures	35
When to make decisions and when not to	37
Monitoring your performance and the performance of the organization	37
4 Communicating the vision	41
Leadership and delegation	41
Communications by design	42
Data collection and interpretation	45
Ensuring that the right people have the right information at the right time	47
Gathering feedback	48
5 Planning and marketing the programme	51
Assessing demand	51
Deciding on what you offer and what you don't offer	53
Producing the plan	55
Assessing and managing risk	58
Creating innovation	58
Marketing the product	59
Monitoring outcomes	60
6 Designing a delivery structure	62
Shapes and sizes	62
Hierarchies	63
The relationship between power, skills and responsibilities	64
What have you got?	65
What do you need?	66
What do you want?	67
Changing personnel	68
Avoiding common pitfalls	69
Balancing stability and the need for change	70
7 Providing resources	71
Sources of income	71
Main items of expenditure	74
Characteristics of efficient and inefficient colleges	76
Benchmarking calculations and ratios	81
Dealing with inherited problems and recovery situations	82
Investing for the future	84
8 Dealing with people	85
Dealing with the powers that be and would like to be — stakeholders and board members	85
Deciding on the staff mix	86
Selecting staff	88
Setting targets	93
Performance appraisal	94
Staff development	95
Dismissals and redundancies	96
Handling the good, the bad and the ugly	99
Dealing with students	100
Dealing with everyone else	101
9 Examining performance and improving quality	102
Determining where you are and benchmarking against best practice	102
Quality definitions	103
Quality control	103
Quality assurance	104
Quality improvement	105
Quality management	105
Quality desire	106
Self-assessment	106
Determining where you want to be and how to get there	109
Development plans	110
10 Changing a culture	112
Recognizing the need for change	112
Deciding what's needed	115
Removing barriers to change	115
Determining the ground rules for action	116
What to control and what not to control	117
Conclusions So you still want to do the job? What next?	119
Bibliography	121
Index	123