Academic Leadership: Fundamental Building Blocks
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examples are meditation, physical exercise and yoga. Other techniques which are more
temporary and short-term include mental framing and imagery, deep breathing
exercises, muscle relaxation exercises, and massage. Classical music and a good
ergonomic workstation can also help.
Personal support systems – social resiliency
Social support is the most important factor for stress management. Hence, it is
important to nurture those relationships that can help you buffer the stress in your life.
Make investments in these relationships through kindness, courtesy, honesty and
consistency. Do not just use them to dump your worries, develop these relationships.
Also look at the support in your team. Building your team can enhance social
support for yourself and your course team. Refer to Section 7.6 for some ideas.
Peer coaching is also a highly valuable tool to gain support in your role as an
Academic Coordinator. Invest in this relationship as a support tool.
Interpersonal competence
There are a range of strategies in this resource book to help you build your interpersonal
competence. By building your strengths in these areas you can improve the quality of
those relationships that have an impact on your life and work, and hopefully reduce
stress. Some example areas you want might focus on include:
- How to build teams
- Conflict management
- Coaching and counselling
- Motivating employees
- Productive feedback.
Work redesign
The role of the Academic Coordinator is often multi-faceted. You can get some sense of
your role and work responsibilities by asking for a role description. You can also work
with your Head of School to negotiate your role and job design. Lack of control over
one’s role and job requirements is a key factor in causing stress. Look at what you can
delegate. How can you combine tasks to achieve multiple aims? Build relationships
with your team and involve them in decisions so you get support, buy-in and possible
avenues for delegation and role sharing. Gain access to committees to influence
decisions. Increase your decision-making authority to elevate autonomy. These are all
strategies you might consider in making your role work for you.
Goal setting and small wins strategies
Goal setting is covered in Section 9.1. However, having clear work goals and targets
enables you to focus on those activities that are important, yet not urgent. With clear
goals and action plans in place, you can celebrate small wins by focusing on the
incremental steps required to achieve the larger goal. Looking at the successes along
the way makes movement towards the final goal more motivating.
Balancing life activities
If you feel stressed in one part of your life you often spend more time on that activity to
get a handle on it. This is counterproductive as you become more stressed, less
