A Toolkit for New Professionals (June 2014)

www.aua.ac.uk inspiring professional higher education
A Toolkit for New Professionals
Catherine Lillie and Nicola Owen
Manchester, Friday 27 June 2014

Welcome and Introductions
By the end of the day you will be able to:
• Understand a range of approaches to workload planning, time
management and prioritisation
• Consider how to use resources and solve problems effectively
• Have a greater understanding of how to work well with others
• Have an appreciation of communication skills
• Know how to identify your own competencies and confidence
in a range of professional behaviours
• Adopt a planned approach to career development
• Share best practice and learn from the experiences of others
• Take a range of tools and techniques back to the workplace

Introductions
• Who you are
• What you do and where
• Two images-
1. how you feel right now
2. where you’d like to be by the end of the day

Personal Effectiveness
In this section:
- Time management
- Managing workload
- Prioritisation

Time management
Wasters and drains
Top tips

Time management
Last minute
Emotional response
Lack of control
Under prepared / unconfident
Unprofessional / demoralising

Time management
Last
minute
Time
squeeze
Focus
efforts
Other
tasks
slip

Workload management
Group exercise:
It’s 9am and you have just been asked to
complete two urgent reports, for two different
managers. They will each take around six hours
to complete and the deadline for each of them is
9am the following morning.
What do you do?

Task management
Identify goals Project manage
Work backwards
from deadlines
Plate spinning
Action plan
Say no
Don’t
procrastinate

Prioritisation
Exercise: In Trays

Refreshment break!

Role Effectiveness
In this section:
- Creative problem solving
- Lateral thinking
- Using resources

Problem solving and lateral thinking

Problem solving
EXERCISE:
communication break-down

Using resources

Lunch!

Working with Others
In this section:
- Dealing with challenging situations
- Understanding yourself and others
- Negotiation and influencing
- Delivering feedback

Dealing with challenging situations
“It’s my tag”

Dealing with challenging situations

Understanding yourself and others

Understanding yourself and others
Other tools and diagnostics to find out more about
yourself and others:
Schein’s career anchors
360 feedback

Delivering feedback

Delivering feedback
Feedback Criticism
Seeks solutions Seeks to apportion blame
Forward looking Dwells in the past
Is objective Is subjective
Is tough on problems Is tough on people
Giving Feedback
- Balanced
- Observed
- Objective
- Specific
- Timely
Receiving Feedback
- Listen
- Clarify
- Analyse
- Respond
Taken from the Pansophix Useful Guide to Feedback

Negotiation
The process of…
- Identifying variables*
- Discussing options
- Agreeing terms
* 3 Variables
1. What you must gain, retain or are not prepared to lose
2. What you would prefer to gain or retain
3. What you are prepared to lose

Influencing

Working across office boundaries
Delegation
Two decisions:
1. Which responsibilities or tasks do you want
someone to carry out on your behalf?
2. How much authority you are giving them to
complete it?

Working across office boundaries
Managing Upwards
Knowledge and
understanding Be prepared Give concise
information
Know when to
escalate
Share the good
news
Identify
alternatives

Good Communication
In this section:
- Professional writing
- Using meetings
- Getting your message across verbally
- Effective Powerpoint

Professional Writing

Using meetings

Verbal communication

• This is not the best way to get your message across by PowerPoint.
• There are too many words and bullet points on the page and some long paragraphs.
• There is a lot of detail, but it will make very little impact. You might as well give people a
written paper rather than present by PowerPoint.
• You cannot read small font very well on the screen and some people will be short sighted.
• If you just speak to the words on the screen, you will not communicate well. PowerPoint is
only one part of a presentation. It is a communication aid but only as part of a wider range of
communication methods, such as verbal and non-verbal. It can help provide a structure and
narrative to a meeting but it is not a crutch for you to use to ensure that you remember what
to say or don’t have to look at the audience. Modulate your voice and do not drone on.
• The point of your slides is to illustrate or expand what you are going to say to your audience.
• You should know what you are going to say and then visualise it – so planning a script is
important. Have a narrative – a beginning, middle and end. Use one point per slide – people
will read the slide and if you give them the next points they will have already moved on and
not concentrate on you. Use animation to reveal your points. But not too much or it will cause
nausea. And use images sparingly.
• Sometimes it is best not to use PowerPoint at all, or present and then use one slide to
circulate as an aide memoire.
Effective Powerpoint

Effective Powerpoint
Make 3 Points
Tell a Story
Keep it Visual

Career Planning and Development
In this section:
- Careers in HE
- Career planning and recording
development
- Using the AUA Accredited Membership
Framework
Even if you are on the
right track, you’ll get run
over if you just sit there

Career Planning and Development
Career (n): one’s advancement through
life, especially in a profession
Career (v): to move or swerve about
wildly

Careers in HE
Did you intend to build a career in HE or
was it an ‘accident’?
Was your current role a planned and
managed career move?

Careers in HE
Potential factors impacting on career progression for UK HE
PSS staff
Career
Progression
Appraisal
External Factors
- Hera
- Financial climate
- Labour market
PESTLE
Professional
silos
External
appointmentsAdvice,
support,
training
Restructuring
Development
opportunities
Line
Manager

Career Planning
Visualisation Exercise
Spend two minutes imagining you could design
your perfect job description- with its own pay
structure, working hours and conditions and job
elements. Note down your ideas.
What would you do in your career? What
elements of your current role would you keep, lose
or change?

Planning and recording development

Planning and recording development
Reflective practice
Concrete
experience
Observations
and reflections
Formation
of abstract
concepts
(Experimental)
actions

The Accredited Membership Framework
CPD
Capability
Reflection
CPD
Capability
Reflection
Accredited
Member
Member Fellow

Evaluation and reflection
• Understand a range of approaches to workload planning, time
management and prioritisation
• Consider how to use resources and solve problems effectively
• Have a greater understanding of how to work well with others
• Have an appreciation of communication skills
• Know how to identify your own competencies and confidence
in a range of professional behaviours
• Adopt a planned approach to career development
• Share best practice and learn from the experiences of others
• Take a range of tools and techniques back to the workplace

Evaluation and reflection

More information at www.aua.ac.uk
Email: aua@aua.ac.uk
Call: 0161 275 2063
Association of University Administrators (AUA)
@The_AUA

A Toolkit for New Professionals (June 2014)

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