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the uplift

carole chabries

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elevating and amplifying women's voices and issues in higher ed.

the uplift

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#42: Checking In With Your Goals

In this episode we revisit The Grounded Academic Leader from episode 30. I want to help you set yourself up for a strong start to your next term by reviewing your goals as this term comes to an end, and making adjustments based on what you've accomplished and learned to refine and recalibrate your goals for the next term.

The Role of Dissent in Psychological Safety

A discussion of the fourth stage of psychological safety - the safety to challenge the status quo - as form of institutionalized and acceptable dissent. [02:22]: The three stages of psychological safety we've covered so far: Inclusion Safety, Learner Safety, and Contributor Safety. Today we'll dig into the role of dissent in psychological safety and explore how institutions create a culture where folks are in the habit of disagreeing in order to get better. [05:22]: What "the safety to challenge the status quo" can look like at work - and how I used it in my role as "the purpose girl." [8:35]: An example of how an organization can have varying levels of psychological safety based on differing team dynamics, and how that can be exacerbated by race and gender bias. [13:44]: "Where psychological safety is high, there is necessarily a high level of inclusion and belonging." [15:30]: The role of discipline in creating a culture where people can disagree. That's discipline as in consistent behavior, not as in punishment. [21:00]: Recommended strategies for embracing dissent, inclusion, and discipline, no matter your role, style, or level of leadership. [30:50]: Hey have you left a review yet? Please do it today!

How To Be A Contribution

"Being a contribution" -- an idea from The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander -- provides a frame for creating the 3rd stage of psychological safety (Contributor Safety), even as it helps you develop what Amy Edmondson calls Leadership Inclusiveness.

39: Activity is Not Achievement

For better or worse -- & TBH, just for worse -- our busy-ness has become a measure of our worth. But activity is not achievement. We know this from teaching. Now it's time to infuse this into our leadership practice.

Excellent Teaching, Excellent Leading

Some of your best skills in the classroom translate to your best skills as a leader. In this episode I explore the second stage of psychological safety -- the safety to learn -- and draw parallels between what successful teachers know in the classroom and the ways leaders can create learner safety for their teams.

Inclusion: Stage 1 of Psychological Safety

in today's episode i discuss why inclusion matters so much to psychological safety, and how to identify inclusive behaviors in your own leadership, on your team, and even from your own boss. i weave together research from amy edmondson, nika white, and timothy clark. i also share some resources you can use today to identify behaviors you can change to improve psychological safety for your team, as well as behaviors you can look for to assess your own team's levels of inclusion with each other.

Love your Job Again

I recently hosted a couple workshops designed to help leaders find joy in their work again. On today's episode I share the audio of the workshop along with the workbook participants used to complete the activities. Grab a copy of the workbook -- a color copy to print, or a fillable PDF -- and follow along! Listen to this episode along with #35, The Secret to Joy at Work, as a kind of mini-course on using consistent feedback on meaningful work to re-energize your team, increase their inner work joy...and in the process, reignite your pleasure and happiness in your leadership.

The Secret to Joy At Work

After talking with women across the country about how to love your job again, we're digging into the core premise: inner work joy comes from getting consistent feedback on meaningful work. This is findings of the research from Teresa Amabile and Stephen Kramer, which they share in their book The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work.

This is Not a Vendetta...

When I told a friend about my dream of building an app to help women see whether their new-boss-to-be is toxic -- before they accept that new job -- he burst out laughing and said “you’re on a serious vendetta here.” My first response was oh no, no no no. And then immediately I was like uhhh, yeah, maybe a little bit. In this episode I explore how what could have been a vendetta instead has become my mission to transform higher ed.

A Budget is a Moral Document

This idea has pervaded my life since childhood, but I hadn't heard (or remembered) the phrase until I saw it last summer, painted starkly on a building mural near George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. For days I couldn't get the phrase out of my head. Budgets reflect values - that's not news. I've seen this at play in institutional budgets on every campus where I've worked. It's at the heart of our debates every budget cycle. As leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure our institutional values and our distribution of resources are aligned. And when they're not? We should be honest about that. After seeing George Floyd Square, I began to wonder what our lives could look like if we approached all our budgets through this lens. How would we allocate our money? Our time? Energy? Our love? Today I invite you to think about the resources you have and what you do with them. What do you save and spend? What do you cling to out of fear or worry? What do you generously distribute? And why? What's behind all those choices and feelings? This is just one issue I help women leaders explore in my new course, Leading with Clarity. The course gives leaders the space and community that makes it possible to think deeply and connect the dots between our personal values and priorities, the ways we plan, and how we lead our teams. Doors will open soon -- join the waitlist so you can be first to hear when registration opens! Join the waitlist: https://theclareogroup.com/leadingwithclarity

Lessons from my Year of Yes

This week I reflect on lessons from my “Year of Yes.” Shonda Rhimes coined this phrase in her 2016 book Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person. Higher ed is not great at creating space for women to integrate our desires and aspirations. We are complex creatures - we seek professional success, disciplinary expertise, promotions and positive evaluations, connections with our families and people we love, our hobbies and fulfillment, and the ability to build a life in a place we care about. At least, this has been my experience - and I've spent my career accepting all those compromises in pursuit of professional success and recognition. But then last January I came to face-to-face with the truth: this was no longer working for me. So this year, I embraced my "Year of Yes" and decided to rebuild my life to be integrated and joyful, inside and outside of work. SHOWNOTES: https://theclareogroup.com/2023/01/09/lessons-from-my-year-of-yes/

Transformational DEI

In this episode I welcome special guest Dr. Jade Singleton, co-founder of Johnson Squared Consulting and DEI consultant at NASA's Science Mission Directorate, to discuss the current state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace -- what we're getting wrong, what we're doing right, and how we can get better. Dr. Singleton designed and leads a DEI certification program through The Sarah Jane Academy, with the next cohort starting January 9. Learn more and register at https://www.thesarahjane.org/courses/diversity-equity-inclusion-in-practice.

The Grounded Academic Leader

In this episode I share my process for designing a successful year grounded in clarity, calm, and confidence. I walk you through my own planning process, which includes reflection, setting intentions, and backward design. I've used this system to establish my purpose and my financial goals, and to make sure they're connected. I also share the free resource I created to help you plan for a full year based on your values, with prompts to revisit and revise at every term transition: The Grounded Academic Leader: Annual Plan. Grab it at the link below!

Building a Community of Care

I first got interested in the idea of burnout for faculty and staff through the work of Rebecca Pope-Ruark, author of Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning & Renewal. So I've been attuned to conversations about it -- not just among colleagues who are experiencing it, but also among women who are eager to help each other prevent, avoid, and extinguish it. The work of Julie Olson Rand and Alyssa Klenotich caught my eye: it's grounded in lived experiences, draws on research, and suggests paths forward for women -- for all of us -- to support each other by building a community of care. Thanks for listening!

How to Take a Tiny Sabbatical

Shelly Roder and Sarah Moore Nokes, two coaches who focus on support those in helping professions -- especially nonprofits and social-justice oriented organizations -- created the Tiny Sabbatical Project. Tiny Sabbatical: Creativity helps you connect your intention and your creative side, while Tiny Sabbatical: Connection helps you forge deeper bonds where you want them. I can personally vouch for their Teeny Tiny Sabbatical: A Seasonal Reset and talk about which practices I still use, even today.

Investing in Your Future Self

Willo Boniface is the Founder & Lead Glower at The Transformed Academic, where she coaches and consults with women in higher ed who seek holistic, joy-filled lives. She considers herself a "recovered" academic and has rich insights into what women experience inside of higher ed, as well as practical approaches to finding balance and restoring their energy in a way that brings happiness to them and the people in their world. You can find her at The Transformed Academic on Facebook.

In Community: Interracial Feminist Co-Mentoring

Christina Holmgren and Jayne Sommers share a co-mentoring model that dismantles typical patriarchal, hierarchical mentoring structures codified by white supremacist culture and instead creates space for black women's experiences and agency to exist alongside white women's humility and allyship.

Park Your Ego: Learning from Leading at the Intersections with Barri Harris

After more than two decades leading transformational projects for organizations of all sizes, Barri Harris has committed herself to supporting success across intergenerational teams so that colleagues can develop meaningful trust in their leaders *and* in each other. In this episode we talk about cultural conditioning, especially related to power and gender, for folks from different generations.

Empathy & Gratitude: Mandy Balek-Stephens on Mentoring Young Professionals

Mandy Balek-Stephens leads by practicing empathy and gratitude as people explore their path -- whether they're exploring their profession, their studies, their interests and passions, and their identities.

Mentors & Allies: How to be Machiavellian Without Being a Machiavellianne

Gender discrimination is real. The gendered wage gap is real. The mommy tax is real. It's bad for straight white women. It's much worse for women with brown and black skin; for lesbians and queer, bi, and trans women; for women whose first langauge is not English; for women who are entering professions as the first in their families or social circles and don’t have allies to support them. So let's take a lesson from Machiavelli: look the monster in the face, and determine our best course of action given the lay of the land. Let's strategize. Not to be brutal, but to lift each other up. To set the groundwork for this I take a peek into Machiavelli for Women by Stacey Vanek Smith. In particular I share the four archetypes of nasty female colleagues she identifies, and suggest actionable strategies you can practice this week to protect yourself, and the women around you, by being a mentor and an ally -- especially for women who inhabit less privileged positions than you do. Then jo…

Feminism is Optimism

Joy. Activism. Feminism. Optimism. Throw in a love of teaching, and I bring you: Elise Robinson! I feel like I've known Elise forever and goodness knows I've admired her for just as long. Currently earning her PhD at the University of Georgia in Theatre & Performance Studies, Elise is the kind of professor we all love and remember: passionate, enthusiastic, and pushing her students to always be better versions of themselves. In this episode Elise shows us how we can prepare students to be active and engaged citizens by preparing them for daily actions grounded in "perspectacles": small actions that are relevant to their daily lives. Elise shares particular student stories as well as ideas for how to incorporate easy assignments and activities that keep students focused on, and learning about, how to use their voices for democracy.

Democracy is A Creative Work

As provost and faculty member in Leadership Studies at Fort Hays State University, Jill Arensdorf believes democracy is a creative practice that calls for situational and contextual awarenss as folks move together toward a shared goal. As a leader, Jill has "a lot of faith and hope in people," which she expresses both through her leadership practice and through her commitment to civic engagement as she helps prepare FHSU students for rich lives of community and civic participation in service of larger democratic principles. Come learn about Fort Hays State University's Civic Investment Plan, a complement to their strategic plan that helps ensure all students -- whether they are located in Kansas, throughout the US, or around the world -- understand how to bring civic awareness to service for their communities.

A Bodacious Question

A medical anthropologist by training, Susi Keefe approaches her teaching, like her research, by focusing on people and their stories. In this episode of The Uplift Susi tackles the "bodacious question" of whether teaching public health can model democratic citizenship. She shares stories about her students claiming their identities while learning to advocate for community public health...and discovering themselves as leaders along the way. Susi also discusses teaching evals -- and if you stick around, you can catch her rowdy dog Tater making his first podcast appearance.

The Entanglement of All Things

"Changing the world - changing the civic existence - is completely central to what Dominican University does." At Dominican University of California, the majority-women leadership team models communal leadership, mutual support, authenticity, and bravery. President Pitchford is willing to say even the hard things...perhaps especially the hard things, for as she reminds us, education is political, and requires opening up and speaking out.

The Role of Women Leaders in Educating for Democracy

Colleges and universities can "teach the art and science of a liberal democracy" -- not just in the what and how we teach, but also in how we model governance and participation. This month on The Uplift we're exploring what women leaders believe this can mean on their college campuses. In today's episode I describe why I have a deep personal investment in this question.

A New Kind of Self-Care

In this final episode of our "back to school" theme for September, I encourage you to take a fresh look at caring for yourself. I redefine self-care as intentional life-sustaining practices that protect well-being, enhance overall health, increase happiness, and promote empowerment, and, for women leaders in higher ed, also produce vitality by making space for curiosity and purpose. I offer suggestions for how to infuse your daily activities with this notion of caring for yourself. Special shout outs to Rebecca Pope-Ruark and her new book, Unraveling Faculty Burnout, as well as the FREE "Tiny Sabbatical Project" with Shelly Roder and Sarah Moore-Nokes.

Humanity vs. The Economy

What is going on with quiet quitting, burnout, and quiet firing on college campuses? This episode explores them through the Marxist idea of alienation from our labor. I suggest that alienation is a natural outcome of systemic accretion: the ongoing increase of small tasks and assignments that seem individually manageable but taken together become impossible. It's easy to see how this could contribute to disengagement and burnout. I also wonder aloud whether institutions that engage in habitual systemic accretion might be unintentionally "quiet firing" their people by giving them work that is designed to leave them feeling undervalued and unwanted. Luckily there's an alternative and potential solution for leaders: strengthening the connection between people's purpose and their work.

From Toxic to Vibrant: The One Thing You Can Do to Improve Your Campus Climate

"The power to trust and be trusted is an essential prerequisite to enhancing the department climate." Mary Lou Higgerson wrote that 26 years ago, and it's as true now as ever before. From "Soulless Opening Year Academic Speeches" to "Calling it Quits" to "Why 2022 is the Year of Workplace Culture," US employees are yearning for inspiring leadership that fosters a vibrant culture at work. How to get there seems elusive, and so we spend time and money on surveys, 3rd party vendors, and expensive consultants to help us through. A large body of research is clear, though, that trust is the key to unlocking a healthy work environment: one that celebrates growth, coaches mistakes, and doesn't resort to fear, shame, or retaliation. This is not some made-up fantasy: I have lived and led in environments like this, and you can too. In this episode I share my favorite strategies, proven over more than 10 years of experimentation, for infusing your leadership with deep and rewarding trust.

Making Meetings Matter

In the US we host approximately 55 million work-related meetings a week. 71% are considered unproductive by attendees, and 65% of employees agree that meetings prevent them from completing their own work. This is expensive, and soul-crushing, and I think we should knock it off. Wanna kick "meeting malaise" to the curb on your campus? In today's episode I talk about the differences between traditional meetings and meaningful gatherings, and list four steps you can take to change how you lead meetings in order to infuse them with clarity, purpose, and joy. Not only can you become the person on campus who runs meetings people enjoy attending, but you'll benefit from stronger relationships with your colleagues as a result. Spoiler: I'm still fan-girling Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering and share a link to a free guide she wrote to help you make the most of your gatherings. And I'm totally inspired by the podcast episode where Priya helps Brene re-imagine one of her work meetings.…

How to Have the Best First Day Ever!

I've been thinking about Priya Parker's book The Art of Gathering and what it can teach us about creating the BEST FIRST DAY EVER! -- both for our students on the first day of a new semester, and for new colleagues on their first day as members of our teams. I combine Parker's wisdom with advice from my colleagues and a sprinkling of my own experiences, and distill it all into four easy guidelines with more than 20 actionable steps you can take. As always, I link to extra resources for you in the shownotes. This episode is meant to be a useful resource as we enter back to school season and think about welcoming a whole bunch of new people into our teaching and leadership lives. Enjoy!

Getting Clear on Purpose

Here's a peek at Getting Clear on Purpose: Module Three of The Leadership Academy. This module explores *mindset* and *intentions*, which are as imporant as *goals* to your leadership practice. In this module I'll also teach you actionable strategies for making space for *all* that, AND abundance, in your overly full work calendar. Get a glimpse into how the module is organized and learn why I want YOUR NAME on the waitlist for The Leadership Academy. 🧡

Getting Clear With Others

Here's a peek at Getting Clear Within: Module Two of The Leadership Academy. I explain the half-dozen frameworks you'll learn, and the ways you'll apply them, to practice leadership grounded in trust, psychological safety, inclusion, equity, marketing (gasp!) and old-fashioned kindness. I talk a bit about the research, authors, and ideas behind the content; and share the story of how I learned the importance of talking about your own leadership. For you Badgers trained in the English Dept, this episode is also kind of a love letter to Brad Hughes. 🧡

Getting Clear Within

Today I preview Getting Clear Within: Module One of The Leadership Academy. This module guides you in the reflective self-examination that is key to values-based leadership, setting the foundation for you to be an exceptional leader. I give you a sneak peek into the content; talk about the research, authors, and ideas behind the content; and share why I take this approach to helping people build a values-based leadership practice. I also swear a few times. 🧡

The End of Alpha

Meet Archibald McBacon VII, aka Bacon! He's our family's fourth dog, and after 22 years of raising pups - including a year of running a side hustle on Rover - I'm pretty convinced that everything I learned about leadership I learned from our pups. 🐶

Unleashing the Creative Power of Diversity by Creating Psychological Safety

When PWIs use "race" as the primary signifier of diversity, we burden our colleagues with black and brown skin and reify structural and behavioral racism. We can do better. Thinking about diversity along two dimensions -- identity diversity and cognitive diversity -- gives us a framework for unleashing all the creative power of everybody in the room, giving them the room and respect to bring their full selves -- all aspects of their identities -- to bear. Research shows that teams high in cognitive diversity -- especially when identity diversity is present -- are better, faster, and more accurate as problem-solvers. The key? Psychological safety.

Planning for an Uncertain Future Through Storytelling

You have a strategic plan. You work with focus on your institutional goals and priorities. But when sudden, surprising, big paradigm-shifting stuff happens, you're not prepared. We've all been there. We just spent the last two years there, muddling through the pandemic and the way it forced us to make quick decisions with insufficient time to plan. There's another way, though: using stories to develop scenarios about potential futures, and then "rehearsing" those futures as a means of preparing -- deciding what impact these stories will have for our industry and your institution, and determining ahead of time how you might respond. You can even use scenario planning in conjunction with your strategic plan. In fact, scenario planning can help you be even more effective with your mid- and long-term strategies because the stories you create will help you prepare for changes as they emerge, making it easier to pivot and still get where you want to go. In this episode I'll walk you thr…

Power. Competence. Courage. Perception.

Today I explore the intersection of power, competence, courage, and perception for women leaders on college campuses, specifically in light of the Dobbs decision to strip women's rights. This exploration involves talking about Liz Cheney, Brett Kavanaugh, a person's right to privacy and bodily autonomy, and what you can do about it as a leader on a college campus. I share excerpts from a few statements made by inspiring campus leaders around the country - including a student association - and help you prepare to lead from your values as students and colleagues return to campus. Links to everything in the shownotes!

Women's Leadership in the Wake of Dobbs, as ruminated on by a single person who speaks only for herself

Today’s long and rambly title kinda reflects the episode content. This July 4th I’m meandering through my past as a student, and taking some time to look at the three institutions where I studied – three places where I was particularly vulnerable as a low-income student with no family support – and exploring their responses to Dobbs because I wonder and worry about their students now.

In a Leadership Role this Fall? Here’s How to Prepare Now.

Last January I found myself in a terrible situation: I couldn’t take a scheduled week of vacation because my workload was too heavy, in part because my calendar was double-, triple, and sometimes even quadruple-booked. (No lie.) I’ve spent the last six months fixing that problem and creating systems to prevent it from ever happening again. In this episode I share those tips so you can learn from my mistakes, and plan instead for a rockin’ success of a fall semester. In this episode I share my top four tips for approaching your leadership practice to keep you in control and on top of things. Tip 1: Instead of protecting your time, create your ideal week. Tip 2: Instead of letting others control your pace, create white space in your day. Tip 3: Instead of accepting additional tasks, swap them for meaningful assignments. Tip 4: Instead of acting like you’re broke, gather and spend your assets. To learn more about creating your ideal week -- a calendar-free way to control yo…

How to be Her Ally

Hey, welcome back! Today I’m taking a piece of advice from Gretchen, who I met at an event hosted by Doyenne Group in Madison, WI. Gretchen mentioned to me that she and her husband talk about what it means to be an ally to a female colleague in your academic department. And she suggested that I develop some materials specifically to help folks know what, specifically, they can do to be allies. If you want to read the full transcript of the podcast, it's posted on my site at https://theclareogroup.com/blog/#blog. And/or you can nab the handout I created, Five Ways to be Her Ally, here. All I ask in return is for your email address so we can stay connected. It's a full-color .pdf for you to print out and hang in your office, or even (ahem) on your department's bulletin board. In the show I also promised to direct you to the amazing work of Scott Page at the University of Michigan. I listened to Scott's book, The Diversity Bonus, on Audible and it blew my mind. The hard copy is now…

Values-Based Leadership

If you’re leading people in any capacity you have likely already experienced some sort of tension between what you want to do based on your sense of right and wrong, and what you’re being asked to do on behalf of the institution. What do you do when someone on your team – and maybe even you – would benefit if you could make the decision you want? How do you decide when to speak up, speak out, push back? To whom, and how loudly? How do you find the balance between representing the institution as expected from someone in your role, and representing the core of who you are? When you make decisions based on your values, you’ll come that much closer to leading with joy.

The Bitch Above: One Woman's History of Shitty Women's Bosses

Yes, "The Bitch Above" is singular, but I’m not referring to a single person. It’s shorthand for those shitty women bosses -- you know the ones -- the mean girls who grew up but didn’t grow out of their shitty ways of treating other people – especially other women. At its heart, The Clareo Group is about helping women bosses use their powers for good. This bit of backstory helps explain how we got here.

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