Aurora@KentExcellence and Change Conference 12 January 2017

Networking and Mapping New Pathways in Your Career

Linda LoughMelissa MulhallYvonne Sherwood

Aurora (in Greek mythology)

Goddess of change...

Reinvents herself every morning...

Goddess of multi-tasking??!!

Aurora

Women-only Training Programme established by the Leadership Foundation in 2013Numbers of women in senior positions in Higher Education are decreasing...Women’s skills are often ‘mis-recognised’ by themselves as well as by others.‘Ivory basements’, ‘leaky pipelines’, ‘glass ceilings’ and ‘glass cliffs’Louise Morley, Stimulus Paper, ‘Women and Higher Education Leadership: Absences and Aspirations’, January 2013

Leadership is

leadership ‘within and/or beyond the University’ and ‘influencing the way that others carry out core activities, either through the exercise of formal management or administrative roles or through less formal routes’.

Adapted from University of Kent promotion criteria

Aurora Programme at Kent

• 35 Aurora alumni at the University of Kent

• 15 new participants this year (8 centrally funded, 7 supported by departments and schools)

• 4 day-long training sessions in London; an action learning set; working with a local mentor at the University of Kent

• Annual application process

Equally Important...Aurora@Kent

Programme of Local Aurora Training Sessions, open to all staff...

Two per semester

Emphatically not women only

Aurora alumni and participants, and those who have never been directly involved in Aurora...

Networking

Important resource for Schools and Departments looking for training and support for Athena Swan

Prof. Michelle Ryan

The Glass Cliff: Women’s Leadership Roles in Times of Crisis

Georgina Randsley de Moura

‘Leadership and Management Styles in an Academic Context’

Julia Goodfellow

‘Granny with a PhD’: 1-2pm 25th January 2017

Change...

• Start with a very minor change...

• Move places and sit next to someone you don’t already know

• Introduce yourselves

My identity/identities

What’s your identity

• In pairs, discuss your professional and personal identities and what you bring to the table and how you apply this to different work scenarios

• Create your own identity map

Sideways: Career Biographies and Q and A

Melissa’s Career Pathway

• Almost 17 years in HE• 3 Institutions: Chester, Reading and Kent• March 2000 - December 2014 – My roles were in academic

centres, schools or faculties• January 2015 to December 2016 – Sideways secondment in

IS @ Kent – Central University role as Head of Academic Liaison

• Academic Administration, Quality Assurance and School and Faculty Management

• From Clerical Assistant to Head of Administration x 2• Also held voluntary roles as AUA Trustee, AUA Link,

Network and Thematic Co-ordinator

Linda’s Career Pathway

• 30 years in HE

• 3 institutions – SGIHE, KIAD and Kent

• Roles in personnel, central management and academic schools and faculties

• Sideways secondment on 0.5 fte basis x 2

• Sideways appointments from school to faculty and vice versa

• Also been on numerous working and project groups and been AUA Network Coordinator

Why, exactly?

Network!

Network!NETWORK!

NETWORK!

Discuss

• What is a network/networking?

• How do you feel about networking?

• Why network? What are the advantages of networking?

Key forms of networking:

1.Operational

2.Personal

3.Strategic

For m o re d e ta il: Ha rva rd Bu s in e s s Re vie w, 2 0 0 7 : Ho w le a d e rs cre a te a n d u s e n e tw o rks :h t tp : / / h b r.o rg / 2 0 0 7 / 0 1 / h o w -lea d e rs -cre a te -a n d -u se -n e tw o rks /

Ada p te d fro m : Ha rva rd Bu s in e s s Re vie w, 2 0 0 7 : Ho w le a d e rs cre a t e a n d u s e n e tw o rks :h t tp : / / h b r.o rg / 2 0 0 7 / 0 1 / h o w -lea d e rs -c r ea t e -a n d -u s e -n e t w o rks /

Mod el 5

What type of networks do I have, now?•

•1. Operational

•

•2. Personal

•

•3. Strategic

Conversations in 2s and 3s, then compare findings:1. Where do your networks fit within the 3 ‘types’?2. Is anything missing?

Mod el 6

Mapping my networks

Take a few minutes to map your own networks

and then discuss them in pairs.

What are the key networks for you?

Where are the gaps?

Identify one new action to fill in a gap.

Networks

Networks at Kent

• Women’s Network

• Aurora@Kent

• Association of University Administrators

• PASS network, for all staff who are providing support to students

• Research Administrators’ Network

• Coffee with colleagues

• Shadowing

• Faculty Special Interest Groups

• Or create your own...