As a leader, there are certain qualities and characteristics of lions that you might find useful to consider – for yourself and your “pride.” Let us just take a few minutes to explore these and as with all metaphors, we aren’t going to beat this one to death.

1. Protective

You don’t have to watch very many Discovery Channel shows about lions to see how very protective they are – of territory, themselves, their young, and so forth. As far as being more lion-like, what do you need to be protective of? Protective of yourself? Your money? Your children? Your partner? Your spouse? Your business? Your colleagues? Your position? Your beliefs? So, exactly what do you need to be protective of?

2. Brave

Being lion-like means you are brave and courageous. Naturally, you choose when and where to be brave vs. timid, courageous vs. cowardly. We all make choices every day. Look for opportunities today and every day where you can be brave. It does make a difference, both for you and for others.

3. Willing to fight

Hmm…we know that lions will fight when need be. They don’t pick fights but because they are willing to protect their food, their mates, their territory and so forth, they will fight if necessary. What is the one thing you are willing to fight for?

Many readers are parents and my guess is that many parents would be willing to fight for their children. Or maybe you are a professor who is willing to fight when you see other faculty members being bullied. Maybe you are a teacher who is fighting for particular students who need your “protection.”

What is it for you? Really. What are you willing to fight for? The one thing?

4. Hunters

LOTS of people are concerned right now about financial issues. Someone wrote to me recently that she had overheard middle school girls in the bathroom at a movie talking about how they needed to come up some ways to earn money because after the legislature was over, their parents weren’t going to be able to give them money for the movies any longer. You might be one of the people who is “hunting” for money. You might be hunting for it for your own personal situation or you are hunting money for projects at work or for community needs and the like.

But what else do us lion-like folks hunt for? You might describe it thus:

• Bravery to find what really makes me happy

• Bravery to ignore what others feel is successful and find my own success

• Bravery to dare to make dramatic changes in the path of my career that will also change my personal life…and vice versa

What are you hunting? And just like a lion on the Savannah, you may or may not find it, but you hunt regardless.

5. Group members (part of a pride)

6. Loners in the big scheme of things

The last two – being part of a group (i.e., a pride) and also being somewhat loners in the big scheme of things – let’s think about these together.

As a person who is seeking ways of staying positive, no matter how crazy things are around us, we need both to see ourselves as being part of a pride – a team – a family – a group – an association – a community – or whatever you might call it. We have to deliberately assemble our group – small or large – that will assist us in our – if I can use this word – survival. Lions aren’t part of prides for no reason. There’s a reason. You need a “pride” of your own if you are to “survive” in your positive place.

And, here’s the other part (at least as my little brain considers this), we are also loners in the bigger scheme of things. What I mean by that is, just as lions are not hanging out with all the other animals but rather hang out – sometimes completely alone – but certainly mostly just with a few other lions, we also may need to separate ourselves sometimes.

Student evaluations are a part of every faculty member’s life. Some consider them to be a positive part of the academic life and others dismiss them as a meaningless exercise (or even worse, as a detriment to good teaching).

You might as well know that I come down on the side of student evaluations being a necessary and worthwhile component of teaching at the college and university level. I also received – and I believe, earned – great student evaluations over the 19 years that I taught undergraduate and graduate students. This wasn’t a fluke.

Here are six suggestions for ensuring that you earn and receive high evaluations from students:

1. Teach well. This may sound like I’m making a flip comment, but it is not intended to be so. First and foremost, if you want to earn great student evaluations, you need to be a great teacher. Some people teach well almost naturally, it seems. Others have to work VERY hard at becoming great teachers. No matter how good you already are, work to be even better. That’s your first tip – and not one to ignore.

2. Determine what you want students to write on your evaluations. For example, I wanted to students to write “I’ve never worked so hard in a class and I’ve never learned so much.” You may have a very clear sense of what you want students to write or you may need to do some extra thinking about this.

3. Tell students on the first day of class, “Here is what I am expecting to have you write on my evaluations at the end of the semester.” Then tell them. You have the phrasing for this after you complete tip #5. You are letting them know what you want and are beginning to install that kind of thinking for them. This also helps them know what your expectations are – and I always assure the students how I will be working so that I earn whatever the positive comments are that they will be making.

4. Teach your classes with whatever it is that you want students to write in mind. This includes your preparation, your demeanor in the classroom, your interactions with students, the grading of their assignments, etc. You are making sure that you earn and deserve the good evaluations that you are going to receive. The idea is that you are delivering on the “goods.”

5. Begin doing course evaluations no later than the end of the third week of class. This may sound crazy and even a little scary, but…you want to begin asking early and often (within reason, of course) how the class is going for the students. You can ask them to do informal evaluations or you can do more formal evaluations. I prefer short, frequent check-ins with students to see if there are areas where I am not doing well and that I am willing to address (e.g., if they think my expectations are too high, I am not likely to change that, but if they say I spend too long explaining something that had already been explained in the syllabus and they would rather I told people to go back and reread the syllabus, well…that’s good feedback for me).

No matter how magnificent you are as a teacher, you will always have a few students who don’t give you a “high” ranking. But if you use the ideas that are in this article, you will have the majority of students providing a fair, respectful, and good evaluation of your teaching. I know from experience and from helping lots of others with this.

Perfectionism runs rampant through the professorial world. Let me acknowledge up front that I am perfectly familiar with this, having lived with it for 56 years at this point, but having learned a great deal in the last 25 about how to deal with it so that it’s not debilitating. Here are ten tips for you, just in case you are a perfectionist.

Note: I am not a psychologist, but I recommend that you seek help from a psychologist if you are a perfectionist. It really isn’t something we can just “fix” ourselves. These tips are just to support you in changes you want to make.

1. Know the definition of perfectionism. One definition is that perfectionism is a belief that work (of any type) that is anything less than perfect is unacceptable.

2. Know the cost of perfectionism. Perfectionism costs you (potentially) your health, your relationships, your peace of mind, money, tenure, and much more. Be very aware that being excellent and striving for high standards can be beneficial but being debilitated by perfectionism is detrimental and quite costly.

3. Figure out one place in your professional life (or personal life) where the cost is too great and it’s time to do something about it. Just pick one.

4. Notice the very next time you are tempted to do something “perfectly” in whatever area you have decided is the place where you need to do something about your perfectionism (see Tip #3).

5. Go ahead and do whatever it is….and stop before you get to perfect. You can stop just shy of it or you can stop well back from the “perfect mark.”

6. Another way to think about this is to take something that you have done “perfectly” (if you forgot to stop yourself before it got to “perfect”) and on purpose mess up one aspect of it.

7. Pay close attention to the consequences of having done something less than perfectly.

• a. Did your reputation suffer irreparable damage?

• b. Did your primary relationship end?

• c. Did you lose your job?

• d. Did anyone die?

• e. Did anyone except you notice that whatever you did was less than perfect?

8. Decide if you can live with the consequences.

9. Notice if there were any benefits to stopping prior to perfect. Acknowledge those and decide if the benefits are the kind you would like to extend.

10. Make a list of all the places each day (as you notice them) that perfectionism (the belief that you MUST DO THINGS PERFECTLY or not at all) is interfering with your overall productivity. Then go talk to someone about it. I mean it.

Excellent book based on the “Do Babies Matter” study (by Mason & Goulden) as well as additional research conducted by the two authors (mother & daughter). 

When I teach, I often want to use supplemental material (or even need to because the text I use doesn’t cover something). What guidelines must I follow to ensure I’m not violating copyright? If it’s just a section of a text, can I copy it and hand it out? If it’s an article from the library can I copy it and hand it out? Must I get written permission from the publisher or is there ever an “intellectual merit – sharing knowledge for the greater good” domain? I feel like I teach my students not to plagiarize, but am afraid I am probably guilty of doing it myself . . .

Here’s my response:

Oh, my goodness. This is a VERY good question and smart to ask.

I noodled around on the internet looking for some good answers and this site seems to spell it out well:

http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml

For example:

When is Permission Required?

• When you intend to use the materials for commercial purposes.

• When you want to use the materials repeatedly.

• When you want to use a work in its entirety and it is longer than 2,500 words.

I know when I was a faculty member, I could put something in the library on reserve for students to read but only for one semester. And if it was in a course packet (like a whole article that was included), I needed to get permission. There is a copyright clearinghouse that most journals have gone to so it’s easy and usually I never had to pay anything. The only time I had to pay was if I was copying a chapter from a book and then that was about $50 – I think I had to do that once. I think this is the service (I remember it was CCC: http://www.copyright.com/)

Fair use is a big term in copyright law. And teachers, in particular, have assumed that fair use meant they could do anything almost…and that got some people into trouble.

When you find a good article in the newspaper and copy it because it’s current and you bring that in, you’re fine (citing the source, etc.). If it’s a segment from someone else’s book, you may need to look into it further.

We all need to be smart about this, especially when we are teaching and trying to model it for our students!!

2.  Some failures are major reliefs.  Let’s say you submitted a proposal for a large federal grant – and you weren’t awarded the grant. Outwardly, you might tell people how bummed you are. Inwardly, however, you may be thankful that you didn’t get the grant because of the enormous commitment it was going to take.  If you are already managing as much (or more) than is personally sensible and professionally responsible, then it’s a relief when certain grants aren’t funded, particular conference proposals aren’t selected, or committee assignments aren’t procured.    

I hope this gives you something to think about.  Tomorrow, another thought about ‘failure.’

If you would like additional tips, tools, and techniques that you can use to support your successes, then access one or both of the following free resource websites:

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay (http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

1. Some failures are huge disappointments.  Generally, if your marriage “fails,” you feel some disappointment. You went into the relationship with some sense of expectation; when it doesn’t work out the way you were hoping and planning, then it’s incredibly disappointing.  Not earning tenure at your university MAY be a huge disappointment or it may be the best thing that every happened to you because you find another position at a different university – and you thrive there.   

Be sure to continue with tomorrow’s post and learn more about ways to view failure – and between now and then, you may want to access one of these tools (free): 

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

**Articles for Professors (http://www.ArticlesforProfessors.com)

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

• Persistence

Persistence

A defining aspect of a toxic academic work environment is whether or not the behavior persists. Are you experiencing a situation that even after talking with someone about particular behaviors, attitudes, or something else, the person persists – or it even becomes worse? Not a good sign.  If you have done everything you know how to do, i.e., used all the professional and personal skills you have and it’s not making any difference, you can imagine that things are likely to get worse.  Check the persistence of ‘misbehavior’ that is upsetting to you and to others.  The longer it continues unchecked, the worse it will get.  Toxic behavior in the academic work environment does NOT go away by itself. 

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

• Severity

Severity

The severity is a key issue to take a look at. When someone murmurs “Oh gosh, I can’t believe we’ve got this meeting again” or, “Who made her queen?” or similar statements that sometimes people make, that’s not that the end of the world. It’s neither helpful nor necessary, but it’s really not toxic.

But once it becomes severe and the statements are more personal and more intentionally hurtful, that is when people start to feel fearful. They’re afraid for their jobs. They’re afraid for their tenure. They’re afraid for access to people, access to materials or space. When fear and anger are starting to permeate the environment and really become part of the ‘accepted’ culture, that’s when warning signs should be going off – to everyone (including the department chair, dean, etc.) Of course, sometimes they are the ones who are causing the toxicity, right? But that’s a different article.

Please consider what is happening in your department, lab, unit, or college. Check the length of time, persistence, severity, effect on others, and the loss of good people. It’s better to take care of potential problems EARLY. Once a bullying culture has been established, it is VERY difficult to change – and VERY expensive. You can’t afford that and neither can the country.

Sadly, toxicity exists in the academic work environment. If you would like to access a free teleseminar (*Antioxidants for a Toxic Academic Work Environment*) that was hosted by Gina Hiatt of The Academic Ladder (http://www.AcademicLadder.com), feel free to go to http://meggin.com/academicladder.php.

(c) 2009 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!