Publisher’s Note: My brother just retired from the car business after 40 + years. Very early in his career, he was named sales manager. He hated the administrative role, resigned, and got his sales job back. With it came his mojo!
Are you unhappy in your company role in the CSRA? You are not alone. But what should you do to feel fulfilled?
Three years ago this week, I stepped down from my position as Dean of Augusta University’s (AU’s) Hull College of Business. To me, it feels like that time has flown by. The fact that it feels that way helps confirm to me that it was the correct decision.
More confirmation comes from being much happier and more fulfilled than I was three years ago. My actions following this reflection allowed me to better display the integrity, courage, and service I discussed with you last week.
What led to my reflection and decision started with the beginning of a long road in academia after I retired from the United States Air Force in 1998. While on active duty, I earned a Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, and my last duty assignment was as a faculty member at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), a graduate school at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. Upon retirement, I looked forward to an academic career for two main reasons.
First, I enjoyed teaching and the impact that teaching can have on young people.
Second, academia allowed for a more flexible schedule to spend more time with my growing young family than I had in the military or that I would have in a typical business position. I started my faculty career at Bentley College (now University) in Waltham, Massachusetts, and moved to Kennesaw State University (KSU) four years later for another faculty position in a familiar area that was much warmer and much more affordable.
During my first seven-plus years in academia, my career was everything I had hoped for. I enjoyed teaching and interacting with students, produced relevant research that had me on track for tenure, and had a flexible schedule that allowed me to spend quality time with my wife and two young daughters. However, during the middle of my eighth year in academia (and fourth at KSU), my career shifted somewhat dramatically. Due to a series of resignations and reassignments, I was asked to take on an administrative position as the Chair of the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship in KSU’s Coles College of Business. For the next eleven years, I served as an administrator in the Coles College, culminating in my last four-plus years as Senior Associate Dean.
As an administrator at KSU, I still felt happy and fulfilled. While a higher salary contributed to my overall satisfaction, I enjoyed my job despite my teaching responsibilities being significantly reduced in lieu of administrative responsibilities and having a much less flexible schedule than that of an administrator. Instead of students, I mentored and led faculty members, and I enjoyed and was vested in their success. In addition, I still played an important role in student success, primarily by offering them engagement opportunities with businesses in Metro Atlanta.
Finally, I felt like my career was on an upward trajectory as search firms reached out to me with opportunities to become a business school Dean, which ultimately led me to becoming the Dean at AU/Hull, here in Augusta.
My first three to four years as Dean were fulfilling. While things were not perfect, I felt progress was being made. But then COVID hit, which significantly impacted our momentum, and I had a couple of personal setbacks, which led me to seriously contemplate my career and how it was impacting the rest of my life. By the time I completed five years as Dean, I had spent the past sixteen years as an administrator, and I felt a lack of fulfillment. During my sixth year as Dean, I spent much time reflecting on what I was doing and what I should be doing. I realized that at some point in the near future, I should stop being Dean and return to the faculty and go back to doing what attracted me initially to an academic career. Although my thought at the time was to remain as Dean longer to achieve some of what I had yet to accomplish, it was better that my superiors urged me to step down a little earlier than I had planned. However, the timing turned out great, and it was probably what I should have done if I had listened to my own reflection.
Despite knowing that I would take a significant pay cut, I knew stepping down as Dean and becoming a full-time faculty member was the right thing. I determined that by doing a career reflection that looked at the following things:
- Job Satisfaction: While I knew I was not completely happy, there were good days and bad days as Dean. However, the more I reflected on it, the more I realized there were many more things I did not like than things I did.
- Goals and Growth: I came to realize that once I became an administrator, many of my career goals centered on “moving up.” As I reflected, I realized I had moved up as far as I wanted, and other things were more important.
- Values: This was the most important, and I partially lost sight of it. My primary inspiration when joining academia was helping students being successful, both in school and in their careers. It seemed to me that being a Dean took me further away from these values, and going back to the faculty would move me closer.
Being true to these values is where integrity, courage, and service come in. I had to have the integrity to admit that I was not the best person for the Dean job. While there were elements of it I did very well, I could do better as a faculty member. I had to have the courage to walk away from a job with a much higher salary and more prestige. While this sounds difficult, after a thorough reflection, it was the only answer that made sense. Finally, I feel like my position as a faculty member, I can provide better service to the students of AU/Hull than I could as Dean.
Therefore, this is a great third anniversary that might not have been possible without a sincere career reflection. If you feel unfulfilled or unhappy in your current position, I strongly recommend some reflection to determine what to do next.
