Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/233379
Saved time with technology! Move forward one space WEEK TEN: Interview Candidates • Invite candidates to campus • Hold interviews WEEK SIX: Screen Candidates • Choose semifinalists • Plan interviews using Skype • Choose the final four to administrators, from freshmen to alums 50 years out, from ten-dollar donors to million-dollar benefactors—everyone wanted to meet the candidates. When our first candidate came to campus for interviews, we did not recognize the extent of these requests. We scheduled far too many one-on-one meetings. We quickly realized that approach wasn't practical. For the remaining candidates, we scheduled group meetings with stakeholders, in addition to interviews with the committee members, which proved highly effective. The second lesson was that a school's community will conduct its own informal vetting of candidates, beyond the selection committee's formal vetting efforts. Once the finalists' names were announced, faculty and other supporters called their friends and acquaintances to find out more about them. We considered asking them to stop their efforts, but upon further reflection we decided it was a healthy, positive part of the search. In the end, their inquiries helped clear the air about each of our candidates and hurt no one's chances to be chosen for the job. Stage Five: Discussion In the week after the interviews, we held final meetings with departments and key support groups to ask them to voice what they viewed as positives and negatives about each candidate. We then gathered data electronically from these groups and others; we also sent ballots to select constituents and asked them to vote. It was a challenge to do so much in just one week, but these meetings gave constituents one last opportunity to voice their opinions in open discussions. From Candidate to Dean by Michael Hardin When I was a candidate in the University of Alabama's search for a new business school dean—someone actively hunting for a new position—I wished the school's process for finding a dean would move even more quickly. Only after the fact did I realize that the search moved with amazing speed. What I liked most about the accelerated search process was that it did not become divisive, largely because the committee adopted an open, transparent approach. This inclusive process built bridges among internal and external stakeholders and enabled the school to move forward as a single unit. Whenever a dean announces the intention to step down—or when an academic leader fills a dean's position on an interim basis—that person is left in a state of limbo, from which he or she can make few lasting or long-term decisions. It benefits the entire school to leave that limbo as quickly as possible. When it comes to finding a new dean in a minimal amount of time, our search committee's strategy worked incredibly well. I would advise other business schools to adopt a similar approach in their own searches for new leadership. Michael Hardin was appointed dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce in 2011. BizEd January/February 2014 43