a new kind of job description

yesterday i asked a student to write a job description for me. "as your advisor," i said, "just write what you expect of me and be as specific as possible."

i'm still learning what it means to be the director of student life, but more importantly, i am still learning what it means to be in (and about) student development. am i helping to develop strong students? am i helping to develop solid leadership? am i helping to develop open-minded individuals? how will i know if i don't ask?

so i asked one of my student leaders to write a job description for me as his advisor. this may be the best document i will ever observe. i have goals for my job and the university has expectations as well, but it is the student who matters the most.

colleagues of mine would disagree with my request. they would argue that as experienced adults, we know more of what our students need than they do themselves. they are not entirely wrong... we do know more about life. we have studied human development and leadership strategy. sure, we know more than they do.

but they know some stuff too. they know what they want (which, argumentatively, may or may not equate with what they need). they know how they learn best. they know what their goals are in life and how college fits into their master plan (or maybe the Master's plan?).

one of the key note speakers at a recent conference asked the audience what God would say if he asked God about each of us and, alternatively, what would our students say about us? would they say the same thing? or would there be a discrepency? if there is, then something needs to change. i thought about that a lot...

the same theory applies to our jobs, i think. what would my supervisor and the administration as a whole say if you asked them about how well i perform at this job? what would my students say?

what if dr. sharples said, "yeah, havaleh does great work and is continually striving to be even better" but my students said, "eh, havs is alright but i really wish that she would spend more one-on-one time with us..." or what if my students said, "havaleh rocks. she helps us plan awesome events and is always there when we need her" but the administration said, "well, havaleh seems to be popular with the students, but her work is somewhat lacking. either she doesn't understand what the university expects of her area, or she simply doesn't care." this would not be good. in both scenarios someone loses. in both scenarios i have not done my job properly.

so, to my colleagues who would say that i am crazy....well, so be it. i think there can be a balance between pleasing the expectations of the university AND its students.

all this to say that i'm really excited to see what justin comes back to me with. i'm ready to take steps forward (or backward, depending on what he finds) in my leadership with our students according to what they perceive their own needs to be.