Dr. Hans Schmeisser, referred to as Dr. S from now on, accepted an additional position last semester as the Honor’s Program Director, on top of being a tenured professor in the History and Government department. While this was a welcomed position, and “the only administrative position I’ve ever been interested in because it is student facing”, the transition between professor and program director has been a challenge.
While challenging, Dr. S says “I do not want to quit growing, right? You got to keep growing and changing, and we’ve been doing those things. But it was not easy, right?” One thing Dr. S had to implement was his ‘Board of Awesome’, which keeps him organized. If you walk into his new office, you will see the Board of Awesome, which outlines his tasks weekly and monthly – program needs, regular professor duties, and some fun notes from students.
When he first accepted the position, Dr. S “walked into the office and wrote a list of things I didn’t know. The list was called “Things I don’t know…. yet.” and so I wrote down everything I didn’t know how to do. And trust me, it was very, very, very extensive, right?” He then went into a lesson you may already know – “Every day you walk up to that wall that is blocking you towards getting your goal and you’ve just got to chip, chip, chip away at it a little bit every day and then the next thing you know, your chips are getting more efficient and effective. Eventually, you’re going to be able to bust through the wall no problem, because you know how to do it.”
A lot of his transition was “pacing and organization”, and as a philosophy professor, he has some tricks to keep his head on straight. One thing he’s begun doing is the Daily Office. “I am a member of the Episcopal church, and we have this thing called the Daily Office. Think of it as a prayer in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and then one more before bed. What I do before I start work and before I go home is participate in the Daily Office. I listen to a monk chant the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer – he has got this voice that is just perfect. I pop in my headphones and sit quietly. I find it to be a really, really, really, good daily habit.”
On top of this new daily habit, Dr. S would have been a little lost without a community of people behind him. His wife, Shelly, is an excel wizard and has helped him build spreadsheets to assist his organization. He also shouted out “my friends in the Vertical Leaders Group, led by Dr. Diantha Ellis”, which is a group of faculty and staff who have accepted new positions in leadership. “Over the course of the semester and into the summer we met weekly or bi-weekly, as we were able. It was a leadership program, but it was also, in so many ways, just a group of people who had one another’s backs. It was really, really, good.”
In this transitionary phase, Dr. S has had to adapt and challenge himself – two things that are good for anyone. As new students come to ABAC, and older ones return, we accept new challenges and are forced to grow as people. That never stops – and learning how to do what Dr. S has done and prioritize yourself at the forefront of those challenges is key. It comes with time.