Students experience our culture through the people who serve them and how those staff members are shaped by how well they are led. The Student Affairs Principles of Management Framework is intended to give managers and supervisors a shared foundation — grounded in self-awareness — for how they lead, communicate, and support their teams, so staff feel valued, connected, and empowered. To support the adoption of this framework, the Division of Student Affairs has a keen focus on growing manager / supervisor leadership capacity. This year, we are focusing on equipping leaders with practical tools to navigate difficult conversations through the Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue series.
The Principles of Management Framework
In the Division of Student Affairs, we encourage our managers and supervisors to lead their teams with the pillars of clarity, compassion, courage, curiosity, and the collective. This framework identifies the observable skills and behaviors managers and supervisors need to practice to bring the principle to life:
Lead with Clarity
Create shared understanding by:
- Setting clear expectations
- Establishing role clarity
- Transparently communicating priorities and decisions
Lead with Compassion
Recognize the humanity of the people we lead by:
- Recognizing and appreciating contributions
- Supporting wellbeing and work-life balance
- Addressing burnout and workload concerns
- Leading with empathy and kindness
Lead with Courage
Encourage growth by:
- Giving and receiving effective feedback
- Navigating difficult conversations
- Addressing conflict
- Balancing empathy and accountability
Lead for the Collective
Contribute to our collective effort to shape the culture of Student Affairs and create meaningful experiences for students by:
- Building a culture of trust
- Strengthening and fostering collaboration
- Contributing to a shared sense of purpose
Why is this framework important?
Investing in growing our managers and supervisors isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s what our data is telling us to do:
- Our Student Affairs Staff Experience Survey found that clear expectations and feedback, improved communication, recognition, and a voice in the work were the key areas that staff felt needed to be improved.
- The State of the Workplace Survey points to the same conclusion from a different angle, recommending that we address ongoing adverse work experiences, gain alignment with job expectations, workload, and recognition, build trust in supervisors and leaders at every level, and prioritize equal opportunity for all staff.
- We are navigating an increasingly complex landscape with budget constraints and constantly shifting system, state, and federal policy.
Manager and Supervisor Training: Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue Series
A framework only changes behavior when managers have the skills to practice it. The Division of Student Affairs is investing in a training called Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue series for all of our 200+ managers and supervisors. We invite managers and supervisors to register for an upcoming training session.
Register for the Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue Series
Praise for the Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue Series
The Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue series has already been taken by several staff within the Division of Student Affairs and feedback from the training highlights that the training:
- Provides practical tools managers can immediately apply in their daily work.
- Creates a shared approach to communication and conflict resolution across the Division.
- Builds self-awareness during moments of stress, disagreement, or uncertainty.
- Makes conversations about culture, belonging, and workplace relationships more accessible by focusing on everyday leadership behaviors.
- Serves as an entry point for deeper emotional intelligence and leadership development.
“The Crucial Conversations workshop was a unique learning experience in my almost decade on campus – I left with practical, immediately useful tools for navigating emotionally-charged, high stakes interactions. Because other members of my team have also done the training, we now have a shared language and reference structure that allows us to dive deeper in collaborating to develop solutions to complex problems. I was able to apply the learning immediately to a few areas I was feeling “stuck”, and felt empowered and equipped to tackle a particularly nagging conversation that needed to be had, but that I’d been avoiding for lack of confidence in the best approach. Thanks to the fantastic co-leaders for facilitating such a useful (and fun!) development opportunity.” – Strategic Advising participant
Questions
If you have more questions about the Crucial Conversations training and the Student Affairs Principles of Management framework, please reach out! You can contact us Donna Vivar at dvivar@berkeley.edu.