HOTLINE COACHING

At our first University-wide meeting of women faculty that was convened by ACES, we shared our research findings and intervention results to date with the campus-wide group of women faculty. We also initiated discussion of institutionalization beyond ACES. Women faculty from ACES and non-ACES departments asked the ACES co-PIs to create an ACES hotline for emergency-type coaching that would be available to all campus women faculty on an as-needed basis. The Hotline would allow women faculty facing unique opportunities and challenges to receive short-term and quick-turnaround coaching advice from a professional executive coach that would help them to optimally address and resolve whatever issue, opportunity or problem they were facing.

Accordingly, ACES Hotline Coaching was established in February 2006.

Goals

The main goals of the ACES coaching hotline are to assist individual women faculty to comprehensively analyze and contextualize an emergent issue, opportunity or problem, prioritize preferences, and initiate a plan of action that will ultimately result in a decision about or resolution of the issue.

Women faculty across the university have availed themselves of this opportunity, and have received 1-2 Hotline Coaching sessions as needed.

Issues for which Hotline Coaching has been sought by women faculty include:

• considering departmental chair position after the resignation of the current chair

• negotiations with the dean regarding the possibility of departmental chair postition

• assistance with preparation for a formal grievance

• job negotiations regarding role as Committee Chair

• research funding supervision and budget management issues

• career choice questioning, and career development and planning issues.

The coaches used for Hotline Coaching are the same as those employed in the executive coaching of women faculty in the ACES departments; these are the same professionals who worked as coaches with S&E women faculty at Case over the first 3 years of the ACES award.