On Leveraging College Teaching as Management Skills

As I apply for industry jobs – communications and marketing, among other writing roles – I keep hearing about the importance of management skills. Because I have spent so much of my career freelancing and writing for different clients, I have rarely been in charge of a team, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have management skills.

As a professor for ten years, I’d argue that my management skills are as relevant as anyone with a direct report. The big difference is that while a corporate manager is helping their reports who are working for a wage, a professor is helping their reports (or students) working for their grades. Well, that’s a big difference, I’m sure.

The environments are different but the tactics, however, are rather similar if you break them down. So here I go.

1. Goals and Motivation

As a professor, my main role is to establish goals and motivate students to succeed. As the leader for any class I teach, set the expectations that guide our work in the course, putting forth learning objectives and grading parameters to make sure everything is clear. Moreover, I create an environment that fosters a shared desire for success, motivating students to do their best work.

Isn’t that what managers, or at least good ones, try to do in any professional setting?

2. Effective Two-Way Communication

Yes I am the leader. Yes I grade them. But a teacher – like many managers – can’t take a severely top-down approach. Good leaders listen. Bad ones lose their heads. Through email, video conferences, and in-class presentations, I generate clear two-way communications, setting boundaries where needed and making it clear when and how students should reach out to me, fostering an open and transparent work relationship.

Isn’t that what managers strive to do with their direct reports?

3. Relationship Building and Interpersonal Skills

As a professor, I am asking students to do something for free, or rather, something that they are paying to do. That’s a big ask for anyone. They get a grade while essentially paying my salary, and I need to be aware of this and create a relationship that pushes them to look beyond this weird authoritarian hierarchy. I strive to be a leader that people want to follow. This means honing my interpersonal skills, creating connections, allowing for some levity within an otherwise heavy academic environment.

Don’t managers have to do exactly the same thing to urge people to get their work done?

4. Organization and Delegation 

Homework. Readings. Presentations. I create the tasks and delegate them to students, ensuring they are all meeting deadlines and providing what’s needed. It’s not easy, especially when students struggle to come up with an idea. It would be easier for me to impose a topic, to make it easier for them, but that’s not the point of education. I outsource all of the thinking and decision to them, helping when needed.

Isn’t that what good managers do, making sure they don’t simply do all the work for their teams?

5. Evaluation and Growth

A manager is a mentor, or should strive to be. Assuming I set the right goals, communicate clearly, and create the right relationships with my students, they should look up to me in a way, or at least feel comfortable interacting with me. I foster this environment so that I can evaluate students freely, pointing out areas for growth, and helping them become better. Likewise, I allow them to critique me and evaluate the lessons when needed – see point two above – to make sure we are all growing and doing better.

Isn’t that the dynamic that any manager should hope to create?

It may be a stretch, and not all academics can segue into professional careers beyond the ivory walls. But I’ve worked with enough subpar managers to know that so much of it just boils down to someone’s personality — independent of their origin story.

Many academics moonlight outside the classrooms and thus play both roles already. Leveraging the unique challenges we face as educators is hardly a poor substitute for in-depth industry management experience.

I’d go so far as to argue that it’s even better, creating more compassionate and more relatable managers who can create stronger teams and generate better results for any company that allows them to do so. Thoughts?