A Letter from Dr. Jake Bucher

"Itemized Deductions from an Evaluation"

In January, the direct reports to the President underwent a 360 Evaluation. I hope to use this month’s letter to share the summary of that feedback for my evaluation, along with proposed action items, with the community.

Given that the provost role touches so many parts of the institution, the list of participants in the 360 was quite expansive and consequently provided a diversity of perspectives. That diversity was helpful, and interesting in that it showed where people are experiencing an area more positively while others viewed that same area as more in need of improvement, which helps me see the need and opportunity for consistency of my engagement across all the areas of the institution I work.

Some of the trending strengths include leadership and vision, integrity and ethical standards, strategic thinking and decision making, accountability, interpersonal skills and approachability, and adaptability and change management. Trends related to areas of improvement include workload and delegation (“Jake is managing too many direct reports and responsibilities – perhaps at the risk of efficiencies or other needed efforts not being achieved.”), communication and transparency (“Jake is a strong communicator, but sometimes doesn’t communicate details of plans”), engagement (“Perceived as somewhat withdrawn in some settings”), change management (“change is happening too quickly and without enough preparation”), decision-making inclusivity (“needs to ensure stakeholders feel their contributions matter”), and balancing institutional history with new perspectives (“too focused on external models rather than Regis’ unique institutional history”).

One of many benefits of an evaluation is that regardless of performance (strength vs. improvement), the process uncovers what is important to participants (bolded above). These areas will guide my work moving forward and will help me support Deans/others and their work.

For areas of improvement, I will work on ensuring that details are better communicated. I do feel that I have demonstrated extensive communication and transparency, perhaps more than a Provost should. But, I believe the opportunity to improve can come through communicating details beyond my direct leadership team, and through including a link to my monthly report to the President in these community newsletters. Like communication, I feel that change management is an area where it is experienced positively by some and is felt as lacking by others. As I said at a recent townhall, much of the change is happening to me/us, not that I’m initiating/forcing a large amount of change. Still, I will continue to do my best to ensure that we have as much time to prepare for the changes strategically and relationally.

The comments about engagement are interesting to me as a Sociologist. I am indeed a more reserved personality, always happy to engage – but always mindful and deferential to the comfort of others. To the latter, I am aware that many people see me first (and perhaps only) as my title, and for some the presence of the Provost can change the vibe or comfort of a space or conversation. This awareness, plus the aforementioned default reserved nature, often leads me to not wanting to impose my presence on others. I want people to feel supported by the Provost being present, not to feel obligated to acknowledge/engage the Provost.

For the other three areas, I would like to offer specific goals/actions. The first is to strengthen systems of delegation and build leadership capacity within my teams. More strategic delegation would allow me the capacity to make strides in other areas, will help empower and develop others, and will allow the development of an operational model that is not dependent on me or my capacity. Specific actions will include conducting a workload assessment with my teams to identify redistribution opportunities, reduce number of direct reports, and develop a succession plan. Please don’t pop champagne just yet at that last action – this is not for an imminent change, but an inevitable one. I firmly believe that effective leadership is building a model that sustains after a change in leadership, and due to all the necessary absorption of responsibilities, the sustainability of our model is currently dependent on people and I need to make it dependent on roles for if/when people leave. Let me end this goal by reiterating my commitment to a flat leadership model – I will not pursue this goal by re-establishing administrative bloat.

While I am already committed to this second goal, I want to explicitly name the goal to ensuring diverse voices are included in key decisions. Currently I work with the Deans Team, I have a separate leadership group that brings others in Academic and Student Affairs to the table, I meet with the University Senate officers, hold a variety of consistent 1:1 meetings across all areas and levels of the university, and take any and all other requests for meetings. Moving forward I will invite a governance/decision-making audit for the Provost, provide engagement opportunities for faculty/staff to attend leadership meetings, and will explore a diverse Provost Advisory Council, perhaps with rotating membership.

As far as evaluations go, there are always some comments that cut a little deep or stick with you, and the one about balancing institutional history with innovation is an example for me and this evaluation. I worked really hard to immediately and thoroughly immerse myself in Regis institutional culture and have made efforts to demonstrate strong effectiveness in embracing and embodying the Regis culture through my actions and decisions. Some ideas I would like to pursue to strengthen confidence in my ability to balance institutional history and innovation are my intention to include in any communication about change how institutional history is being preserved, develop an “institutional narrative” workshop perhaps coupled with a design thinking exercise, and to utilize the aforementioned Advisory Council to hold discussions on this issue.

The above and other efforts will be visible out of my office moving forward, and if there is anything in the above summary that you disagree with, and/or other recommendations, please feel free to reach out as my work is in service to this community – and should thus be informed by the community.