I can help you deal with the overwhelm, prioritize your activities, and get the things done that you want (and need) to get done.
I can help with writing: support, strategies, and accountability.
I can help you develop grant proposals.
I can help you figure out where you want your career to go and how to get there, including concrete steps to take now. Whether you are an early career academic trying to get established or a mid-career academic wanting to reevaluate and set some direction for the next stage.
An academic career is complex.
It is commonly described as Teaching, Research & Service*. However, each of those areas involves multiple activities.
The skills required to do these tasks successfully include thinking (strategic, analytical, creative), writing, organization, learning, interpersonal communication, public speaking, and more.
Your work life is at once scheduled and flexible. The goalposts are not always clear and might be moving.
You have considerable autonomy and yet you are under considerable pressure to perform in particular ways. But you don’t have to do it alone
*Outside of North America, you might describe the third aspect as Administration.
How it works
Image by Christine Martell, Visuals Speak, used with permission
I ask good questions. Questions that help you articulate what is going on.
I listen. I notice. In fact, one of my superpowers seems to be x-ray vision.
I see things that you don’t see. Often those are good things. Sometimes they are things that are getting in your way.
Sometimes they are just different ways of looking at the situation and that leads to more questions and more noticing.
I use my zoom tool to help you focus on the right level. Sometimes you need to look at the detail. Sometimes you need the big picture. And sometimes you need to work on the detail knowing that I’ll help you keep track of the big picture.
How that helps
You get stuff done, and you feel better about yourself and your job.
You spend a lot less time worrying about whether you are doing the right things.
Knowing you have a meeting with me gives you just enough of a deadline to do the stuff you said you’d do. (And if you don’t get to it, we can work on what’s getting in the way. I’m not here to judge you and punish you. I’m here to help.)
Practicalities
You live where you live. I have a client that lives in a nearby city and one that lives as far south of the equator as I live north. I live on 24 acres of land in Eastern Ontario, with my family, my chickens and my garden.
We talk on the phone or over Skype. (No, you don’t need video, though if you like to see who you are talking to, I promise to brush my hair and wear something clean.)
I use an online scheduling application (TimeDriver) to minimize the hassle of booking appointments. It also does the timezone conversion for us and sends you a reminder e-mail.
In between meetings I send you an e-mail reminding you of important things we discussed. And I’m happy to cheer your progress by e-mail or Twitter.
I charge $175 CDN* for a 1-hour session and I give a 15% discount if you buy 4 sesssions at a time (that’s $595). This service is taxable so if you are resident in Canada, you will have to pay GST/HST as well. I use PayPal to process payments but if you can’t use PayPal just let me know and I’ll come up with an alternative.
You want to make sure we’re a good fit but you also want the discount.
Working with a coach is partly about chemistry. Don’t worry. I don’t want to take your money if I can’t offer you value in return. If you book 4 sessions and change your mind, I’ll refund the 3 unused sessions.
And if you book just one and decide to continue working with me, I’ll back-date the discount when you pay for your next 3.
*At the time of writing, the Canadian dollar is roughly equivalent to the US dollar. PayPal will do the conversion and show you how much this is in your currency. I can accept cheques or bank transfers in both Canadian dollars and British pounds.
P.S. The people who win Olympic medals are talented, hard working athletes who deserve all the credit for winning those medals. But every single one of them works with a coach.