Creating Compassionate Change in Higher Education with Melissa Richards

This episode of FYI uncovers how marketing leaders can, and should, tackle their first 90 days on the job to put themselves in the best position for success.

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Who is Melissa Richards?

Melissa Richards is an experienced higher education marketing professional, founder of iMarketingMix, and author of the forthcoming book, The 30-60-90-Day Handbook for New Communications and Marketing Leaders in Higher Education.

In this Episode

Melissa Richards, the founder of iMarketingMix and author of the upcoming book The 30-60-90-Day Handbook for New Communications and Marketing Leaders in Higher Education, joins FYI host Gil Rogers to talk about how she made a successful leap from the tech industry to higher education, bringing her tech expertise to Virginia Tech, and discover how her recent sabbatical has recharged her focus on entrepreneurial ventures like her freelance business, iMarketingMix. Melissa underscores the critical need for compassionate change in higher education, especially as institutions face challenges like declining enrollments, funding issues, and staff retention struggles.

Melissa and Gil also explore the crucial role of developing leadership teams in higher education. Melissa shares valuable strategies for building trust among executive teams and emphasizes the importance of professional development and effective internal communications. Get a sneak peek at her upcoming book The 30-60-90-Day Handbook for New Communications and Marketing Leaders in Higher Education, which serves as a roadmap for new leaders during their pivotal first 90 days. Don’t miss this enlightening conversation packed with actionable strategies and insights for higher education professionals.

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Episode Transcript

Creating Compassionate Change in Higher Education with Melissa Richards

Publishing Date: June 25, 2024

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome back to FYI, the For Your Institution Podcast, presented by Mongoose. I’m your host, Gil Rogers. And today, I sit down with Melissa Richards and talk about some of her current projects, including iMarketingMix, as well as her forthcoming book, The 30-60-90 Day Handbook for New Higher Education Leaders of Communications and Marketing.

Let’s listen in.

[00:00:29] Gil: Hey, Melissa, how’s it going?

[00:00:31] Melissa: Hi, good morning! So good to talk with you.

[00:00:34] Gil: Yeah, awesome. I appreciate you taking the time to join. I know you’re on a little bit of a sabbatical, so I appreciate you hopping on and being a part of the conversation.

[00:00:42] Melissa: My pleasure.

[00:00:43] Gil: Yeah, but before we get started, I’d love for you to share a little bit of your background, who you are, and how you got to where you are in your career in higher ed.

[00:00:53] Melissa: Sure, I’d love to. I actually started my career in the tech world. So, I’m one of the people who came from corporate over to higher education. And that was about 15 years ago. So, I spent the first half of my career, so far, in tech, running corporate communications, marketing, strategic alliances, even inside sales for a while.

I’m working for some global consulting companies, as well as small tech startups, software startups. So, I understand large organizational structures and politics, but also how to be scrappy by working at a startup. And I came into higher education in 2009. My first role was at Virginia Tech, which brought me home to Virginia.

I’m a native Virginian. I graduated, did my undergraduate at the University of Virginia. And then while I was at Virginia Tech working, I did a Master of Public Administration there. And from there, I went into working in the liberal arts space as a vice president for communications and marketing. I also have had enrollment management in my portfolio as well.

So, I’ve spent the last 15 years in higher education, including a small stint as the chief of staff, and I have just recently decided to follow my own advice because a couple of years ago I wrote an article for Inside Higher Ed about administrative sabbaticals and how they can help us recharge and reset. And that was, of course, coming out of the COVID crisis, many, many people facing burnout, which continues and maybe we’ll talk about that later, but I decided to follow, it was time to follow my own advice and take 30 days to reset, recharge, focus on what I want to do next.

I have some entrepreneurial aspirations, if you will, and some things I’m already engaged in that I care deeply about, including writing a book. We’ll talk about that later, too, I think. And so, I’m just using these 30 days to focus on those things.

[00:02:56] Gil: Awesome. So, for our podcast listeners, we’re going to put a link to your Inside Higher Ed piece in the episode notes, the title of it, the title of it being Administrators, How Would You Use a Professional Sabbatical? And so, I’m going to give that a read as well. And I, just to demonstrate how easy this article is to find if you don’t see it in the episode notes, I found it on the Google machine while Melissa was talking. So, that’s how quick it is to find, but I encourage you to take a look, for sure.

So, Melissa, tell me a little bit about some of your current projects that you’re working on. I know you’re working on a number of things. Smart people are busy people. And so, I’m sure you’ve got your hands in a few things, but I’d love to hear about some of your current projects.

[00:03:37] Melissa: Yeah. So, about 20 years ago when I was in the technology world, I created a side hustle that I named iMarketingMix, and I’ve used that as my freelance business, if you will, over the years to help with executive writing, Strategic consultations, running leadership development workshops, speaking engagements, etc.

And I’ve decided to pursue that as my full-time business, focusing in the higher education space. And, when I came to higher ed, stability was a major draw. I pivoted from tech, as I described, to higher ed. At that time, 2009, despite a trending decline in state support, I was going to a state institution in Virginia.

The states were beginning to pull back on their funding of public universities. But student enrollment continued to increase. And colleges and universities have continued to build their budgets based on increasing enrollments, which, of course, I don’t need to point out to you that colleges and universities are struggling now with enrollment crises, with unsustainable discount rates.

Compounded with that are culture wars, staff retention issues, large attrition. And so, it’s compounding to an inflection point that’s obligating profound change. And I believe deeply that at the heart of institutional change are our people. So, I really want to focus my services on taking care of our people.

When we are going through fast, profound, chaotic change, it’s easy to just push through and try to get to the end of it rather than really wrapping our arms around the people who matter, all of the constituents in our higher education, Families, if you will. So, my primary focus is what I’m calling compassionate change.

Whether the change is positive or not so positive, it should be people centered.

[00:05:45] Gil: Got it. Yeah. And I think before we hit record, we were talking a little bit about the people element of higher ed. And I think what’s the challenge that we have is that there are so many fires to be putting out. There’s so much work to be focused on that. We sometimes miss the forest for the trees it’s not that we’re pushing back on change all the time.

It’s that we’re literally looking past it and not understanding the opportunity because there’s just so much work to be done. And so, you mentioned, you know, declining staff sizes and those sorts of things. We’ll talk a little bit about that, further along as well, I’m sure. But, it’s interesting because I, you know, what that leads down the road is the same narrative that I hear every single year, which is our team is being asked to do more with less, right? And so, it’s less budget and less people, but being asked to do either the same amount of work or more, right? And so, what are some of your thoughts around things that we should be doing to pause and really make that effort to say, maybe this comfort of redundancy isn’t really the best thing for us because it’s going to lead us to the same result that we have every year.

And oh, by the way, we’ll just lose more people and lose more budget and then have to do even more work. Right? And so, what are some thoughts you have on how institutions might be able to adapt?

[00:07:02] Melissa: You are absolutely correct, Gil. One of the things that we have to do is be strategic, and that means saying no. It means that we can’t be everything to everybody. And I’ve seen that habit a lot at liberal arts colleges where, again, planning for growth. We are adding new majors without adapting other ones.

We are trying to do more, fewer resources, and we just can’t do that. We have to hone in on what we’re good at. And that helps us take care of our people because we’re allowing them to do their best work without all of those impossible expectations of perfection and being everything to everybody.

[00:07:45] Gil: Yeah, interesting. I had a conversation recently on the podcast with Gordon Boyes, who is the CEO of Concept3D. And I asked him the question if, you know, as a CEO of a tech company, If higher education was your business, what would you do to solve some of the key challenges?

And a big part of it is he mentioned stopping to reflect as a leadership team. And I think that’s something that many institutions struggle with and it’s not because they don’t want to, right? And, like, to defend the people in the field. it’s not because they want to put in the effort to improve and be better, have better work life balance and have better outcomes for students.

It’s that there’s just, there are so many distractions, there’s so much in front of them that it’s hard to use a term that you’ve used, before is, to compartmentalize. Right? And it’s hard for them to really, kind of, stay focused on one specific area. One of the things he recommended was, as a leadership team, multiple times a year they pause to identify, okay, what are some of the key challenges they have?

You know, the work stop brainstorming sessions, if we are one of the industries that has such a focus on making sure people are in a seat on campus versus a remote employment, which is one of the, it’s a whole separate conversation, but, there’s so many institutions that have required people to come back to be on campus.

Rather than have those people be in offices on Zoom meetings with people all day, leverage that and have a conference room meeting where you have sticky notes on the wall and you’re brainstorming and whiteboarding and innovate a little bit. And that, two hours or three hours in a workshop on campus, Can pay huge dividends when it comes to better supporting your staff and better supporting students.

So, with iMarketingMix, what are the type of people that you work with? How are you helping institutions, directly?

[00:09:26] Melissa: Well, on the point that you just made, I think it’s really important that we are taking care of our leadership teams. So, many times, the executive leadership team is so busy taking care of the institution, and taking care of their own teams, that they are not taking care of the executive team, as a team, and creating a culture of the vice presidents, and the president’s council, and whatever the titles may be.

The decision makers. It’s really important that they are spending time together, just as their divisional teams are, working on strategic planning, having off sites to talk. I’ve been at institutions where we were so busy focusing on the institution that we couldn’t even make time to have lunch with one another.

And that is a really, really sad thing because those conversations build the culture of the institution and that’s how you build trust and it’s how you support one another when you have questions and are feeling isolated. I’ve said many times that it can be lonely at the top, And so we have to take care of one another.

So, one of the things that I would really, like, to do is work with new and incoming presidents, helping them with the transition and setting up their leadership cabinet. And once they get the leadership cabinet in place, helping them establish internal communications to build trust, helping them train through professional development and leadership development, their staff and have a strategic planning process and best practices, for that executive leadership team, as well as the next level, which is the governing board.

And I see this as it can be helpful for a third party to come in and do this work. It’s certainly important to the work of the internal communications, vice presidents and the chiefs of staff. But I would like to triangulate that work, and bring in some new ideas and develop leadership retreats, design professional development activities.

And as I said, with president’s councils, but also the vice-presidential divisions. And this work actually dovetails with my second project, which is the book that I’m writing.

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[00:12:22] Gil: Yeah. So, I knew you were writing a book and I wanted to talk to you about it because I think that, it’s a topic based on what you mentioned on LinkedIn when we got connected about it is something that many, many institutions will benefit from. And so, the title of the book, if I’m saying it correctly and correct me if I’m wrong for our audience will be 90-day handbook for new higher education leaders of communications and marketing.

So, obviously, this is a passion project, and it’s something that is forthcoming, and so as soon as it is released, we’ll send a note to our subscribers and whatnot, but I would love to hear your why about writing this book.

[00:13:01] Melissa: Sure. I’d love to talk about this topic. And it started with my own experience. And of course, this particular book is going to be focused on leaders or focused for leaders of communications and marketing. My hope is that I can expand that. I like a contract with CASE, which is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

It started with a presentation at the CASE Marketing and Branding Conference last summer in Seattle. was invited to present a 30 60 90-day checklist. And I had created my own checklist when I got my first vice presidency back in 2015. And then as I moved into roles at other institutions, I continued to refine it.

I had a lot of colleagues come to me, asking for my advice as they climbed the ladder and took their first roles as vice presidents. And I would always send them my checklist as an example for, and encourage them to create their own. And then sometimes actually helped them, hone it and work on creating their own list. But as I developed my presentation for the CASE conference, I realized that I have a lot of content in my brain, like, more and more checklists for every item on the original checklist. And I love checklists. I always have, ever since I was I even would create when I was in high school, I would come home and create my checklist for my homework.

And even if it was a short list, it might only be three things, but I felt comfortable writing it down. and it’s very fulfilling to check it off. And I still do that, even though I have electronic checklists, I also have written checklists. And I love that sensation of putting that check mark on the checklist.

But, yeah. As I said, as I developed that presentation, I realized that I have all of these checklists and that they would be really helpful to put them together. So, the book is organized into three sections around those 30-, 60-, and 90-day windows. and each time period emphasizes a specific goal that I came up with for that presentation.

So, the 30-day goal is about building trust. And Of course, trust building takes more than 30 days, but it’s very essential in the first 30 days that you are working on trust building. First impressions, they are critically important on the pathway to trust. So, you want to go into your role every meeting, every greeting, understanding that that impression makes a difference.

Kindness goes a long way. Listening is important. And in that 30 days, the checklists associated with that are things related to assessing the health of the institution, the financial health, the academic health, and that assessment work takes a lot of listening, research, meeting with your peers.

it’s about understanding the leadership mindset, is perceived already, and what are the steps to take to improve trust. Not only with you, but trust in the leadership of the organization organizational culture. So, building relationships is really key in that 30-day window.

The 60-day goal is earning credibility. How is credibility different from trust? Well, they’re similar. They have some overlap, but trust is based on character. It’s about the character and it’s emotional. While credibility is based on actions and evidence, it’s more logical. So, it’s, what are people seeing that you’re doing?

how do you earn credibility through managing the finances of the division that you’re managing, but also of the institution? So, it’s about understanding the budget. There are lots of checklists about understanding the budget, and that’s really important, I think, in the sense that we have. So, many people coming into higher education from other industries.

who don’t understand the budgeting cycle or just the fact that the revenue streams are different, the budgeting, budget management is different in higher education. So, I’ve created a lot of checklists around managing finances and budgets. strategy, but also specifically related to communications and marketing divisions.

It’s about establishing content strategy, digital strategy, and earning credibility. You don’t have to be the expert. As the vice president, you do not have to be the expert in all of those areas. What’s important is that you’re paying attention to them. And when you do not have those skills, that expertise in those areas, you are finding people who do, or helping lift people up.

And train them to pay attention and manage those responsibilities. And you earn credibility through that way. You want to be honest and say, I don’t know everything, but I know that these things are important and they are strategic and we’re going to build out those skills as a team. So, finally, the 90-day goal is about demonstrating commitment and commitment communicates that you’re willing to work as hard as you expect of others.

You’re in it to win it for the institution, not just for yourself. And so, by that 90-day mark, the actions, your actions have matured from impressions, those first impressions, to habits and commitments. That’s when people, sort of, step back and take a breath and say, okay, she’s in it to win it.

She’s here for us. She is putting the strategy in place to execute. She’s investing in our team. She’s investing in the community. That’s the 30-60-90-day list of goals, trust, credibility, and commitment. And finishing the book feels all the more urgent right now when I think about the leadership crisis we’re facing in higher ed.

[00:18:49] Gil: Yeah, I think that that’s definitely a key. And I’ve had many conversations with many folks on this podcast about it, right? I think that the reality is that there’s a compounding of challenges that are facing institutions and we need to, like we mentioned before, take a pause and really think strategically about our go forward plan, right?

And we can’t just continue to do the same thing. It sounds cliche because we, I feel, like, we’ve been saying this for years. We Can’t continue to do the same things the way we’ve been doing them for the past 10, 15 years because that’s not going to make sense for the future, and yet we continue to have this conversation, right?

And so, there’s a little bit of redundancy in the redundancy, so to speak. I want to take a step back to the point you made earlier about not even having enough time to have lunch with someone and those interactions that take place. Right. And I, my fun story for this is when I worked at a college in Connecticut, the admissions building was across the street from the marketing building, which was right outside of the main campus entrance area.

And it was an interesting setup with the main town road going through. And so, there was a crosswalk with a light that you had to use to get to the other building. And that’s a big barrier when it comes to, But the nice part was that the marketing department was in the same building as the subway restaurant.

Right. And so, as an admissions counselor, that’s my budget for going out for lunch multiple times a week was going to either Dunkin Donuts up the road or subway across the street. Right. And so, it was really convenient to be able to say, Hey, let’s grab lunch.

Because the building you grab lunch is the same building that you are in, right? And so, we had a really great relationship between marketing and admissions at that institution because of taking that extra time. So, shout out to Subway Subs for having us on the campus. But feel, like, a big part of that, and obviously that resonates throughout the entire time on campus, but I feel, like, when you’re thinking about the 30-, 60-, and 90-day, kind of, element, it feels, like, an opportunity to front load that in the 30-day piece, right, where you need to spend your entire, like, budget of lunch on, like, the first 30 days at an institution, and then maybe spread it out with coffee meetings for a little bit.

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[00:21:49] Gil: Let’s revisit that point a little bit, because I think that’s an important rung, because it’s the foundation of everything, right? if you don’t hit that 30 days out of the park, it’s much harder to hit that 60 days and 90 days because you’re playing catch up, right?

And so, what are some ways that When you’re in a new role or that you make recommendations to people to focus on that during the first 30 days, what are some ways that you can focus on building trust?

[00:22:12] Melissa: So, again, as we’ve talked about building relationships, making the time, and getting out of the office, whether it’s at Subway, or doing a walking meeting. Those are some of my favorites. We have beautiful campuses. We shouldn’t be sitting in our office the entire day. We should be out and about and being seen as well by our students and faculty and staff.

So, of course, in the first 30 days, I always recommend having a one on one with each peer on the executive leadership team. And in that meeting, in the book, I actually, I provide some sample questions and checklists of things that you can explore with your peers in the other roles so that you can look for areas where you are going to be working together.

In that meeting, you should also understand and set up what your future meeting schedule will be. You don’t need to have one on one meetings with every member of the senior leadership team every week, but it might be monthly, in some cases it might be every other week. So, figuring out what that rhythm is and do it in an intentional way.

It can be lunch. It can be a walking meeting. It can be a variety of things. Sometimes it will be with other team members. Sometimes it’ll be in the office, but, always have an agenda and always make time to get to know each other personally. We all have things going on in our life, and we don’t have to overshare, but it’s important to be compassionate and kind to one another, and give each other grace, when we’re under a lot of stress.

So, take that time to ask questions that feel comfortable about, whether it’s just personal, how are you is a great way to start the meeting and not just the generic, how are you? Oh, I’m fine. How are you? Great. Jump into the agenda, right, like, sincerely, how are you doing?

I’ve noticed that you’re under a lot of pressure. Are you doing okay? Are there ways that I can support you? How can I help?

[00:24:22] Gil: Awesome. And I love the fact that you mentioned that the book will include tangible recommendations. That’s a big thing for me. And,maybe it’s my book type when I’m interviewing authors for the podcast, but my favorite books for higher ed specifically are the ones that include those tactical and tangible recommendations because there are so many, you know, management book, leadership book, self-help books that always say, do this better, but then don’t tell you the hell.

And it’s, like, I get it. We need to be better, but tell me how, that’s why I’m reading this book. Right. And so, looking forward to that for sure. So, let’s fast forward back to what you mentioned before about the, you know, a little bit of the leadership gap,in higher ed and the challenge.

that people are facing, like, you said, there’s, is, kind of, approaching crisis levels, right? I saw a list circulating the other day of openings for VP and Director of Enrollment positions, in higher ed that, you know, recruitment firm was looking to set up interviews and get people opportunities for it.

It’s, like, was a big image. You had to click it to open it to see all of them, right? It’s that means there’s a lot of transition happening. And so, you know, some, you’ve got some data on this, some, kind of, inside baseball as far as, what this looks, like,

And so, just help folks understand the true, kind of, current state of affairs when it comes to leadership transition in higher ed.

[00:25:46] Melissa: Yeah, I’m using my sabbatical to really focus on problem solving. I’m taking my own advice. It’s not a vacation, although I am planning to attend a wellness retreat soon. But I am investing the time and my mindset in how I can help solve problems in the future. One of the things that I’ve been really concerned about is the leadership crisis that we’re facing in higher ed.

The average tenure of college presidents has now fallen below six years. And it’s an all-time low and it’s continuing to decline. We’re seeing a lot of college presidents who come in as first-time presidents and they they’re not ready. They are facing wicked problems that they haven’t been told about before they even get there.

According to 2023 research from higher education publications, the turnover of vice presidents was also about 20 percent. That’s a lot. CUPA, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, and by the way, there is a lot of great data that CUPA provides. Some of it’s accessible only to members, but some of it’s free on their website, so I highly recommend a visit there.

But they reported last month a trend analysis that corroborated these findings. of the turnover and the decline in the tenure of college presidents. Their report says that the highest voluntary turnover of faculty and staff occurred in 2022, 2023. And that this past year 2023, 2024 is the first year that it tipped back downward since 2019.

Since the COVID crisis since the great resignation, and it was only slightly, only about a percentage point. faculty retention is pretty steady but the staff is really, where there’s a lot of concern and in particular, it’s mid-level managers. And that’s really bad news for higher education leadership’s succession, because if we have our mid-level managers are leaving from burnout from the campus crises, from frustration with long hours and low pay, and as you described, being asked to do more with less all the time, they’re also attributing it to toxic cultures, unfortunately, and polarization of views and unwillingness to find common ground.

There’s low morale, and people are leaving, and what happens when they leave is we have to replace them, or in some cases what happens is we redistribute their work, and then that just compounds the problem. So, we have to fix this. We have to help, first of all, fix the culture, fix the overwork and the burnout, help people heal from burnout.

And then we have to prepare people and inspire them, motivate them to want to move up in our colleges and university leadership.

[00:28:47] Gil: Yeah, I think that’s a, those are all great points. And I think to your comment about cultures, I think one of the things we were talking about earlier, prior to hitting record is that there’s a certain culture of not being able to fail and try new things, which leads then to failure because we continue to do things that are having diminishing returns, right?

And so, I know that, one of the hardest things, and this goes back to the conversation about leadership retreats and focus there, but there’s a certain need to hit the pause button, take a day, make some strategic decisions and not just continue to do, sounds cliche, but continue to do the same thing because it’s always been done that way, right?

And I, there are certain elements of our operations, whether it’s marketing or enrollment and admissions, whether it’s alumni and student affairs, doesn’t matter. Every department and every silo of campus, and that’s the right word for it, unfortunately, has those types of issues.

so, As far, and again, thinking about those openings of current roles being circulated around right now, because this is the time of year that really starts to hit and happen, I know that one of the things that you’ve identified is that one of the issues is it’s not that people are leaving for a promotion or leaving to go to another institution, It’s that they’re just leaving, right? Awesome.

[00:30:13] Melissa: Correct. EAB reported last year that higher ed lost 11 percent of its workforce. during the Great Resignation. So, not only are they leaving their current institutions, they’re leaving the academy all together and what happens then? We bring in managers and supervisors and higher step leaders with no higher education experience at all.

And that’s not a bad thing. bringing in fresh perspectives and experiences is positive. I go back to my belief that we need better on ramps in higher education. We need to help with readiness, help those leaders be successful, no matter where they started, whether they started in higher ed or they’re coming from industry.

[00:30:57] Gil: Well, I really appreciate you taking the time today and I’m really looking forward to your book. when it comes out,

[00:31:04] Melissa: Thank you.

[00:31:05] Gil: It’ll make it on the stack of my podcast guest book stacks, which is that’s the one of the biggest benefits of my job, is it keeps me reading, right? Because I’m reading these books by awesome people.

So, for folks that want to get in touch with you, continue this conversation, and also obviously when the time comes, get in touch about your book, what are the best ways for them do so?

[00:31:27] Melissa: Well, my book will be available through CASE and it should be published this fall, just in time for high conference season in higher education. And I hope to be conducting some workshops around the content in the book as well. I hope people will check out my website, which is imarketingmix.com. And I’m very active on LinkedIn.

That’s my social and professional platform of choice. So, you can reach me there. You can also reach me via email and through my Gmail address, which is melis, M-E-L-I-S, dot, richards, @gmail.com.

[00:32:07] Gil: Awesome. Well, Melissa, I appreciate, again, you taking the time and to our listeners, we appreciate you. and we will see you all next time on FYI.

[00:32:15] Melissa: Thank you. Bye.

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