At the recent Grants Resource Center External Funding Conference, held in
Washington, DC August 23-26th, one of the roundtable discussions centered
on succession plans for the research administration pre-award office.

It began with the premise that for many of us in research administration,
retirement is looming as a light at the end of the tunnel. This raises questions
about when to pass duties on to the next-in-line, when to let go, how to
transmit knowledge, and how much energy to spend worrying about all of this.

Although the discussion varied, some of the points are summarized in the
following sections.

Systems in place may have evolved from the director's personality and
professional background.   There is the felt need that whoever takes over
should have the option of making adjustments without sacrificing institutional
memory -- memory that can be lost when an outside replacement is hired.
One roundtable participant has spent time over the last year creating binders
of key processes and talking through the details of every on-going proposal or
project with the “prospective successor”.  Keeping in mind that
the “prospective successor” may not in fact be chosen by an unknown, future
administration – it was still felt to be valuable to have key processes written
down and kept in an organized fashion.  And should that “prospective
successor” choose/be forced to take a different position in research
administration, the training still has a positive impact on the profession.

The roundtable group also spent time discussing management styles and the
personality traits that make one suited specifically to pre-award research
administration. Administrators at small- to mid-sized institutions often favor a
team-based approach. Instead of training colleagues to think of themselves
as "junior," many of us work toward creating confidence in the people who
report to us. This might mean pushing a person to get the CRA, and asking him
or her to take the lead on projects that you could do more quickly yourself.

A "junior" person in the group described the effect of knowing that they are
being groomed by the current director to take over at some point: "Part of me
doesn't want to disappoint ..but you also want to succeed for your own sake.
It's a responsibility and it's a great opportunity to get that kind of training.
Especially, it's a confidence booster to have the current director feel that way
about me."

Pre-award administrators seem to share some temperament traits. Everything
in our world is time-sensitive. As one roundtable participant said, "my personal
cell phone is no longer personal...and that's not by choice!"   Most of our
days' activities are crisis-driven, and almost nothing can wait until tomorrow.
Successful pre-award administrators are flexible and accommodating, but firm.
They often have strong personalities ("No wimps!" cried our group) and the
political savvy to educate and support senior institutional administrators and
faculty using different strategies ("You have to know which way to play it").
Recognizing the importance of qualities like these, we are sometimes
frustrated to see the superfluous traits sought by search committees
considering outside hires (exuberance was one suggested by the roundtable
group). We all agreed that the right search committee is necessary to find the
right person, but that some qualities, like trustworthiness, are proven over
time and on-the-job.

But for those of us considering retirement, why do we care who replaces us?
Here's what the group had to say:

*
 "When you make a success, you don't want to see it crumble once
you leave."
*
 "Because I know I'll be called."
*
 "I feel protective of my heir-apparent."
*
 And most importantly, "I wouldn't want to see an institution I just
left land on the front page of the Chronicle."

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