Today, I unexpectedly discovered that I have people skills when I interact with people who are not students. This is a very surprising development that I’m still processing.
So here is how I discovered my people skills. I’m on a committee where we have to interview faculty members at another department. The first person we talked to was a senior colleague who is preparing to retire. Obviously, this is a person who could care less about our committee and its findings. So I realized that I needed to find a topic that would make this senior scholar want to engage in a conversation. Can you guess which topic makes academics at this stage of their lives open up? Exactly.
“Can you tell us about your research?” I asked, departing from the pre-set interview questions. The professor lit up like the Lincoln Center Christmas tree.
Next, we talked to a junior faculty member. This is the kind of person who under no conditions should be asked about research. People who are on a tenure-clock need to publish a certain amount per year and it is always a sore point because you never know if you’ll manage to publish enough. A junior faculty member is likely to clam up completely if research is mentioned.
There is, however, an issue that junior faculty, adjuncts, lecturers and instructors respond to passionately and immediately.
“Do you feel this institution is treating you fairly?” I asked this colleague. Bingo. Fairness or lack thereof is a subject near and dear to the heart of each non-tenured faculty member.
I’m kind of proud of myself. I think I will wear a T-shirt that says “This is the face of autism” on the last day this committee, which is now suitably impressed with my people skills, meets for the last time.
Maybe it’s all because of blogging but I’m now kind of more interested in people.
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