The Coach’s Guide is a true gem, realistic and empowering. It touches on a wide range of challenges from time management to departmental politics to the nuances of identity, and the universal truth that no one gets anywhere alone! Achieving a successful career and a well-balanced life is a continuous task, not a one and done event, and this guide will stand the test of time.
A thoughtful, immensely practical resource for women to achieve excellence and well-being in academic careers.
Rena Seltzer’s book is the next best thing to a personal life coach. The book is partly a how-to manual with advice on just about every aspect of the academic career: What to do about time management, how to motivate and assess students, strategies for getting work published. Rena Seltzer (although you may find yourself referring to her by her first name, because this book will feel like a comforting friend) distills usable techniques from the enormous literatures on writing and teaching effectiveness.
As we all know, however, a successful career is not only a matter of mastering writing skills and communication techniques. The greatest wisdom of this book is in the recognition of the deep psychological and sociological issues that lie at the base of our challenges. With insight and empathy, Rena Seltzer picks through the detritus of embarrassing episodes and horrendous faux pas to distill lessons for the next round. Using examples from real people she has helped through a variety of struggles, she has constructed labels through the labyrinth.
Rena Seltzer has written a gem of a book. I have watched her present parts of it at faculty development sessions at Yale University where I was Deputy Provost for Faculty and Development. The women professors who attended these workshops could not get enough of Rena Seltzer, because she provides wisdom for what matters most: career success on terms that make us happier people. I am delighted she has written this book, and you will be a richer person for having read it.”
Every administrator, faculty member and graduate student can benefit from implementing the concrete recommendations in The Coach’s Guide. It’s akin to having a professional development coach at one’s beck and call.
The Coach’s Guide provides a toolbox of ideas relevant to faculty across life and career stages. Each chapter contains concrete, pragmatic, and targeted strategies designed to help faculty identify and overcome obstacles to professional success and to re-discover joy and balance in their work and personal lives.
The Coach’s Guide for Women Professors will be an amazing asset for female academics. It is packed full of practical and empowering strategies that will pay immediate dividends, as well as being a resource that you will want to return to for clear solutions to challenges that arise. It is an invaluable resource for women (and men) who care about advancing their own careers as well as the careers of women in the academy.
Rena Seltzer’s workshops are perennial favorites with Yale faculty. Workshop alumni get more writing done, have more control over their schedules, and feel increased confidence in their leadership skills. Rena has also served as a coach for a number of Yale faculty leaders. Here as well, her work has been transformative. I am delighted to recommend The Coach’s Guide to anyone aspiring to learn from this wise and inspiring academic coach.
This book distills the key lessons from Rena’s vast experience coaching academics. Her coaching has helped me enormously professionally, but I also appreciate the greater peace of mind; thanks to our discussions, I don’t take work frustrations home with me. Although Rena’s book is tailored to women professors, most of these lessons and strategies apply to everyone; I’ve ordered copies for myself and my advisees.
I needed to transform how I approached my research. Rena was instrumental in ensuring I was incredibly productive. From goal setting to structuring my time effectively, to creating metaphors that facilitated my ability to push through challenges, she has helped to make me a happier and more efficient academic. Her positive energy is infectious and her ability to help her clients see the big picture is unparalleled. I don’t know what I’d do without her!
I would not have gotten tenure without Rena Seltzer's skillful coaching. I am positive of that. If you can find a way to work with her as a coach, do it! But if you can't, read her book at least twice. It has all the life and career hacks every academic (male and female!) needs. Rena knows academia, in all its glories and pitfalls, and it is exhilarating to see one's world so accurately portrayed through on-point advice. I am a happier, healthier, higher-impact, and more productive academic, thanks to Rena's coaching and book.
"I highly recommend Rena Seltzer’s book, The Coach’s Guide for Women Professors, to anyone who is engaged in or contemplating a tenure track academic career. I connected to this book on two different levels. First, the advice corresponded to conclusions that I have drawn from my research on work/family concerns and women faculty. My own research on dual career couple hiring policies and academic motherhood supports the orientation of this book and the types of advice given. Secondly, I related to the book on a more personal level – being a tenured professor at a research university, being a parent and spouse, and having newly accepted a position as an associate dean. As I read the advice, I found myself nodding in agreement – sometimes recognizing things that I already do to help myself manage my multiple roles and sometimes noting new things that I hadn’t yet tried but that might be worth exploring. I loved the checklist at the beginning of the book and I found myself laughing at how many of the items I felt related to my own experiences. Although I read the whole book cover to cover the first time, I did make use of the survey to help me hone in on additional areas where I could use some extra help. The writing style in the book is very engaging and the personal narratives helped to make the advice practical and not preachy. The book is comprehensive – covering a range of topics of interest to women at multiple stages in their careers. I particularly found the advice about voice and about strategies to energize myself to be salient in my current role. Many of the recommendations were things that I have tried (sometimes successfully and sometimes not) as well as things that I would recommend to newer colleagues in my mentoring relationships with them. There is a lot of advice out there to be had on how to successfully manage life as a woman and as an academic – this book gathers it all up and puts it together in a useful manner that will certainly be of service to many."
Graduate schools do not prepare women for the numerous challenges they encounter in the various facets of academic life. This book identifies challenges and issues related to women’s lives in academe and suggests practical and studied tactics to help women thrive in the academic world and in their own lives.
Rena Seltzer has extensive experience as an academic coach and has gathered a compelling amount of data and first-hand experiences from women professors. She acknowledges that surviving in academia is not easy, especially for women and under-represented minorities. Oftentimes, women feel isolated and are not aware that some of the challenges they face are not uniquely their own. By identifying such challenges, Rena Seltzer achieves the goal of bringing awareness to these common experiences. In addition to identifying these challenges at the different stages of academic life, the book offers a deeper analysis of the issues and obstacles of academic life as well as provides practical advice on how to overcome them.
Anecdotally, all female academics I have shared this book with have expressed great interest in it and admitted they would like or need to read it. One said, 'I wish this book was around when I started out!'
The book is recommended to all women in academia but also to any faculty at any stage in her or his career who is experiencing some of the same challenges.
