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		Quality Staff Involvement and the Role of the Resident Director By Jason Hanson, Senior Resident Director, CCHM at the University of Texas at San Antonio After getting the basics down, the role of a Resident Director tends to allow ample room for your personal touch. Regardless of where you start off, you’re bound to change throughout the course of an academic year. And each year brings about different staff, new opportunities, and evolving priorities. In the same way you’d take responsibility for your group’s mistake(s), take responsibility for their success. Plan it out, monitor progress, and adjust as necessary. I suggest regularly taking time to reflect and realign your approach. Your focus on quality involvement will help your staff get more out of their RA experience and will keep them invested in the group. Some of these questions may also be helpful for your staff to consider. Reviewing and Personalizing Your Approach What inspires you? What are the traits of leaders you’ve enjoyed following? What are the keys to your previous successes? What are your goals for your time there? Ideally, what would you like to see changed/improved? What norms would you like to establish? What goals do you have for your staff? Where are they at? (your staff) Where do you want them to be? How are you going to get them there? Are your expectations realistic? Have you set the bar high enough? What is their incentive? What do they want to get out of this experience? What do you want them to take away from this experience? What do you want to accomplish together? How do you want to be remembered? Ask Yourself the Following: The goal of these questions is for you to identify components of your leadership and the staff culture. It may be helpful to think of the parallels of you/your supervisors & your leadership/your staff. There are no “right” answers, these are just questions to consider as you assess and plan. Do you have a staff mission? Does your staff have their own or know yours? How do they know if they’ve met or missed their target? What opportunities do you provide for them to have a say in things? How do they know? (Not understand or believe, but know!) Do you reinforce that message on a weekly basis? What creative challenges do you present for them to guide them through? Do they know you trust them? How do you show them or prove it to them? Do you constantly share praise publicly? Have you given them ways to recognize each other? Is the recognition format something they created or something you gave to them? What example do you set for them? (All aspects: health, work, personal, recreational, etc) Do you share things you learned this week or recently? If you’re not learning new things all the time, you’re probably not exploring or reflecting enough. You set the example. Does your life speak louder than your words? Your actions need to demonstrate your expectations for them (and truthfully, you should be performing at a higher level). How are you building “community” for them? Are you setting them up for success? Have you given them a long range plan? Do you keep things new and innovative? Are you willing to try new things? How well are things working as they are? If you keep doing the same thing(s), are things likely to get better or worse? What’s around the corner? (personally, work, academically) Action -> Message/Result It seems that RAs get the hang of things just in time to move onto something else. By Accepting, Approving, and Appreciating where they’re at you can give them the personalized attention they deserve. Every task is meaningful at some level. Think about ways you can cross-train them and/or help them get ready for their next step. You have the chance to build them up, improve staff cohesiveness, offer professional development, and get to know them better in the process. With the items below, think about the result of or the message sent by the following actions?   Action Message/Result? • Involving them in the planning/problem solving   • Privately asking them for their opinion (and using it)   • Attending their program or personal event   • Hand written notes to them   • Knowing their interests, accomplishments, etc.   • Use of the word “team”   • Citing something you learned off of a website   • Leading by example   • Guiding them through a reflection exercise   • Creating learning moments by delegating   • Using a quote in your meeting/on your agenda   • Following through on what you say   • Going public with some of your goals   • Freeing up meeting time by using weekly reports   • Having them lead weekly in-service or team builders   • Asking how many compliments they gave during the week   • Keeping the workload consistent and reasonable   • Volunteering   • Discussing a rule of the week or new opportunity each week   • Having a meeting at your place   • Joining them for a meal, game, movie, etc.   • Creating door decorations for them   • Sharing one of your proudest moments/accomplishments   • Giving them ownership of the outcome   • Working along side them (hopefully doing the tough stuff)   The Quality Staff Involvement focus can be a corner stone to your program or it can simply be a way to keep your staff invested in their team. The use of questions is a great approach for both you and your staff’s progression. You may find that your staff will have more faith in you and greater belief in themselves with initiatives such as this. About the Author Jason Hanson has been with Century Campus Housing Management (CCHM) since July 2001. He is currently the Senior Resident Director at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He started his career at Weber State University in Ogden, UT and has attended ACUHO-I and ACPA, among others. Through CCHM, Jason has participated in training and professional development activities at other properties including Houston Baptist University and George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Jason received his bachelor’s degree from Northern Michigan University. You can contact Jason at jbhanson@utsa.edu if you care to comment on this article.