A candid, practical guide to leading an academic department—without losing yourself in the process.
Department chairs occupy one of the most difficult and least understood roles in higher education. They are asked to manage budgets, mediate conflicts, mentor colleagues, oversee hiring, support students, and navigate institutional politics, often with little formal preparation and almost no training. In The Department Chair's Companion, Kevin Dettmar offers a clear-eyed guide to the realities of academic leadership, written for faculty members suddenly tasked with leading the people who were once simply their peers.
Building on the success of his acclaimed book How to Chair a Department, Dettmar addresses the everyday challenges that define the chair's role. Through practical case studies and hard-earned lessons, he explores everything from faculty hiring and departmental culture to burnout, budgeting, succession planning, and the emotional complexities of leadership. Along the way, he shows how chairs can move beyond mere management to become thoughtful, compassionate leaders capable of building stronger departments and healthier academic communities.
The Department Chair's Companion recognizes that most chairs are learning on the job while juggling their own teaching, scholarship, and personal lives. Dettmar does not offer corporate management jargon or abstract leadership theory. Instead, he provides practical advice, institutional wisdom, and reassurance for faculty leaders trying to do an extraordinarily complicated job well. Essential reading for current and aspiring chairs, deans, and faculty leaders, this book offers both guidance and solidarity for one of higher education's most demanding positions.
