This month, I interviewed client Courtney Dorroll, an associate professor of Middle Eastern and North African Studies and Religion at Wofford College. I met Courtney at a women’s leadership conference that I helped organize a few summers ago, and she had been following my newsletter for some time, so I was delighted when she reached out for coaching. Working with Courtney was a delight because she approached the entire process with a growth mindset, deep enthusiasm, and contagious energy. I particularly came to appreciate the power of her self-care approach to teaching in a pandemic year that battered students and faculty alike.
Heyday Coaching: Could you start by introducing yourself to my readers? Tell us a little about who you are--at work and outside of work?
Courtney Dorroll: I am a professor at Wofford College. I teach Middle Eastern Studies in the Religion Department and my teaching ethos revolves around self-care pedagogy. I teach classes on ethnography (interviewing as a research method), Muslims in America, Islam in the Media and A Global Guide to Self-care, where we get to explore how other religions and cultures utilize and view the concept of self-care. I also consult with departments, faculty and staff at Wofford and at other institutions about self-care pedagogy and self-care leadership. I have blogged on self-care in the academy with vocationmatters.org and have a book coming out soon on self-care called Radical Care.
Outside of work I am a mother to a sassy and confident 4-year-old and enjoy living in the moment through her eyes. She brings me to the here and now, adds play to my life and wonder. It took me awhile to find my parenting style and really feel confident, but now that I am stepping over and not letting mom guilt stand in my way, I am parenting in my own, authentic manner. My favorite phrase is “I am the best mom for my daughter.”
I love to listen to awkward comedy podcasts (the more awkward the better) like I Said No Gifts and Everyday Decisions. Any bit by Tig Notaro, Amy Sedaris and Maria Bamford keeps me laughing. And then on other days I want to watch a Keith Morrison Dateline episode or read the detective novels by Tana French.
HC: You sought coaching last fall. What prompted you to seek out coaching? What were you looking for in a coach?
CD: I had just finished some intensive therapy and loved seeing how that healing helped my personal life and professional life. When that slowed down, I was ready to focus more intentionally on continuing to grow in my professional life.
I wanted to explore how self-care pedagogy could be self-care leadership. I define self-care leadership as making deep care for yourself as a central guidepost in leading and extending that care to your colleagues, students, constituents, etc. Self-care pedagogy and self-care leadership are fundamentally about creating sustainable environments where you add in intentional rejuvenation for yourself and those around you.
HC: Could you talk a little about the coaching process? How did we work together? What was most helpful for you?
CD: When I arrived in my first session with Melissa, I struggled with imposter syndrome and really hadn’t located my own, authentic voice. Melissa helped me find the answers that were always in me—I just needed to build my confidence and start to trust my gut instincts. I would often start by asking if Melissa could tell me how to do X or achieve Y and she would guide me to seek the answers in myself by guiding me in a process of self-reflection.
HC: What kinds of shifts did you make in your life as a result of coaching?
CD: We did an amazing Future Self Visualization where I was able to visualize what I wanted my ideal life to be in 20 years. After this visualization it hit me that I could start having those ideal items in my life today. I didn’t need to delay my ideal life any longer. I needed to let go of my graduate student self and live into my more stable reality. After visualizing my ideal house, I found a realtor and placed my non-ideal home on the market and found my ideal home in the community I was living in. It was such a tremendous life upgrade and positive shift to visualize what you really want and then go after it. In the end it was all very doable, I just had to be honest with what I wanted, look for the experts around that could help me achieve it and DO IT.
Melissa also gave me the confidence boost to finish my monograph, Radical Care. We worked through what steps I needed to do to find a literary agent, she helped me edit my query letter and book proposal. With Melissa’s guidance and encouragement, what once felt like an impossible dream became a reality.
Melissa coached me to find and explore my own way of leading that is authentic to my own core values, and she has helped me quiet my inner critic and allow my inner mentor to flourish. Melissa helped me set my honorarium for my self-care workshops and since her mentoring I have been hired to lead a departmental retreat on self-care and a guest lecture for an undergraduate class.
Her seven sessions have been one of the most transformative things I’ve been a part of!
HC: What advice would you give someone who is thinking about working with a coach? Any special advice for folks working in higher education?
It was really helpful for me to work with Melissa after gaining tenure. Academics are so programmed to focus on getting tenure that once it is achieved it can feel like “What next?” and the future can seem too vast and overwhelming. I liked having a mentor to map out what I could be doing in this next season of my career. I left sessions feeling more confident about what I was doing because we were focused on intentional steps to make my work-life better. It was more about me finding my next projects and focus so that I could really appreciate climbing the mountain of tenure and getting to do these unique, more specialized projects. For me, it wasn’t about a career shift but instead a way to make my current career more enjoyable and sustainable. I wanted to find my voice as a tenured professor.
With Melissa’s coaching, I now feel more empowered to take hold of this next chapter of my career by embracing my strengths, knowing my worth and acknowledging when I need to reach out for help or collaborate.
HC: Any other wisdom you want to share?
CD: Melissa’s style is calming, encouraging and rooted in so much knowledge and experience of academia. She really gets the struggles people face in the academy. It is a rare gift to have this kind of coach. I would suggest this process for anyone in academia—no matter what level. It was wonderful to have a neutral source that was unaffiliated with my institution that could offer advice unhinged from the politics or traditions of one institution. Having that kind of mentor is so valuable and can make academia feel more understandable and doable—especially for someone that is first generation like me.
If you are experiencing burnout, this process can also be a way to rejuvenate yourself by resetting and refocusing on YOU. Working with Melissa was some of the best professional development I’ve had post-graduate school. It’s the best investment I’ve made in myself in a really long time and the rewards and growth continue to transform my every day.