Award Categories
The Champion of Collaboration Award, for successfully building diverse and productive relationships across and beyond the university.
This award honors teams and/or individuals who:
- Embody the talents to develop and maintain inclusive, productive and enduring relationships with peers, colleagues elsewhere within Tufts, and members of the extended Tufts community. They approach each day as an opportunity to invite diverse perspectives and develop alliances in the effort to successfully conduct business to support the university’s vision and mission. They are individuals or teams who are regularly sought out for projects because of their uncompromising commitment to the collaborative process. Strong candidates will demonstrate several, though not necessarily all, of the following key attributes:
- Cultivate collegial synergies between schools, divisions, and campuses to establish commonalities, eliminate perceived boundaries, and optimize diverse experiences for a more dynamic and rewarding experience.
- Bridge communication between campus communities and with communities off campus, which may include alumni, donors and families, to build and maintain lasting networks.
- Reach beyond campus lines to establish influential relationships with neighboring communities through community service projects.
- Possess a natural ability to engage with others, highlight their best attributes, and join forces to effectively and efficiently reach a resolution or realize a goal.
- Nurture constructive, diverse, and inclusive collaborations to reflect multiple interests, experiences, and viewpoints.
- Create settings that value every voice, encourage active participation, promote respect and accountability, and ensure equal representation.
- Develop an environment of trust and integrity with peers, colleagues elsewhere within Tufts, and members of neighboring communities.
The Agent of Innovation Award, for creating new paths to excellence.
This award honors teams and/or individuals who:
- Develop new approaches, methods, and systems to improve organizational effectiveness. They are individuals or teams who demonstrate imagination and creativity in finding sustainable solutions to problems or fostering change that benefits the university community. They promote university-wide efforts by creating awareness, energizing new initiatives, or advancing projects in new and expansive directions. These nominees are people who discover new paths to excellence. Strong candidates will demonstrate several, though not necessarily all, of the following key attributes:
- Contribute to Tufts’ capacity to foster cooperative relationships that spark mindfulness, innovative approaches, and commitment to efficiency and/or sustainability, ensuring optimal usage of resources and preserving a healthy and robust environment for future generations.
- Develop new ways to improve the quality of services or programming, or to improve the channels and processes by which work is accomplished.
- Proactively identify creative solutions, large or small in scope, to business challenges that have resulted in a significant and positive difference.
- Embody entrepreneurship that is flexible, efficient, cost-effective, and forward-thinking.
- Embrace change as an opportunity for resourceful problem solving with community members.
- Participate in healthy dialogue to ensure new solutions are inclusive and respectful of common goals across schools, divisions, and campuses.
- Plan effectively and judiciously for the successful implementation of new services, systems, or programming.
- Lead or facilitate such implementation in ways that strengthen the university and reflect its values.
The Extraordinary Colleague Award, for surpassing expectations.
This award honors teams and/or individuals who:
- Are seen as role models who consistently surpass expectations in their pursuit of and commitment to excellence. Nominators cite these individuals or teams for creating work environments that support achievement and celebrate everyone’s success. They actively pursue opportunities to create or reinforce a constructive, dynamic, and rewarding professional experience for their peers and colleagues. Interactions and experiences with these individuals or teams are characterized as insightful, motivational and dependable, no matter the day, the project, or deadline. Strong candidates will demonstrate several, though not necessarily all, of the following key attributes:
- Model exemplary leadership, improving the living, learning, and working experience of the campus community on a daily basis.
- Demonstrate the spirit of being a team player and create a welcoming, supportive, and cooperative work environment.
- Mentor colleagues by training or sharing valuable knowledge about university practices and procedures, resources, and job-related skill sets.
- Shape the university landscape with a superior level of service orientation.
- Possess the remarkable ability to anticipate potential predicaments and unspoken needs, and without fanfare come to the rescue.
- Without fail, lift a hand to help whenever and wherever one is needed.