In this study full-time adult education program administrators were interviewed and taped to determine what they did on the job, how they felt about what they did, and how they prepared or felt they should be preparing to achieve the goals they identified as essential to doing those jobs well. Transcript responses from the interviews were divided into seven clusters which define adult educators' competencies and roles. The seven clusters are as follow: (1) people skills, (2) tightrope-walking--the need for a strong ego, (3) the knowledge base--what one has to know to be an educator of adults, (4) where you belong--the organizational sense, (5) the multi-dimensional quality, (6) rubbing shoulders with people--the experiential base, and (7) resources valued. (CSS)