Leadership in Higher Education
Leaders at institutions of higher education are tasked with understanding a broad range of topics. From the political and financial aspects of a college, to disciplinary challenges, to the stats of the college team. It’s a lot to manage. Effective leadership means creating an environment where departmental leaders can grow and thrive, and in turn, inspire their employees. Is your college leadership effective, or are they going it alone?
Authenticity in Leadership
As a team we may rely on the strengths of the group, but as an individual we must accept the boundaries of our personalities and experience. We should never try to be who we aren’t, because success comes when the world responds to our authenticity. While authentic attitudes generate successful brands, quite often manufactured brands generate empty disinterest.
If you want success, you should find those who love you for that which you offer. If you want to be efficient, eliminate the products in your line that do not match your personality. If you want relevance, teach lessons based on the best of what you know well, and ignore that which you’ve heard second hand.
Use everything you know as support for the core of your beliefs and never present an idea that is not connected to them. If you want sustained relevance, study constantly and inform your core beliefs with a broad base of useful knowledge.
It became apparent to me this morning that the clarity of the directives listed above were fading in my own life. From time to time, I am temporarily intimidated by the world’s attempt to make me a part of a homogeneous business attitude and belief system different from my own. Just like a seasoned performer may still get nervous prior to stepping onto the stage, we may get nervous right before we lead others according to what we know is right. That feeling is okay, and it generates prudence. What is not okay is to abandon your authentic leadership power and knowledge so you may feel safe. Safety is common and bland and uninspired. That is the attitude of anyone who tells you they “just want to work for 30 years then retire”. I reject that type of safety with every cell in my body, and so should you.
A Call to Inspiration
Information Technology needs a call to inspiration. Many technologists we know in Higher Education have been confused by the messages purported by others, and over time, forgotten the real purpose of serving as technologists within an institution. We believe campuses are ripe for a revitalization, and the return of the creative, disciplined spirit that brought with it so many technological innovations over the past few decades.
We are those who build, those who make that which didn’t exist before. We are the ones who push, and make others healthily uncomfortable, and who continue to wiggle left and right until a better fit is found. We are those who lead the thinking about business continuance, and make other administrators feel secure that we are aware, and awake, and willing to accept any challenge that comes our way.
Conversely, many of us believe that we must be the ones to comply and enforce compliance, and to stop innovation beyond any risk, and to lower expectations based on budget. Compliance is a MUST, but it is not an accomplishment. Enforcing compliance is important, but not as important as showing others how to comply while innovating. Budgets are irrelevant to the needs of an institution and inconsequential to creativity. You can’t buy a server without a budget, but you can get rid of a lot of servers and connect the cost of hosting to projects. You can’t expand your wireless network without an investment, but you can present that investment as it pertains to students and a vision for expansion.
Our confusion around the true role of the CIO started when campus leadership was asked to enforce HIPPA and FERPA and PCI and other compliance rules. Leaders were then praised for making sure those rules were not broken. Mind you, those rules CANNOT be broken! Likewise, compliance with existing rules are a basic requirement of a CIO, but compliance is not an accomplishment.
To borrow a culinary analogy, a chef is not praised for cooking, but rather by the art that he creates. The ability to cook is a basic requirement of a chef, not an accomplishment.
CIOs should be judged by the limberness of change that each provides to the business. One should be bold enough to move the institution forward while still maintaining the balance of the operation as required of the position. But introduce more inspiration, and you'll start to see solutions pop up in the most overlooked places.
Be inspired: change things for the better!
Inclusivity Instead of Alienation
The popularity of reality television has altered our everyday life. This American Life's episode Frenemies draws attention to how often contestants in reality shows repeat this phrase: "I'm not here to make friends." It's a mindset that seems to carry over to today's workplace.
True, it's wise to have a healthy separation between your work persona and your personal life. For leaders especially, a clear line needs to exist between the personal and the professional. But leadership at its root is about relationships and building trust.
Big ideas need buy-in. And buy-in can only be established when leaders are able to properly convey ideas to their team and show them results. The best teams are results-driven, cooperative groups made up of people who respect individuals talents and know their own personal limits. Good leaders foster those relationships and create opportunities for them to thrive and work collaboratively.
All too often, leaders can be observed meeting behind closed doors, pairing off into groups, hoarding the information for those who "need to know." And, while every employee certainly doesn't need to know everything, employees do need to feel that their opinions are important and can be heard, and that the business operation itself is at least as transparent as it can be. Perhaps more importantly, employees should be able to observe that their leaders are working cooperatively toward a common goal and not in opposition to one another in their day-to-day activities, because covert "alliances" belong on reality TV, not in the workplace.
Avoid a Professional Plateau: Delegate
You’ve finally made it. You’re a leader with influence. You’re in the inner circle. Your ideas have inspired change within your organization. Now, instead of focusing on day-to-day tasks, you have big picture projects to worry about. This is what you wanted right?
Like you, the vast majority of those in leadership positions got there because of their hard work and dedication. They worked the long hours, put in the extra effort, and paid their dues. But after those first successes are achieved, the well-intentioned habit of doing everything yourself can be detrimental, and even lead to a professional plateau. Leaders simply can’t do everything. In order to keep growing, they must trust their teams and delegate.
Delegation is not natural. Especially to those who have clawed their way up the ladder. It can be difficult to let go and trust your team. Do it anyway.
Know the strengths and preferences of your team members. Most job descriptions have an “other work as assigned” clause. Use it. Empower your team to try new projects and help them understand what’s critical and why.
Then, trust them to do the work. Set expectations and timelines and schedule project reviews. Think ahead about the projects you expect to manage for the next year. Meet to discuss them and delegate what you can. Share examples of past projects, but remember to let your team breathe new life into each one. Step out of the way and allow them to become invested in the work.
It’s much better to delegate by choice than to wait until there is no other way to complete the work. No one likes to be brought in at the last minute on an emergency project.
Remember, you’ve been asked to lead. Accept the challenge. Then, expect your team to play a larger role as you all move forward.
Building a Winning Team
You can hire a great employee, but you can’t hire -- nor build -- a winning team. Reject the analogy of finding puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle of a winning team. The best anyone can do is to buy an amorphous piece and hope it will take any shape that may be usable in the team puzzle.
Finding a good employee can be done on the basis of education, experience and track record. A winning team member is self-generated, based on belief in the message, the personal influence, his or her social graces, the individual's place in the macro economic environment, the current state of the business, circles of personal influence, etc.
A good employee demonstrates a certain verbal tone and inference, an understanding of the core culture, has a capacity to accept personal defeat with grace, expresses a love for the “product of the product”, is emotionally invested, exerts a determination for collective achievement and holds in disdain those that do not show merit to collective thinking.
Such an employee has courage: he or she may have targeted vulnerabilities, but with familial support for time constraints, experience in pushing the limits of personal production, an ability to turn criticism into nuggets of strategic insight, and the desire to understand the frustration of those who don’t like your decisions, such vulnerabilities become towering strengths.
Many of these critical items are not detectable during a hiring process, nor is the hiring process designed to allow one to consider all of these variables effectively as related to your existing team before employment engagement begins. Furthermore, many of these characteristics are created from “moment aero,” when the employee first steps foot into your business, and the psychological contract begins its transformation.
If you have a winning team, cherish it. You don’t control the factors that made it happen, and you may never experience it again.
It Takes Strength in Numbers
The best way to enact your strategy is to get everyone else to support it. Do you think that's an obvious statement? Hardly! If getting everyone to support your strategy was that obvious of an idea, how come so few of us do it?
The successful leaders we know understand that it has nothing to do with plowing through people and challenges, but everything to do with approaching the conversation with confidence while convincing others to join you.
There are a few simple points that we consider to be the keys to success:
Move forward first. Nobody will follow you if you hesitate or hide behind “safe fences.” Stand by principle and progress with resolve.
Resource your plan. Consider including the following metrics:
How much it will cost? (Provide 3 options)
Who will be involved?
How can it be accomplished when everyone returns to their every day churn?
How will success be measured?
How long it will take?
Get everyone to follow you by proposing a winning strategy. In order to make your plan work, you will likely need strength in numbers.
The last point is the most important. The real question then becomes “How?”
The "How" includes approaching as many people as you can with a scaffolding for your strategy. Present an immature version of your project to everyone, and then gather their input and opinions about it. Visit people in their offices, don’t just call. Go and see them in person. After you’ve done that for long enough, you will begin to understand the right approach necessary to make everyone feel that their input matters to that which you are proposing. If you give them importance and ownership into the process, they will place importance on the project that you're about to bring forward.
By pre-wiring the conversation with each stakeholder, you should find that when the time comes for your plan to hit the table, it has already been approved.
Elective Compliance
I’ve had the privilege of working on both sides of the aisle in higher education over the course of my profession. Most recently, I moved from serving a public institution as CIO to becoming a vendor, providing software and services to other C-Level higher education professionals. This transition provided periodic insights to common challenges at institutions and why they happen. It has also become very clear why companies often want to sell to everyone in an institution except IT.
IT’s role is to fit the technology desired by its constituents into an overall technology structure and vision for the business. When selling to a CFO or a director, all a vendor has to do is discuss what a “tool” can do, and how such a tool will help the user accomplish tasks with less effort. When selling to IT, all of the shiny functionality (which is what sales usually promotes) becomes irrelevant. The reality of the sale instead comes down to institutional policy, connectivity to other systems, expected data requirements, security, etc.
Although each stakeholder has a role to play, the sales process can generate divisions within an institution. If and when various personalities and power struggles arise during the sales cycle, the result is not just a frustrated salesperson. Instead, there is a risk of unsatisfied team members who believe that their opinions are always ignored or that good tools do not exist, along with an IT operation that grows tired of dealing with dozens of such requests every month.
If, as CIO, one feels that these issues do not seem to go away, consider creating an operation that builds relationships with vendors and seeks advice, and then connects vendors with functional end users within the organization. A culture like this will make everyone in your institution feel that the IT operation is progressive, and they will in turn help IT formulate the process in the only way that is possible: Elective compliance.
Professional Armadillos
Those who can’t define their value by delivering measurable accomplishments will always attempt to prove their worth by eroding the reputation of those around them. Such individuals are referred to as “professional armadillos,” because every time they are asked to explain performance, they ball up into a very thick, hard, and effective layer of explanations as to why everyone else has failed, or is failing them. The goal of the “professional armadillo” is to stay safe and alive in the middle, while all others are offered to sacrifice in the outer shell.
Although it would be nice to report that the business world rejects such persons, the opposite is true. Those who win by shooting down others are quite often just as successful, and many times much more powerful than those who don’t.
The best way to deal with “professional armadillos” is to create a network of allies who function in the exact opposite way. Your closest business allies should be the best of the best. Their purpose is not to resolve issues with “professional armadillos,” because unfortunately, they can’t, and you can’t either. Instead their purpose is to create a professional circle that will continuously remind you that you are not alone, and that production is still the only thing that matters.
A Requirement is Not an Achievement
Compliance is a requirement, not an achievement.
Those who base the measure of their success on reporting how well they comply with the rules of the business (or the rules imposed onto the business) are the same persons who believe stopping you from moving forward is part of their responsibility. That mindset needs to change.
Is compliance important? Yes! Should your business hire people who are responsible for compliance? Of course. Should those individuals be well versed in rules? Absolutely. Should they be responsible for "keeping your business out of compliance trouble?" Yes! Yes! Yes!
While compliance may be their job, however, most compliance officers we've met misunderstand their responsibility. Their responsibility is not to disallow change outside tight boundaries, but instead to guide an institution as it moves, progresses, evolves, and pushes boundaries, all the while complying with requirements.
Compliance officers can provide the sharpest business edge by helping an institution navigate and remain within the legal and proper channels as it employs its strategy. Devoid of clear leadership direction, compliance officers are left to create a niche by their own devices, and they WILL build huge barriers that will make it impossible for staff to act.
The best thing an institution can do is to appoint a compliance officer with an indomitable entrepreneurial spirit. Help lead them into productive compliance, and all will be well. Conversely, if an institution hires "just an employee" to perform "just compliance," it will insert an agent of inaction into the structure. The result will then be a situation where everyone agrees with a project, everyone wants it to happen, but yet an invisible force keeps it from moving forward.
Choose Your Battles
Most people think this aphorism means you should drop some of your upcoming battles to win some for which you care more.
From our perspective, however, it means something completely different. What that means to us is that we should push on with all of our battles, and then choose the ones in which we are losing and focus on turning them into wins with vigor. Our energies are guided by principle, so conceding a battle means compromising on principles, which we do not believe is the correct approach.
More importantly than picking battles is understanding that you will lose many, and that that's okay. The important thing to remember is not how many times you win, but rather how you work to make those wins possible.
How about you? Do you work by principle?
Leading Through Change
Leading any team is challenging. During times of instability, it becomes much more difficult. In higher education, as in any business, positions above and below you change frequently. Small changes typically don’t stir up much controversy, but changes in key positions or in organizational structure can create uneasy feelings and a tense work atmosphere that distract from the tasks at hand.
When everyone is jockeying for position and trust between leaders and their teams fades, productivity loses momentum. Naturally, people become more worried about their jobs and less concerned about fruitful work.
We suggest leaders counter this downward spiral by creating a straight-forward, trusting environment within your own team and by prioritizing production.
Make team meetings a priority. Report what news you can share to team members, preferably to everyone at the same time.
Be honest, but positive. Don’t editorialize. Lead with facts.
Focus on the work. Praise your team for the good work they do and suggest ideas to move work forward.
Be direct. If you don’t know an answer - admit it. If you have bad news to share, handle it tactfully; say what you need to say and then move on.
Don’t forget to reinforce your own standing with those to whom you report.
Manage up. Prepare for meetings with your supervisor to ask them for what you need. Show that you’re in control of your responsibilities and working independently to move things forward.
Document above and below your position. Keep track of significant conversations. Don’t expect to remember.
Anticipate obstacles. Provide evidence to justify your team’s needs.
Align your goals with those of the institution and emphasize how your team’s work is contributing to the big picture.
Lead through changes instead of just managing them. Your team will appreciate your steadfastness, honesty, and vision, and they'll be more productive while changes take place around them. Your leaders should recognize your efforts to keep things moving forward, and when things settle down, you and your team will be ready for what’s next.
Make Conference-Inspired Ideas a Reality
Conferences provide an opportunity to break from the weekly routine, allowing us to refresh our perspectives as peers showcase their accomplishments and vendors present practical solutions with their products and services. Whether we spend our time attending sessions related to our roles on campus or just networking with peers, conferences can help offer a reset, professionally.
It is through collaboration and our ability to learn from those around us that makes professional conferences invaluable. Whether we serve the Business Office, IT, Academics, or Admissions, our participation in these communities have a direct impact on Higher Education. By returning to campus with ideas, each of us has the potential to bring back to our teams the knowledge that we’ve gathered with a hope and desire to move our institution forward.
So, how do you turn your ideas into action?
Upon arriving at High Point University, Dr. Nido Qubein brought on positive change on a pace and magnitude higher education had seldom seen before. At HPU, Dr. Qubein has taken the institution from a small, hidden college in North Carolina to an institution of national stature. The first step he took was to organize a team that he trusted to deliver. Once that team was in place, he did what we believe is the most powerful thing we’ve experienced in leadership: he set his team free.
Instead of telling employees what to do, Dr. Qubein clearly stated his expectations about what the institution should be, communicating ownership to everyone, and solidifying a team excited about achieving results. He set the parameters for how to think about growth and budget. The task then became delivering with excellence. At High Point University, the institution became what it is today based on these exact principles.
The day-to-day impact of this approach to leadership was that we never had to ask anyone else for permission once a decision was made. We moved forward with speed and confidence. In the eventuality that we needed to check with the president to receive his input on a specific choice, we never waited more than five minutes to receive a definitive answer. This is the speed with which an institution can continue to move forward with confidence at lightning speed.
If you want to start a revolution of action, you must not worry about what you cannot control. If you hold a position in which others report to you, don’t worry about convincing those above you to work this way. Start by setting YOUR staff free. Make them feel comfortable to make decisions, and encourage your team to push forward when they find success, but stand by them when they falter. Their production will create an environment of progress around campus that no uninspired culture will be able to mute.
Although there may be those on campus who are more concerned with how a decision might be perceived (i.e. “What if I make the wrong decision,” or “Am I able to decide without considering others’ feedback?”), we encourage those individuals to be bold and attempt to move the needle. We believe that they will see the power of human value shine, and their professional career will blossom.
When you return to campus after the next conference you attend, what will you take with you? Will your experiences be condensed down to entries on an expense report, or will you carry the conversations you had back to campus and turn that experience into action?
Building in Time
One of the most common complaints that I heard as a university administrator revolved around the concept of, “How am I supposed to do all of these tasks? There isn't enough time.” Truth be told, I didn't overwork my teams: I simply raised the bar and ask them to cut out the unnecessary items that occupied a good portion of their day.
When was the last time you stopped to think about how much time evaporates between tasks? Upon introspection, one can often find some efficiency to be gained. A typical workday in an office (on no particular day of the year) might consist of everything from checking emails, returning phone calls, administrative tasks, meeting, and focusing on a handful of projects.
If laid out on a calendar, our hypothetical day might look like this:
When looking at the day in greater detail, perhaps the layout of meetings and tasks doesn't make as much logical sense. Did you place those items on your calendar or did others?
For example, is a meeting really worth an hour of your time tomorrow? Isn't there a better use of time? The answer is always yes.
Here’s a suggestion: Unless the individual requesting the meeting is an administrator or a direct supervisor, always choose a time that is conducive to how you work best. If you happen to focus more in the morning, clear your calendar of items from the moment you arrive at work through a time in which you think you’ll be finished (if the only thing you’re doing is focusing on project tasks), say 8 am through 10 am. Go as far as to schedule a placeholder in that time slot and indicate that it will be used for producing work during that time. Then begin your social day at work. Return phone calls, attend meetings, interact with co-workers, etc.
Transitioning
Transitioning is an art form. The trick lies in the planning. I once read a book entitled, Time Management for System Administrators, from O’Reilly. One of the first points made in the forward of the book: “If you tell yourself you don’t have time to read this book, you need to read this book.” It was an excellent point. Like most business books, there are always a few nuggets of information that can be gleaned and taken away. Time Management illustrated to the importance of a simple task list. Now, when I was primarily a developer, I’d always kept a list of things that needed to be done next, but there wasn't necessarily ever a method to what I wrote on that notepad. After reading the text, I began keeping a small 5”x 8” notepad on my desk. Before leaving work every day (and to this day), I write down the most important items that I need to accomplish the next day. I categorize these as my top priority. Just below the top items, I include things that also need to be done (i.e. submit expenses, review notes from a meeting or a quote from a vendor, etc.). Then I write down the names of the individuals that I needed to contact (emails that I received late in the day or voice mails that needed to be returned). On the last few lines, I note the meetings I have and the times. Every day, there is a complete day on the notepad.
Two things that I find important about the task list: it provides structure and goals, and it’s proactive. I stopped arriving at work waiting for work to find me. Now, would my day always go the way that I planned it out? No. Each day, I had a new interaction that would result in a request for additional work (which I kept in a different spreadsheet).
Segment the Day and Work in Increments
Another trick that I developed and began practicing was to review <insert smart phone here /> in the AM prior to arriving at work, and then don’t look at it again until a break in the day. The way I saw it: if there’s an emergency, someone will find me.
It is also necessary to focus on smaller increments of time when planning out the day. This would make a day more manageable and tasks more attainable.
Divide time into 5-10 minute chunks
Limit the scheduling of meetings
Address all open items when meeting with an individual (consolidate talking points)
Get up and walk around
Return phone calls when moving between meetings or places
A New Approach
Once I began to function in this fashion, my calendar stopped looking like a burden and started rewarding me with accomplishments. More and more, I’d leave the day feeling a sense of accomplishment, as I knew I was able to deliver on the important pieces that were helping move the business forward.
Below is an example of what my work day looks like:
Before arriving at work: review email, scan for those that require input or those from key administrators
Once in the office, begin working off the task pad
Return phone calls
Attend meetings (always later in the day when productivity slumps)
Send emails
Perform any additional administrative tasks
Generate tomorrow’s list
Change the way you work, and others will adapt to how you work. Set an example, and make a point to promote your new habits when your supervisor notices an uptake in productivity. Deliver on your own expectations.
Lastly, always focus on the list of high-priority items first. Those tasks or projects should always be in the forefront of your goals for the day.
Remember Home Ec Class? Some Lessons Apply to Higher Ed, Too
As we have conversations in higher education about budgeting, we try to remember to take a step back and recall how regular individuals (not as officers of a college, bound by the many regulations, restrictions, strategic plans, etc.) talk to each other about budget adjustments. Thankfully, a quick online search reveals the simplest home economics example. Here is a summary of the results:
Involve the entire family. Agree on a budget up front and meet regularly to check your progress.
Stay disciplined. Try to make budgeting a part of your daily routine.
Start your new budget at a time when it will be easy to follow and stick with the plan (e.g., the beginning of the year, as opposed to right before the holidays.
Find a budgeting system that fits your needs. (e.g., electronic spreadsheet or physical ledger).
Distinguish between expenses that are "wants" (e.g., designer shoes) and expenses that are "needs" (e.g., groceries).
Build rewards into your budget (e.g., eat out every other week) to keep yourself motivated.
Avoid using credit cards to pay for everyday expenses. It may seem like you're spending less, but your credit card debt will continue to increase.
The results offered suggestions for how to address a fluctuation in income, too. In the event of:
A windfall, use the money to increase your savings and pay down debt.
A raise, don’t just absorb it into your spending; apply it to your debts and savings goals (50/50 is a good way to celebrate your hard work while also increasing your financial stability).
Drowning (in consumer debt, that is), review your input and curb your output.
Change, don't replace one bad spending habit with another; keep living within your means and keep your bad habits at bay.
Inflation, when this happens, it’s time for a COLA.
This list is useful in two ways: a) it illustrates what home economists know that each of us should know, and b) a set of common wisdom we should completely ignore when working in business.
The findings also reveal what home economists know that we often forget: a) Involve the entire business in budget planning; b) make budgeting a part of your daily routine; c) budget when it is easy to budget rather than when you run into an emergency; d) find a budgeting system that fits your needs; and e) build rewards into your system.
"Budgeting is a culture, not an event."
All of the items above are core to the FundFive philosophy. Budgeting is a culture, not an event. The right tools allow for your business to involve the entire institution in budgeting, and involvement in budgeting allows for personal investment of those who budgeted to stay on budget. Centralizing budget structures may be enticing to business officers, but it generates hundreds of employees who are powerless to move strategically, and it creates a culture of “asking for the moon.”
The most important thing to ignore from home economics wisdom is the relationship between debt and the life of the business. Divide your business life between high and low interest debt. While you should definitely minimize your high interest debt, don’t pay down your low interest debt any faster than you have to pay it. That money, if used to expand business rather than paying bills, will return in multiples of its value as compared to disappearing silently into debt reduction.
In summary:
Use your best judgement to follow that which others tell you to be best practices around budgeting and budget adjustments.
The perfect way to enact budget practices is to make it an institutional culture, not an event.
When the Rubber Meets the Road
When the time comes to run a marathon, will all of the training be enough to carry you across the finish line? Did all of the countless hours spent practicing the piano prepare you for the annual recital? When a massive power outage affects the campus and systems go offline, will the disaster recovery plan that you worked months to create be dependable and help your team restore services quickly?
Will you be ready to perform when the time comes to deliver? Preparations are critical for the challenges we will face in our personal and professional lives.
You wouldn't register for a 26.2 mile race without having ever laced up a pair of running shoes, and the chances of sitting down at a piano with little practice and playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 are slim without the proper preparation.
What good is a disaster recovery plan if it's never been tested? How can you ensure that the processes will work as documented and that the teams will be prepared? You must document and communicate the plan, and then schedule a test event and force the systems into a disaster-like scenario. Following the evaluation of the plan, schedule a hot wash exercise to walk through the findings with each of the teams responsible for ensuring business continuity, and then communicate to the impacted areas of the business with the information necessary for maintaining order in the wake of a major outage.