Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

I was talking to a colleague one day and he tells me “You compliment too much!” .  I jokingly told him “by the way, your shirt looks great on you!” to which he smiles and says “thanks!”

While some people may view my compliments as something excessive, I really am sincere (except that conversation above) when I compliment the work of others. I think we live in a society that does not compliment enough.

Complimenting the efforts of others who I feel are worthy of recognition is very important to me and it has been  a life-long habit of mine. When I feel the person assisting me goes above and beyond what I think is beyond basic customer service, I take the time to thank them.

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I lead a team of 20 software/web developers and managers. When I ask my team to do something collectively or as individuals,  the answer I expect from them is “no”.  It is because of this expectation that when I am delegating a task to any of my staff, I make sure that there’s a good reason behind my requests and that I am ready to offer the reasoning if asked.  It’s not like my team does not do what I ask them to do, as they are all amazing people to work with and they are very cooperative and  they actually do what I ask them do with no resistance. Most of the time, while it’s not necessary for me to offer any explanations since they willingly accept the task, I make the conscious effort to take the time to provide them with the explanation behind my request.
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A developer tells me “the only thing managers do is forward emails”.  I knew I couldn’t convince him otherwise so I didn’t bother correcting him. He’s wrong by the way! Managers like me also schedule unproductive meetings and sit at our desks the whole day, thinking of how to make developers’ lives miserable 🙂

The developer is right partially in that part of my job is to forward emails. Below are  some  emails I have forwarded throughout the years:

* Customer’s appreciation of the wonderful job my staff have done for them. I forward them to my team and/or to the staff as well as to my director and those above them. This is my way of recognizing their efforts and building their reputation with the upper management.

* Customer’s questions/requests.  There  have been many times when my customers asked for my help to move a request forward in purchasing equipments or starting projects.

* Email about why a system suddenly stops working. Sometimes I would get emails from customers and other developers about a system not working. Unfortunately, changes to the system, either through changes to code by developers or network/server settings by IT administrators are made without informing those affected of the changes made disrupting the system

* Emails from upper management about policy changes.

There have also been times when I have had to what provide what I call “value-added email service.”  In addition to forwarding emails, I have had to add my perspective/interpretation on the issue in the email. For example:

* Translating technical jargon into words understandable by lay people.

* Apologizing to our customers about an email sent by a tech person which they perceive as disrespectful and accusatory.

* Apologizing to our customers about the disruption of their service caused by an unauthorized change to the their system.

I think every developer (including me) at some point have probably thought that managers are unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. From experience, only when a developer assumes a leadership/management role in an organization will that person truly appreciate the values of middle management.

I was reviewing a code for a web site I created in 1997 which led me to think about what it was like at the time.  The website,  the campus-wide calendar of events (http://events.sa.ucsb.edu/), was one of the very first campus-wide web application at UCSB.  In reviewing the code, it came to me that codes are artifacts in themselves, revealing not only how the application was developed as well as  developers’ environment and abilities. With further investigation,  codes do lead to some revelations about the politics, the technologies, the state of the organization  at that time as well. In a way, the code in itself has a culture behind it.

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As a technologist in student affairs who does not interact with students in my formal position, I envy my colleagues who deal with students everyday. I enjoy my interactions with students and staff discussing about student development, leadership and social issues and so I look for opportunities to be able to be involved with the student affairs community outside my formal technical role.

In my position as an IT administrator in a central department that serves all of student affairs, I get exposed to the business processes of all the departments when implementing or developing web applications and vendor systems. In the course of the projects, the discussions with directors/programmers revolve around business requirements, timelines, funding  and resources. On the other side with my technical colleagues, discussions revolve around  server/network infrastructures, security, development standards.  Unfortunately,  discussions about student afairs and student lives in general rarely get discussed. Throughout my career, I have identified opportunities around the campus to see where I could get involved as a non-techie.

Here are some activities I’ve participated in the last few years:

* Serve as organizational advisor for the Filipino-American interest organization and Latino fraternity
* Participate as staff representative for a student led fee committee (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/sfac)
* Serve as staff representative to student staff divisional meeting
* Review freshman applications for the Admissions department
* Serve as facilitator for summer transition program dedicated towards first generation students (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/eop/step)
* Serve as member of student resource team (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/srt)
* Serve as a mentor through a mentorship program
* Provide letter of recommendations and references for graduate schools/jobs
* Participant as a panelist for career development course

My involvement with the programs above are for two reasons: 1) I personally enjoy the experience and 2) I feel the experience provide me with reminders of why I do my job and provides me with a sense of purpose.

Based on your experience, what other opportunities can you recommend?