Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

credit: sandiego.olx.com

One of the people I have come to admire since I became active in social media is Eric Stoller, a higher education consultant/blogger. He is passionate in his beliefs and is willing to express them. I had the pleasure of meeting him “in real life” at NASPATech in Rhode Island last November. Eric wrote a piece today entitled “Where are the radical practitioners? “ for InsideHighered.com and he specifically asks if radical practitioners exist in student affairs. As usual, like his other ones, this article made me think about my roles and value in student affairs. I honestly had to look up what “radical” meant as the first thoughts in my mind were “extremists”, “going against the status quo”, “revolutionary”. Two definitions on dictionary.com are “favoring drastic political, economic, or social reforms” and “thoroughgoing or extreme, especially as regards change from accepted or traditional forms”.  If I’m not radical, does that mean I conform to status quo? Is this a bad thing? After thinking about what I’ve been involved with since I came to UCSB as a student and now as a career staff, I realized there is a part of me that has the tendency to challenge status quo. As a student, I was one of the hundreds of persistent students who asked the UCSB administration to provide a physical space for Asian American students on campus. As a staff, I either led or was a member of many project teams that introduced technical solutions to student affairs departments.   I work in the IT field within student affairs and most of what I’ve developed or led could be considered innovations within the context of my institution.  I have had my shares of eyes rolling or smirk as I presented my projects, or telling me I was doing things the wrong way. But I don’t think I can call myself a “radical”, I think I’d rather call myself as “change agent”.

While I am a very amiable and agreeable person, if I’m told I can’t do something because of some reason I would deem unreasonable, chances are that I will probably do what I’m not told to do. A case in point, I was told that I should never go on twitter because there’s nothing positive about it, that it just poses security risks. I had to find out for myself and more than a year later, I’m glad I did!

A month ago, I was having a conversation with a colleague who commented that “some people are willing to move forward without asking permissions” and there are those that need permissions. My colleague believes I’m one of those that do need permissions. He’s right and I think in some way, that defines who I am. I like harmony in the workplace and I like collaboration. I don’t like spending my energy on solving negativity when they could have been avoided.  I’d rather work within the boundaries of the system and slowly stretch it from time to time, all keeping in mind security and confidentiality policies as my guides.  Maybe because it’s just my personality, my family upbringing or maybe part of my Filipino culture? I’m not sure. Does that mean that I will roll over at someone’s command? In the past, maybe I did. Now? No. I’m definitely more assertive now and I’m not afraid to state my opinions on matters I don’t agree with or I strongly believe in.

Moving up the management ladder and observing my mentors, there are few observations and philosophies I have learned which I use as a “change agent”. These include:

• I can change the culture of my organization in many ways. One way is to build the next generation leaders. Culture is dynamic, always changing and an effective way to influence the change is by building leaders that carry the same value systems I do. I can’t change the entire organization by myself, but I can with the help of those that believe in the same way I do. I’m not a person who makes public speeches to evoke passions from those around me, but what I  do is build relationships, create opportunities for others so they may have the chance to explore what they are passionate about. I believe in the power of teams, collective intelligence, collaboration and  communities. These are the values I hope I convey with my teammates and I am asking those I can influence to carry forward.

• I don’t need to get everyone’s permissions, just the ones I need to ask. I do ask permissions, including my boss and first and foremost, the head of my organization, Vice Chancellor Dr. Michael Young, who is also my mentor. For example, there are oppositions with the use of social media and mobile technologies by some folks in our division, but as long as I have my boss and Vice Chancellor Young’s permissions, I’m good to go. Vice Chancellor  Young told me years ago “I’d rather have us moving forward and make mistakes along the way than stagnate”. He also told me to check in with him from time to time to make sure we are still on the right track, which I do. Does this mean I discount my other colleagues’ opinions? Not at all because I need their support to accomplish tasks, but knowing I have the support of my superiors matter a lot.

• Patience is a virtue. Yes, I can be impatient at times which have caused me to take alternate routes to completing projects outside “best practices” but in general, I’ve learned that patience does count. The university is a place of bureaucracy and it’s easy to get impatient, but I also know that there are a lot of folks that are overworked. In promoting  ideas  such as mobile and social media, I had to realize that I am months ahead of most people just because I have spent time researching them. In getting my team’s buy-in, I have to be patient explaining where I am coming from and the direction we are heading.

• Relationships matter. I value my relationships with my colleagues and while we may disagree on what projects to take on and in the manner to accomplish them, I like working in an office that do get along.  For many of us, we will spend years of our lifetime with our co-workers so why would we not try to get along with them? A big part of my success comes from the fact that I know a lot of people on campus, not because of my current position, but from more than a decade of my involvement beyond my formal job description. I choose my battles, I stay humble, I admit when I am wrong, I help when I can. I know that I will need other people’s help at some point.

• Change starts with me. When I was promoted to my current position, one of the first projects I wanted to do is to have a wiki to share information amongst our staff. As part of the wiki, I suggested that we should create a profile page for ourselves to include non-professional information like hobbies, etc. I mentioned this to a couple of people and the response I received was that no one will do it. I created the first profile page as an example which was followed by several members of our staff doing the same. The wiki and the profile pages were my first steps towards building a community and not just co-workers.

I really do appreciate Eric’s passion to challenge student affairs status quo. Our profession needs someone like him. In our own ways, we are helping our profession change in our unique ways. Do you consider yourself as a “radical” or “change agent”?

Taken during our visit of site of our future home.

This post is about how my wife and I were able to buy our first home  all because of my wife’s optimism. It’s about how she convinced me to just believe, share the dream with others, and act towards the dream no matter how improbable it might be. The dream might just become a reality.

By June this year, we would have lived in our new place for three years and it would never have happened if it wasn’t for my optimist wife. The year (2008) before we bought our home, she constantly told me, “we’ll get our home next year” and I gave her many reasons as to why that was impossible. These reasons include the “fact” that  we didn’t have the down payment, the prices were too expensive, and we couldn’t afford the increase in monthly payments. These conversations happened so many times I got frustrated. But, in back of my mind, I knew she’s told me ideas before which I thought were just impossible but they did happen. While we (or I should say I), didn’t have any concrete plan to buy a home anytime soon, we decided to save more money than ever before.

Santa Barbara, California is a very expensive place to live and it was even more so at the height of the real estate boom. As a university employee, in my mind there was no way my wife and I would even have the chance to buy a home here. In the natural, we would need to move to a different city or county to afford a place. I even applied and was offered a position at another university in northern California. I rejected the offer after realizing that my wife and I love where we live and work too much, so if we had to rent an apartment for few more years, we’ll stay here.

What happened in the first two weeks in January 2009 was a series of events I could not have imagined. At a meeting during the first week back at work, I casually mentioned to my colleagues about our intent to buy a home, even if we had to move. She mentioned about a new condo development 30 minutes from where we work. She recommended for us to visit. I didn’t really take her recommendation too seriously since in my mind, what was the point if we couldn’t afford it. I mentioned it to my wife and she encouraged us to go. We visited the site that Sunday just to “look around”. The sales person mentioned that all available units have been claimed but in three months, there will be a new set of buildings we could be considered for. He encouraged us to add our name to the list. The price of the condos were the lowest we have heard in Santa Barbara County and so we left feeling maybe there’s a possibility, yet never really took it seriously.

We received a call from the sales agent the Wednesday after our visit.  One of the units became available. The financing of one of the people on the list had fallen through. He asked us if we wanted to submit a refundable deposit to reserve our application. Luckily, we had saved enough money by then to afford the deposit. By the end of the week, we had been pre-qualified for a loan and we were on our way to owning our first home.

In retrospect, if my wife had not planted the seed in our minds about the possibility of owning a home, we would not have put some serious effort towards saving that allowed us to qualify for a loan. It also had not prompted me to talk about it with my colleagues that led us to visiting the site of our future home.

I would encourage you to pursue your dream, even when you think they’re unattainable with what and where you are now. It could just help you make it happen.

Years ago when my wife and I started dating, I learned a very important lesson about not taking out my problems on those that have nothing to do with it. We had gotten to a petty argument and when I dropped her off at her place, she was still upset when she got out of the car but when she was greeted by her friends, her demeanor suddenly changed to being very cheerful. She was actually laughing with them and here I was more upset as to why she wasn’t as upset as I was. I could not understand how she could be so upset one minute but then be cheerful the next minute. The next day when we spoke, I had to ask her how and why she did that. Her answer was simply “they had nothing to do with it. I was upset with you, not with them.” This concept sounds so simple but not always practiced.

When you’re having issues at home, do you carry them over to your work and your co-workers and customers? When you had a bad day at work, do you take your frustrations out on your loved ones when you go home? Something to keep in mind.

photo by lifecoachesblog.com

I have always approached my work and particularly my leadership role as relationship-based.  I strive hard to maintain positive relationships because that’s one of the most effective ways I get my work done and I like working in a positive environment.  Part of my success at the university where I work is the informal network I have developed across the years which have become a source of personal/career support as well as information. I also view each relationship with other people as being unique and therefore I adapt my communication style and the way I interact with them.

As I was going through some files on my computer earlier tonight, I came across a nomination form for a staff recognition award that was submitted by a co-worker on my behalf in 2007. It read:

“I can best describe Joe Sabado as the ‘Bruce Lee’ of managers.  People would ask Bruce Lee what his ‘system’ was, and he would say he didn’t have a ‘system’.  His style was the style of no style.  Likewise, Joe doesn’t have a management style, because no single method works with everyone, or at all times.”

 “Joe is a master at understanding people, and their current situation.  Joe always looks to adapt himself to the other person, and even to the other person’s mood.”

I work with IT and business colleagues with different communication styles and varying backgrounds. Adaptability in how I communicate is essential to my role.  There are those I work who prefers me to get straight to the point and those that don’t. What’s the point of speaking technical jargon those if who I am speaking with does not understand what I am talking about?

Self-awareness and my ability to recognize the emotions and moods of those I am interacting with are skills I continue to learn. Specially in my IT leadership role, I think soft skills are in my opinion just as critical as my technical knowledge. Ultimately, those we serve and work with are people and not machines.

How would you define your leadership style?

I wonder how many interesting conversations and start of connections we miss by simply not saying “hi” to a stranger. I make small talks to strangers many times and most of them last just a couple of exchanges. However, some of my most interesting and enjoyable conversations I’ve had online and off started with just a simple comment or a question.

Last night, a simple “hello” and “where are you from?” from me to a stranger at a sushi bar led to  spending about 30 minutes talking with someone who is a family friend of Alex Smith, the 49ers quarterback. He was also teacher at the high school Smith and Reggie Bush attended. As a football fan, specifically Alex Smith and 49ers, it was a really fun conversation. When I went to Rhode Island for a conference last month, I had a lot of fun getting to know the van driver. I learned a lot about him and he provided me some history of that state as we drove by the area. A simple “It’s hot today isn’t it?” question to another person while we’re waiting to cross the busy bike paths at UCSB led me to about 15 minute conversation after realizing that we have a common friend, a friend I’ve known for the last 20 years. I also found out that he was the father-in-law of a nephew I had just recently re-connected with at that time. When I’ve traveled to different cities in the past, some of the most memorable experience I’ve had were those conversations I had with those I met at restaurants, in cabs and in New Orleans, a friendly homeless person in the middle of the night on my way back to my hotel room after dinner.

The connections I have made with few folks online started with me making the first tweet or some folks welcoming me to their online community. One community in particular I’ve found to be very welcoming is #sachat – a group of student affairs and higher education professionals. I’ve even met some of them in real life and they are just as welcoming and friendly as they are online. It’s amazing how my short  twitter experience of just a year which led me to professional connections just started with a tweet or two.

As someone who is still relatively new to twitter, I am always appreciative when someone who is relatively new or those  I only read about and follow like @briansolis, @marismith and @scobleizer, @askaaronlee take their time to respond to a tweet of mine or even follow me back. Mari Smith tweeted me back after I thanked her for acknowledging my tweet with this – “I love to treat all peeps as equals. Everyone is important to me.:)” With this attitude, no wonder she has garnered many followers. Likewise, I also respond to tweets, even just to start a connection. Yes, these tweets may only be a few words and the follows may seem trivial, but they could be start of a connection and interesting conversations.

Do you have similar experience to share? I’d love to hear them.