Joe Sabado – Higher Education & Technology Leadership

What are your thoughts on what makes an effective student success support system that is suitable for the current and future needs of college students?

Can you share your ideas and/or provide feedback on what is missing from the proposed approach I have provided below? This model aims to meet student success (academic, career readiness, preparation for life (citizen), and well-being. Thank you.

Version 2 based on suggestion – Emphasize/separate direct face-to-face connection with staff.

One of the difficulties for managers is how to simultaneously meet their responsibilities to 1) manage others, 2) attend seemingly endless meetings, and 3) take care of the work they must also do for themselves. In my role as Executive Director of IT, I became a bottleneck for the organization in that decisions and/or tasks that don’t take more than minutes to complete were left unattended for weeks. The problem is that I was doing too many things all at the same time (time slicing), and I was distracted by technologies that should help me be more productive. I was checking my emails and, at times, social media every few minutes. I’m sure some of my staff were getting frustrated for having to wait on me, and I was also getting frustrated at myself for not being more productive. The frustration led me to finally try different ways to improve my productivity. For years, I resisted using productivity techniques I’ve encountered, thinking I didn’t need them. However, through a change in mindset, technology, and techniques, I’ve noticed noticeable improvements in my productivity. Below is a list of these proven ideas you could consider.

1) Mindset. Focus on one task at a time. I used to think I could “multitask,” but from multiple articles/books I’ve read, I was time-slicing, and the time to transition from doing one task to another is costly. Specifically, the cost of getting back to the original task once distracted is an average of 25 minutes.

2) Use time blocking. I mentioned above that managers must balance managing/delegating, attending meetings, and “creating,” which means taking care of their own tasks. In my case, “creating” means taking care of HR actions, budgeting, or thinking about strategies. Too often, the time for “creating” are short between meetings resulting in low quality and incomplete tasks. The solution to this problem is to block out times in your schedules so you can have continuous hours of time dedicated to “creating”. In my case, I’ve blocked my morning hours (8-12) for these times and the other parts of the day for other tasks. That’s impossible, you might say. I thought the same thing, but this technique has worked for me while it hasn’t been perfect. The key is to inform your staff and others you deal with of your intention so they don’t schedule these blocked-out times. There’s also a transition period to implement this. While these contiguous hours may not be available in the next few weeks for you since meetings have already been booked, you can schedule these time blocks starting two to three months from now.

3) Pomodoro technique. This time management technique aims to promote maximum focus and energy by concentrating on one task for 25 minutes. Using my iPhone, I set the timer for 25 minutes, and I aim to work on the one task I’ve defined to complete within that period. This means I don’t check my emails, browse social media, or tend to be distracted.

4) Manage your energy, not time. I’m a late-night and morning person. This means that my energy is highest at those times of the day. in the past, I had a habit of going through my emails and taking care of “little things” to start my day, but the problem is that I could have been using my peak energy during those times to tackle tasks requiring high energy and focus. Given that I’m a morning person, this is the reason why I’ve dedicated my “creating” time blocks from 8 am-noon. I then try to spend my afternoons meeting with my staff and other tasks.

The techniques mentioned above are fairly new to me, but I’ve found the results encouraging, which has led me to focus on other ways I can be more productive. It requires a different mindset and time management techniques that work for you.

Let me know other ways you’ve improved your productivity at work! If you’re to try the ideas I shared above, let me know if they worked for you.

Image credit: http://cdn-media-1.lifehack.org/wp-content/files/2014/11/Productive.jpg

Identity is relative based on perspectives. I’ve come to recognize that how I view myself, all the different components of my identity, may not be the same as how others view me. I view my racial identity as Asian-American as the most salient part of my identity.  My experience in the United States, through the marginalization and the struggles I’ve faced since my family and I immigrated to this country, has been shaped because of my racial identity and physical features. While I have primarily defined my identity as one who belongs to a historically marginalized group, what I have come to realize is that others may not see me as that. I’ve been reminded that as a male in the position I hold at the university, I am seen as a person of privilege. For others, I’m seen through the lens of gender, organizational position, etc. beyond race, and these lenses are relative to the other person’s perspectives.

I’ve been thinking about the notion that while I may feel oppressed in some ways, I also carry privileges because of certain aspects of my identity. I was reminded by a student recently of the privileges I/we carry as university staff (and even students) relative to those who live in their hometown (inner city). This student reminded me that while we do have the struggles we are fighting for, sometimes we live in a bubble and forget the struggles of folks like those who live beyond the confines of the university must go through. This student reminded me that their family is currently homeless and must move from time to time depending on which friends and families are willing and able to house them.

Taking the time to understand other folks’ perspectives and struggles is one of the efforts I’ve tried to make since I can remember. Still, at times, I fall into the trap of just thinking about the issues I face without realizing that while, in some ways, I have been marginalized, I also carry privileges I must be conscious of.

Can you relate to my experience? How do you define your identity, and how do you think others view you?

image credit: https://pixabay.com/en/identity-mask-disguise-mindset-510866/

The technology competency in the latest ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies(2015) and the corresponding rubric provide student affairs practitioners and administrators guidance on effectively learning and applying technology in their roles as educators and programmers for student success. In addition, the two documents are also useful to the same groups regarding self-directed and formal professional development.

In my role as student affairs IT director, educator, and student affairs administrator, I was very interested in technology competency when it became available and how it could be applied to my organization and for my personal learning. I’ve offered my thoughts in this blog post.

I found the competency and the rubric to be useful for the following reasons:

1) I’m able to identify areas I need to pursue. For example, most of my experiential learning and training has been mostly on “technical tools and software” and “data use and compliance” so when I planned my schedule for the NASPA national conference in San Antonio next week (March 10-15), I purposely planned my schedule to attend sessions on “digital identity and citizenship” and “online learning environments”.

2) As I defined areas I need further development, I began exploring other learning methods. For example, most of my education when it comes to technology over the last three years has been through my job and also through kindle books. This year, I discovered Lynda.com videos and have completed seven data governance and security courses.

3) The techniques and mindset I have developed through the technology competency have also led me to apply them in other development areas beyond technology. I recently completed a 10-course series on people management certification via the University of California online learning system.

4) Given the lessons learned from my experience in applying the competency and rubric, I am developing a training curriculum for our division of student affairs based on the competency and rubric with the support of our Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs.  I hope that by next year’s NASPA conference, we will have implemented the curriculum and presented our experience so other student affairs practitioners and administrators may consider using the competency for their institutions.

Dr. Josie Ahlquist, and I presented via webinar (Infusing The New Student Affairs Technology Competency Into Practice) last month on how the competency could be applied in graduate programs, student affairs organizations, and professional development. Part of the presentation focused on using the competency framework for professional development. I offered how I have used and plan to use the competency and the rubric to guide my learning. Using Excel, I created a template that lists learning activities, when I would pursue them, the format, and which areas of the technology competency rubrics these activities fulfill. The template also provides a link to the rubric.

Attached is the Excel file I developed, and please feel free to modify them for your use. Click on the image to download the file.

I look forward to how other institutions and student affairs professionals apply the competency and rubric. If you or your institution have used these tools, I would love to learn more about them.

Do you have a fear of public speaking? Do you get anxious and nervous for days and weeks before you speak? I certainly was for most of my life. In elementary school, I pretended to be sick during the days of oral book reports. Throughout high school, I dreaded speaking in front of the class. One of the most painful three months of my life was when I was informed I had to speak at our graduation ceremony in front of a couple of thousands of people because I was the class Salutatorian. The prospect of doing the speech terrified me. Instead of enjoying the graduation ceremony and the months leading up to it, I was very anxious. In college, I had similar experiences. I still remember one particular year how terrified I was days leading up to when I had to speak in front of about 800 or so people at our campus, in front of parents and friends, at our annual show for the Filipino-American student organization.

Throughout my professional career, I felt hampered by my fear of public speaking until I decided to make a conscious effort to finally conquer it about three years ago. I felt as if I had some good perspectives/ideas to share, but I did not have the confidence to share them. I’ve enjoyed public speaking using the steps I share below, and I now look forward to them. In the last four years, I have spoken and presented in several public settings on my campus and even at a couple of professional conferences. I always dreamed of being a “keynote speaker” or doing a webinar, but I never thought I would have the opportunity because of my fear. I honestly would not have imagined being able to speak comfortably in front of many people. Still, by conquering my fear of public speaking, I have realized some dreams, present with colleagues I respect, met new folks, and developed relationships with them.

Here are some of what I did, which hopefully could help you too:

1) Think about the root(s) of your fear and how to overcome them. When I finally started to think deeply about what made me nervous about public speaking through the years, it always came back to the idea that as one whose first language is Ilokano (a Filipino dialect), I was scared of being made fun of because I may “FOB” (fresh off the boat) accent. I was eleven when I immigrated to the US with my family, and I remember being made fun of by other kids because of how I spoke. That impacted me psychologically and contributed to the anxiety I felt before speaking in public. The other fear I had was that when I’m nervous, I had (and still do)  the tendency to speak very fast. So, the possibility of “Fobbing” and speaking fast, especially in the first couple of sentences of my speech, really terrified me. However, as I thought about my past speeches, it dawned on me that once I started speaking, I was okay! Once I got going, I felt comfortable. it was the first couple of sentences that scared me. Given this knowledge, I purposely practiced my introductory statements to be slow and deliberate because I realized that if I could get through my first couple of sentences fine, I would be good with the rest of the speech or even a whole hour or two workshop. This step has saved me from days and even weeks of anxiety.

2) Get experience in public speaking. I made it a point to seek out opportunities to speak. When asked to do mobile, social media, and web development workshops or about my personal experiences as a first-generation minority student, I accepted them even as terrified as I was. I have the expertise and am comfortable talking about these areas, so the content was not a problem for me. The more I spoke about these topics, the easier the experience became for me. What helped in my initial effort to conquer my fear, I asked a couple of my colleagues who are very good public speakers to join me for my workshops. By doing that, I felt less vulnerable and gained experience in the process. They became my crutches until I was ready to do events independently. The more I spoke, the more comfortable I became.

3) Develop a niche area (or areas) you can feel comfortable speaking and understand your natural style. As mentioned above, there are topics I feel comfortable talking about, and the more I had the opportunity to speak about them, the better I got in my presentation styles, delivery, and content. I look back at my first few PowerPoint presentations, and I cringe at the amount of text I had per slide! I was using the slides as my crutches because I did not feel comfortable talking without reading what was on the slides. Nowadays, I’ve come to rely more on slides to augment/enhance my points through visuals and short text snippets. The slides are now intended for the audience rather than for me. There was one time when I was a guest speaker for a marketing course and had my PowerPoint presentation ready, but because the instructor could not log in to the computer, I spoke for about an hour without slides. It was one of my best presentations because it was conversational and free-flowing. Regarding style, I realized that I felt most comfortable and effective when I walked around and not behind a podium. I feel most comfortable when I feel the presentation was a conversation, not a monologue. I’ve developed a cadence in how I speak and how I move around when speaking. Engaging with the audience has become one of my habits when speaking.

There are additional steps I’ve learned along the process of conquering public speaking, but the three pieces of advice above have been the most helpful for me. Try them out and go share your ideas with the world!