I attended the Pilipino Graduation Ceremony at UC Santa Barbara last Friday. It was an intimate ceremony which provided the 21 graduating seniors, both Filipino-Americans and students involved with the Filipino-American community at UCSB, opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments and to recognize the contributions of their families. Even those who are stoic in nature would have been moved by the tributes and gratitude expressed by the students. Listening to the heartfelt speeches and watching the pride by their families were exactly what I needed to remind myself of why I chose to come back to higher education. It was also a reminder of what really gets me excited and passionate about my job, which is supporting students. In my 16 years since turning professional, I have been able to develop relationships as a mentor to several students. These relationships have lasted even after they graduated.
Lessons Learned as a “Change Agent”
I have experienced two major technology shifts in my career: the web in the late 1990’s and social media, cloud and mobile in the last few years. In both periods, I have been fortunate to have been given opportunities in my organization to be an early adopter/implementer of these technologies. Along the way, I learned some lessons I carry along with me and I share with my team in how to have some success when it comes to leading change.
- You need champions/advocates and adopters. You need allies.
- Distribute the work AND accolades.
- Recognition should be the byproduct, not the goal.
- Don’t ignore detractors, but don’t let them stop you either.
- Turn your detractors into your allies and you may have your strongest advocates.
- Learn to know when to ask for forgiveness and/or permission.
- You’ll need a plan, but don’t let the plan stifle progress.
- Better to make mistake moving forward than stagnate and do nothing.
- Embrace ambiguity.
- Know that you will make mistakes from time to time. Don’t dwell on them.
- Learn. Always Learn.
- Politics do matter.
- Develop thick skin. You will be criticized.
- Speak in the language of those you’re trying to convince.
- Ask why would folks want to invest time and resources.
- “No” is not permanent.
- Have fun. Hard to sustain energy for a long time if you’re not having fun.
- Anticipate tomorrow’s needs and build solutions for them.
- Look outside your organization/industry to gain perspective, inspirations.
- Dream.
- It’s more than technology. It’s about people and culture.
In your experience, what else would you add?
Recognizing The Invisible IT
It is during this time of the year when front line colleagues who truly deserve the accolades for their student service will receive awards in front of a cheering crowd. I have personally received one myself for my work with student organizations as an advisor and so this post is not from a place of sour grapes. Oftentimes, I personally receive praises that should be reserved for the work my IT colleagues just because I am the one talking to the customers. I do make sure to correct those giving me recognition and emphasize that for every application and service we provide, it requires team effort.
For every front line customer service professional, there is a layer of support behind them that makes their ability to provide service possible. In these days when most, if not all, business processes depend on technology, the IT staff is often involved at some point in the customer service process. There are many roles within an IT organization, including operations support positions such as help desk, server, and network admins. They often work after everyone’s gone home and during weekends to maintain and upgrade our systems. In my opinion, these are some of the hardest jobs and these are the positions that receive the least recognitions. When our systems and networks are running well, they are invisible and only when the email system or the network goes down do people even know they exist.
I know that the colleagues I mentioned above are driven by their desire to be of service to others and not by accolades. Appreciation of their work and their value to the organization does go a long way. Next time you have the opportunity to thank your IT staff, please do so. 🙂
Treat Co-workers as Human Beings, Not Just Units of Resources
I am able to accomplish my job effectively because of the informal relationships I have built and maintained throughout the years and the relationships I am building now. My work relationships are based on trust, respect and loyalty. To be able to develop and maintain relationships require that I find connections with others, share vulnerabilities, the values and culture I represent. I am a member of a university community, a community of human beings who have lives outside work. I have worked in the corporate and start up worlds where I rarely interacted with my customers and when I did, it was through phone calls or emails. I came back to student affairs twice because for me, there’s a sense of personal satisfaction, there’s a sense of purpose in what I do. I define myself as a student affairs professional working with technologies and not a technologist working in student affairs. To me, there is a big difference with that mindset. I don’t work for computers and policies. I work for my customers – the students, the staff, the parents, my staff and those who are involved with the university. I believe that my role is to assist the university in providing support and environment for students to develop holistically as scholars, leaders and citizens.
It is because of this mindset that I find it laughable and even feel offended when I come across ideas that in higher education, we are not supposed to talk and share about what we do outside work, the things we do during the weekends because somehow we are wasting time and company resources. Collaboration and communication, to some, may mean talking exclusively about projects, tasks and timelines. I don’t agree with this approach. If we are solely in the business of producing the same widgets requiring no innovation and creativity, then design automated processes where robots do the work. If the concern is that the level of productivity will significantly diminish because of the chatters, I know from personal experience that within these chatters may come good ideas and relationships amongst co-workers/customers develop. In the long run, effective collaborations that yield productivity results come from them. I learned early on in my career that while I believe intrinsic motivation is internal, as a manager/leader of a team, I can help create an environment where they feel welcomed, nurtured and heard as human beings. In part, I do this by promoting time and space for my team to share what we do outside work, our personal interests. For me, recognizing what makes us passionate about life; our value systems are invaluable to me as a leader and as a team. It is my belief that leadership is not just about communication, it’s about making connections. As a team, shared purpose, accountability and vision are keys to success.
I do not know about other industries but I know that the developers/designers I work with are driven by sense of accomplishment, sense of autonomy and the sense that they are able to contribute. Put them in a box where they are not able to express themselves, use command control as a model of management instead of influence, and I think I have a workplace that they do not enjoy.