Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Rob Lowden, Vice President for IT and Chief Information Officer at Indiana University. Rob may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
As I approach 25 years at Indiana University, I reflect on my values and how I made them uniquely me. I am most comfortable sharing my story in person, but given the interest and support, I am stepping out of my comfort zone and sharing via written word.
My journey began growing up in one of the poorest counties in Indiana. I was the youngest of three children from parents who did not have the opportunity to attend college. I went to a tiny school where my graduating class was 22 students. I was Senior Class president, captain of the soccer team, and involved in a variety of extracurricular activities.
My leadership journey really began in college in northern Illinois, where I played on the soccer team that had just won the National Championship for Division III. That national championship team was mostly graduating seniors. We were the rebuild team. I quickly learned my plans, as brilliant as I may have thought they were, would be impacted by new experiences, new information, changes, and the unknown.
There are 10 key lessons I have learned on my leadership journey:
- Follow your dreams and learn from your failures.
- Include others in your journey. You will find it incredibly rewarding.
- Do the task you are given and do it well.
- Leaders lead with positivity.
- Manage risks, not exceptions.
- Strategies are typically sound. Execution is critical.
- Input rights versus decision rights.
- Reward a culture of data-driven decision-making and remain calm.
- Communication is difficult. It will be something you will spend your entire life working on, and you will never stop focusing on it.
- Find joy in what you do.
While all these lessons shape who I am, I am focusing on what I see as the three most important:
Follow your dreams and learn from your failures.
I learned a fair amount about humility and losing, losing a lot. After two years of not-amazing seasons, I ultimately chose to leave the soccer team. I was encouraged to try out for the swim team and swam competitively for the first time. I loved it. In my junior year, I wanted to become a Navy Seal and left college, to my parents’ disappointment. In my dive unit of 155 young men, only five became Navy Seals. I was not one of them. This did not discourage me. It helped reinforce my belief that you should pursue your dreams no matter what anyone tells you. Even if you fail to achieve them, you will know you gave it your all and won’t look back regretfully. You might even learn from those failures.
I took what I learned in that failure and applied it to becoming a Navy Search and Rescue Swimmer. I learned that my mind is far more powerful than my body. I learned my mind could tell my body to do things that my body didn’t like, didn’t want to do, or didn’t think it could do.
When I left college to join the Navy, I promised my parents that when I left the Navy, I would finish college. I kept that promise and then some. I used the GI Bill to pay my way through my undergraduate and master’s degrees, becoming a first-generation college graduate.
Include others in your journey. You will find it incredibly rewarding.
When I returned to college, I was a Resident Advisor. Amongst the benefits of the role, I met everyone on my floor of incoming freshmen boys and interacted with them regularly. In the dorms, we had an eye-popping 10Mbps Internet connection. We built our own computers for LAN gaming and Napster. It was an exciting time when my educational goals aligned with my personal and professional goals, and I was meeting new people. One of those freshmen seemed to know everything about IT at the university. I asked how he knew so much about IT at IU. His response: he worked as a student hourly in the support center. Would I like an interview? YES! Please! So started my IT career at IU.
One of my top 5 strengths is Includer. I use it every chance I can. I like to meet new people, especially people who find it harder to introduce themselves to others, the person in the corner who is not as comfortable at reaching out, and the person standing just outside the rest of the group. I can tell you that countless times, those have turned out to be some of the best connections I have ever made.
Input rights versus decision rights.
Always set a clear expectation for your subordinates and understand where this applies when you are the subordinate. When I was in the Nimitz battle group, we were heading out of the straits of Hormuz. The captain asked the crew if we wanted to go to Phuket, Thailand, and return to home port two weeks early or head to Sydney, Australia, and return two weeks later. The crew overwhelmingly voted for Thailand, and the next day, we began steaming to Australia. We were all disappointed.
As a leader, I learned to share my opinion, make my case, and come to peace with the fact that my idea may just be input. Support a culture of input rights. Delegate your authority, not your accountability, and be comfortable with sharing your feedback and accepting the decisions that are made.
Conclusion
We are super serious people in a super serious industry. We are expected to deliver IT in some of the most complicated environments. It does not mean we can’t enjoy what we do. When we pursue happiness, we often find it is short-lived and, dare I say, not always fulfilling. I prefer joy. To me, joy is a state of mind, a conscious decision in which I actively participate. I hope you all find joy in what you do daily and in the contributions you make each and every day to your organizations, friends, family, and loved ones.
Which lesson resonates most with you?
Last week, we considered which could most help you improve your emotional intelligence.
- 25% said practicing emotional regulation
- 22% said raising self-awareness
- 22% said finding pockets of joy to improve outlook
- 21% said strengthening social skills to enhance relationships
- 10% said developing empathy
For the most part, our responses were spread evenly across the options. We are often in different places in our emotional intelligence, each having strengths in different areas. That said, a common thread was that more than two in three of us want to focus on ourselves. As you evolve your emotional intelligence, be sure to leverage the insight and perspective of those around you and learn from their strengths.