Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Brett Weisz, Deputy Chief Information Officer at the University of North Dakota and a MOR program participant. Brett may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
There have been many things I’ve reflected on through my MOR experience, but a couple have certainly stood out as I move into a new role.
Why is the Distinction Between Leading, Managing, and Doing Important?
This is the big one. Analyzing my time against three buckets seems simple but it has profound implications the more I’ve thought about it. At my previous institution, we were a small school with a small IT staff. Often, we felt understaffed but did a great job meeting the needs of our students, staff, and faculty. However, due to our small team size, everyone wore many different hats.
Looking back, as the CIO, I probably spent 50% doing, 40% managing, and 10% leading, which is obviously backwards. The more I’ve thought about those ratios, it was out of necessity that I did so much doing as we just didn’t have a lot of people to do the work. Though I was the CIO, I was also the backup systems administrator, the software/hardware purchaser, the ITSM administrator, and an executive help desk support person. Obviously, as the leader of our department, I shouldn’t have been doing so much, but again, I did think some of it was out of necessity.
Fast forward to my new role, where I’m working at a university nearly four times the size with an IT team five times the size. Side note: it’s funny that we’re still talking about being under budgeted and short-staffed… If they only knew! Since I’m new, I don’t know how to “do” much. There are new processes, software, and systems I’m unfamiliar with.
The epiphany I’ve had is that I need to keep it that way. Not that I don’t want to know about the system, but I don’t need to learn the doing within those systems. Thinking about my current ratios, I’d say they’re 40% Leading, 55% Managing, and 5% Doing. Much closer to my ideal that may be 50/45/5. My challenge is to keep the doing percentage low. That means not asking for access to certain systems, delegating, and trusting the people we’ve put into the roles who should be the doers. The first few months have been uncomfortable at times not being able to “do” as I was so used to it, but I now understand that it’s the path forward. I’ll be able to spend more time on the balcony focusing on strategy instead of the operations. This strategy will help me continue to grow into the leader I desire to be.
I’ve also planted the seed with the five directors reporting to me that this is an exercise we’ll do as a team, so they should start thinking about their current ratios while envisioning what an ideal ratio would look like.
Four I’s – Initiate, Inquire, Invest, Influence
Again, another simple, yet effective tool. Growing up, I was often the shy kid who was nervous around conversation, feared public speaking, and was just fine being behind the scenes. I vividly remember a moment during my first professional job where I observed the technical skills of those ahead of me. I determined I would build the same technical know-how so I could advance to the positions they held. I also remember being at a leadership conference, watching a tech CEO speak in ways that I had never heard a technology person speak. At that point, I knew that communication skills were also something I needed to develop if I wanted to progress past being a good technician.
As an introvert, there’s no doubt that Initiate is the toughest of the four I’s. I wish I had this tool years ago. But after hard, intentional work guided by my MOR experience, I think I’ve developed my communication skills. Initiating is a little easier now than it was 10 years ago. Since I’m at a new university and a new city, I have ample opportunities to meet new people. Recently, my oldest son was playing in his basketball league and I intentionally began observing the kids as they walked into the gym and who their parents were. Once I made the identification, I initiated a conversation with the parent(s) and asked about their child, the school the boys attended, and the new city we’re in. I wish I could tell my 20-year-younger self, “It’s really not that hard.”
I’ll continue to be intentional about initiating the conversation knowing that once initiation has been made, inquiring isn’t too difficult. People love talking about themselves! After that it becomes more strategic as I must decide which of those relationships to dedicate time to invest in that relationship and ultimately developing the ability to influence. I’ve always called it social capital. It takes time to build up, but when you need to cash out it’s extremely beneficial.
Relationships are everything. It’s how work works. Without it, we’re just the Geek Squad fixing the printer, and not the strategic partner we strive to be.
Which best describes your current leading-managing-doing ratio?
Last week, we asked for your observation of your colleagues’ level of stress over the last month compared to usual:
- 32% said way more
- 36% said slightly more
- 18% said the same
- 13% said less
Similar to when we asked this same question in November, stress levels continue to be high. However, good news: levels have overall lessened from that time, with an additional 10% of us now reporting observing less distress. Managing distress is an ongoing journey. What is one step you can take today? See last week’s reading for further ideas.