Getting Leader "FULL"

Visual depiction of "Leaderful" practice

Day 2 was a marathon of leadership concepts, leaving all attendees exhausted and full of insight into the unique skills and concepts that are required for being "leaderful."

Rather than focus on the content, here are my main takeaways from the day.

First, I enjoyed the distinction highlighted visually in the image above. It really speaks to the greater challenges of leading across units rather than just leading a single team. In higher education and IT it is becoming very clear to me that any project worth pursuing is going to include more than just one team. This visually depicts this, and is a great reminder when trying to take on any project, task, or initiative. There was a book that was suggested in relation to this concept, as well. I shared the title of this book on Twitter for future reference.

Recommended reading, "The Innovative University" by Clayton M. Christensen #ltl13
— Alex Chaucer (@geoparadigm) June 25, 2013

Malcolm Brown shared his insights in a riveting presentation on...presentations.  I was introduced to some new concepts around presenting that I had not heard prior, and it was clear that Malcolm had thought through some of these things, and has found ways to put these ideas into practice.

One of the most valuable lessons I took away from Day 2 was from the individual coaching session with Cole Camplese.

Here's a brief summary:

• Need to get login information from my computers. Ideally broken down by time of day, major, year, student/staff, hours logged, hours logged doing GIS work.
• Quarterly reports at the end of each semester. Combine them into an annual report each year.
• Infographic based on your quarterly report. Printed out and delivered to stakeholders.
• Student promotions team.
• Strategic collaboration across units, look for opportunities to make others look good.
• Faculty Fellow program. Work closely with 2-3 faculty and put resources toward them, and then promote the project and present it at conference & blog about it.
• Tell your story about managing students.
• Talk about all projects on the blog and connect with people around the country doing similar things.
• Highlight excellent student work on the blog, even if it is just students working in the GIS Center.

So, at the end of the day I was full. Full of ideas, full of great food, and feeling good about my new understanding of being and acting "leaderful."

With that, I leave you with a video that was shared today; the top 10 IT challenges for higher ed in 2013.