1. Preparing the next generation to lead

2. Agenda Introduction Project Open discussion http://educause.cnf.io
#WhyHigherEdIT #EDU15
Jisc and EDUCAUSE collaboration
Reference previous CIO project
Poll:
It would be interesting to know why you choose to work in higher education IT?  If you’d like to contribute to the discussion, send a tweet with the hashtag #WhyHigherEdIT #EDU15
Questions during discussion (1 to 3)

3. Panel
Stuart Lewis, Deputy Director Library and University Collections, University of Edinburgh
Peter O'Rourke, Director of IT, University Campus Suffolk
Suzanne Traxler, CIO, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Melissa Woo, CIO and Vice Provost for Information Services, University of Oregon
Introduce panel members
Jisc and EDUCAUSE collaboration

4. A model for IT leadership
Reference previous CIO project.
2014/15 working group on defining the IT leader
Presented at last year’s EDUCAUSE
Report published in March this year

5. Working group Drew Cook, University of Lincoln
Stuart Lewis, University of Edinburgh
Peter O'Rourke, University Campus Suffolk
Robert Stockton, Glyndwr University
Darren Tysoe, Regents University
Michael Cato, Vassar College
Gerry McCartney, Purdue University
Joseph Moreau, Foothills DeAnza Community College
Suzanne Traxler, University of Wisconsin-Platteville
Melissa Woo, University of Oregon
New working group formed in June 2015

6. Aims
Identify the most significant difficulties and challenges the next generation IT professionals face in progressing to a leadership role
Discuss how to attract the best talent to IT from both inside and outside of higher education, and then how to retain those staff
Explore the most effective support programmes to help them in progressing their career
Our challenge: How do we best prepare the next generation to lead?

7. Our challenge
Who in higher education IT needs to receive training in leadership skills?
What roles and skills should be prioritized?
When in the career development of an individual should the skills be fostered?
- Our challenge: How do we best prepare the next generation to lead?
Early group discussions fell into three broad categories:
Who
What
When

8. Our approach Team leader / supervisor
Entry- level
Skilled professional
Team leader / supervisor
Middle management / Technical lead / Architect
Head / Director
IT leader / CIO
The group identified 6 different stages of an IT professional’s career:
Entry-level
Skilled technical professional
Team leader / supervisor
Middle management / Technical lead / Architect
Head / Director
IT leader / CIO
We focused on these two middle stages, which we called the “middle tier”
Team leader / supervisor – defined as Leader of one team
Middle management / Technical lead / Architect - Leader of multiple teams; likely on the IT executive management team

9. Our approach Some roles taken on in early career
Other roles prioritized in more senior positions
Some roles need to be taken on early in ones’ career
Some roles need to be prioritized later in one’s career
Visionary
Trusted Advisor
Strategist

10. Our approach Relationship builder Master communicator
Promoter/ Persuader
Coach
Team builder
Ambassador
Middle management / Technical lead / Architect
Entry- level
Skilled professional
Team leader / supervisor
Head / Director
IT leader / CIO
Reference poll we took as a group
Based on how middle tier spend their times
The development of different roles in the middle tier is prioritized in different ways:
Will need to have developed significant skills to fulfil the role at a high level by the end of this stage:
Relationship Builder: People who are just entering into this stage of their career aren’t as likely to spend as much time in this role, but even then there is some time spent and it may vary depending on the position and institution. However, by the end of this career stage it is expected that a significant portion of one’s time will be spent in relationship building, so that it can be inferred that this stage is an important one to building the necessary skills for this role.
Master Communicator: People just entering this stage are already expected to have some level of communication skills down, as even in early stages a moderate amount of time is spent in this role. As one moves farther along in this stage, the amount of time spent in this role increases, trending towards more significant period of time. Similar to relationship builder, it will be important to people who are looking to move onto the next stage of their career to have well-developed skills to fulfill this role.
Steady development of necessary skills for these roles is expected, but some level of continued growth will occur in the next stage of career development
Promoter/Persuader: Whilst people entering this stage of their career are likely to not spend much time at all in this role, there is regular advancement expected in this stage, so that it is expected that a person who is at the end of this stage will have picked up the skills necessary to fulfill this role on a more frequent basis, though it can be presumed that there will still be opportunities for continued growth in this area in the next career stage.
Coach: As with other roles, this is one that may not be required at the early parts of this stage, but that it is expected that at least some moderate if not significant portions of one’s time will be spent in this roles at the end of the stage.
Some expectation of ability to perform these roles well upon entering this career stage, and of moderate continued development during the stage, but a significant growth in this area isn’t anticipated.
Team Builder: Someone entering into this stage should already have skills developed in this area in order to be able to fulfill this role on a moderate to significant amount of time. Therefore, there is little growth seen in this stage for this role, and should be expected that the skills necessary to be a team builder are developed earlier in one’s career.
Ambassador: As with team builder, there is an expectation that a moderate amount of time will be spent in this role for this career stage, and so the skills necessary for this will need to have been developed at least to some extent prior to this stage. There isn’t an anticipated increase in the amount of time that will need to be spent in this role by the end of this career stage (that is, it remains moderate throughout the stage).

11. Middle management / Technical lead / Architect
Our approach
Practical support
Coaching and mentoring
Broadening experience
Professional development
Building the profession
Inspiring leadership in others
Building a culture of service
Emphasizing the strategic importance of IT
Middle management / Technical lead / Architect
Entry- level
Skilled professional
Head / Director
IT leader / CIO
Team leader / supervisor
Individual
Institutions
What’s missing?
We have arranged our recommendations into:
What the individual needs to do
What the institution should do
What tools/programs are currently missing and should be developed

12. Audience Poll

13. Coaching and mentoring
Open discussion
“Mentoring helps you articulate what is important to you in your career—both when you are being mentored and when you mentor others.”

14. Professional development
Open discussion
“Leadership training specific for higher education IT professionals is needed. And training alone isn’t enough; it needs to be a comprehensive professional development approach.”

15. Emphasizing the strategic importance of IT
Open discussion
“Engage your user population. Successful IT projects are often those that go unnoticed by users. Look for success stories from teams and departments that talk about how they have delivered strategic change that benefited them and the organisation and the role that played in supporting this.”

16. Broadening experience
Open discussion
“By working in other areas of the University, I am able to gain experiences of applying IT skills in new areas, and in building up an awareness of other aspects of the University.”

17. What next? Follow progress at www.technologyleadership.jiscinvolve.org
Paper published early 2016
Contact:
Louisa Dale, Jisc
Richard French, Jisc
Karen Wetzel, EDUCAUSE
Following the conference, a white paper will be developed based on the group’s work that will be jointly released by Jisc and EDUCAUSE.