The 2020 EDUCAUSE Institute Management Program provided managers who are in the early to middle stages of their careers with the opportunity to learn and practice a range of new competencies so that they are better prepared to apply their knowledge at their home institutions.
I started 2020 by joining a cohort of fifty-four eager, up-and-coming higher education leaders in New Orleans for a weeklong intensive professional learning experience. The EDUCAUSE Institute Management Program covers many topics that are essential for managers who are in the early to middle stages of their careers and who lead teams and projects in support of their higher education institutions and organizations. During the week, I saw the many "faces," or components, of professional development:
- Learning
- Practicing
- Networking
- Leveraging a mentor/coach/sponsor to support your journey
- Applying what you learned
The days were long and busy. A lot of ground was covered, and real-life experiences were intertwined throughout the materials to bring the content alive and make it real, practical, and actionable. Five key competencies were covered: management values, organizational communication, team development and optimization, financial management/budgeting, project prioritization, and control. Diversity, equity, and inclusion and emotional intelligence—topics that generated valuable conversation and exchanges—were also key components of the week.
To heighten the impact of the learning experience, participants also had a chance to practice what they had learned. While many were uncomfortable with the idea of presenting, the act of successfully overcoming that discomfort and presenting to a small group (a "safe place" to practice, is how the faculty put it) provided participants with a sense of fulfillment and excitement about using the skills they had practiced. And just as every participant had a chance to deliver a message/pitch to their boss, they also had the opportunity to practice giving feedback. Honing in on your "voice" and how you deliver your message is a critical part of professional development. And the "practice, practice, practice" rule can only make you better.
Besides the learning that took place that week, another critical component of professional development was clearly visible: networking. Stories were told, meals were shared, and special outings were organized by participants. It was networking on steroids!
A critically important aspect of professional development is having "one or many" who will support your journey. Mentors, coaches, and sponsors can each play a critical role in your career. According to the latest EDUCAUSE IT Workforce Landscape report, 71 percent of higher education IT mentors and 86 percent of mentees said that mentoring had made a moderate or great contribution to their professional development.1 Finding mentors, as well as mentoring others, should be a "must-do" at every stage of your career. Throughout the week, participants leveraged opportunities to engage in peer-to-peer and mentor/mentee opportunities. (As an aside, I have found that it is relatively common for people to identify the need for and seek out mentor relationships early in their career trajectories. Finding a sponsor, however, is much less common. I strongly recommend understanding the importance of and difference between these relationships. Sylvia Ann Hewlett's book Forget a Mentor, Find a Sponsor is a great read and does a great job of explaining the pivotal role a sponsor can play in career development.)
As the senior director of professional learning and development for EDUCAUSE, I strive to ensure that our commitment to professional development is making a difference for and supporting the advancement of each and every one of our members—and therefore, contributing to the transformation of higher education institutions. So, my "ask" to this cohort was this: "Apply what you have learned." It is incumbent upon every individual to make the best professional journey for themselves. If you make a point of applying what you have learned, trying some new things, and growing from your experience and new knowledge, then and only then will you continue to develop.
Professional development has many faces, and it also has many phases. I would daresay that professional development is a journey that should not end. You own it, and it should be one of your "big rocks." So, if you do not have a professional development plan, build one this year. And if you manage or lead a team, make sure to build professional development into your plans and budget for funding to support it. Learning, practicing, and applying what you learn, as well as building strong personal connections and leveraging mentors, coaches, and sponsors should be among the "many faces" of your professional development.
To enhance your skills as a higher education IT manager and leader, please consider registering for the online EDUCAUSE Institute Management Program, June 1–July 28, 2020. Additional professional development resources and information can be found in the EDUCAUSE Review Professional Development Commons blog as well as the EDUCAUSE Career Development web page.
The PD Commons blog encourages submissions. Please submit your ideas to [email protected].
Note
- D. Christopher Brooks, Shana Campbell, Joseph Galanek, Dana C. Gierdowski, John O'Brien, and Ben Shulman, The IT Workforce in Higher Education, 2019: CIOs, DEI, HR, Mentoring, and Salaries, research report (Louisville, CO: ECAR, August 2019). ↩
Ana Borray is Senior Director of Professional Learning and Development for EDUCAUSE.
© 2020 Ana Borray. The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.