A curious concept – shaping talent

Recently, a colleague approached me. Leaning into my role as a Principal Consultant where I work – Ellucian. The topic – shaping talent – see specific question below. So, I thought I should take the opportunity and capture my generalized responses here, for whatever value they may serve to myself and others. I want to do this also to demonstrate how my triathlon hobby, growth mindset and life concepts intersect with work strategies I leverage. I want to demonstrate the concept of transference using this model of how to shape talent. I say t his because i disagree passionately with work life balance. I’d rather a model of shaping myself first, than my mindset, practicing acta non verba, then taking those lessons learned into what I do as a person that will work 80 thousand hours throughout my career. So to that end, I share the following.

A generalized ask from the colleague

Do you have any other top-of-mind advice you would give to someone seeking to join the ranks? 

My Generalized Responses

From my observation – what works most successfully is leaders or performers should have at their ready, a compliment of experiences.  EdTech product owners and service oriented providers should actively coach performers should they choose to become leaders to lean on one specific area of expertise (software or more granular system specific). Also critical and oft-forgotten or assumed, coach new and seasoned leaders how to be a delegator and encircle self with performers (SME’s) to manage the remaining areas of focus. This will allow a leader the space required to concentrate and focus on the other resource oriented tasks, decisions, and accountabilities.  Most important is they also have the space to foster and support their performers to achieve their targeted outcomes. The current gap I commonly observe is most entities don’t know how to coach the leap from performer to leader. Learning and obtaining critical skills, strategies and taking the opportunities to practice in this area of leaping from performer to leader will serve any professional beyond their career.

Ellucian centric

To really become a leader or a SME of any of the Banner specific modules (one of Ellucian’s flagship applications in the EdTech space) here’s a few top-of-mind things to consider:

Lastly, I’d strongly recommend that an interested junior or senior type incorporate your own take-aways from the Simon Sinek presentation below (yes, watch it the whole 30 – 35 minutes from time to time). And yes, I recommend to watch it more than once.

Some general thoughts – Ellucian, EdTech and Higher Education Administration oriented considerations

General learning strategies (this is a product agnostic approach, try not to get caught up on the granular specifics, rather focus on the broader commonalities)

I’ve broken this down into two major categories although I do observe and believe there are many more

• Leadership oriented
• Performer or Subject Matter Expert (SME) oriented

For those interested in roles in EdTech and Higher Education support

• Education Acumen is often required in Higher Education facilitites
  • Notable Preferred Undergraduate Degree outcomes include:
    • Business, Computer Science, High Education Administration oriented
    • Focus in process or change management
  • Terminal and Post Graduate outcomes include:
    • MIS, MBA, Ed.D, Ph.D
    • Focus in process or change management administration, leadership or governance
• Certificates and training that matters
  • ITIL
  • Six Sigma
  • or similar options

Suggested Action –

One’s education, training and skills should focus and emphasize learning the difference between strategic and tactical needs. There tends to be a lack in depth of understanding of Ed Tech and Administrative functions in and around institutions of Higher Ed (internal and external supports). Fostering skills in this key area is critical.

Generalized list of suggested actions for leadership and/or performers (SME) to consider

I hope the above information helps. I have become a broad brush stroke kind of person – I blame Ryan Holiday and Eddie Pinero.  Although I tend to be leaned into in different ways, I tend to take this approach of sharing top-of-mind ideas and lessons learned (see Bruce Lee image above). It is my observation that unsolicited advice rarely sticks, but above are the principles I would tell myself to follow in order to shape and grow seeds for a later harvest.  It is my finding that healthier EdTech organizations engage in the efforts and cost of shaping a vibrant garden of leaders and performers. This allows for an environment where leaders that lean into one or two preferred performers is an exception rather than the rule.