Are you innovative, enterprising, and a go-getter as a leader? With changing business landscape, customer demands, and related challenges, how do you groom yourself to figure it all out? And besides yourself, how do you hire and develop other people in your team to become figure it out leaders?

Contributor

• • Samuel Sudhakar, Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Information Technology Services, California State University, San Bernardino

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Transcript

Sanjog Aul [00:00:24]:

Hello, and welcome to this segment on CTN. To learn more, please visit ciotalknetwork.com, and the topic for today is Becoming A Figure It Out Leader. Our guest for today is Samuel Sudhakar, who is the Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Information Technology Services for California State University, San Bernardino. Hey, Sam. How are you?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:00:47]:

Very good, Sanjog Aul. How are you?

Sanjog Aul [00:00:49]:

Very good. Great to have you with us again. Now the topic we wanted to touch today is coming from the very need that leaders have to figure things out. The reason being we’re not doing the same old, same old and things are shifting, and when that happens and the customer demands are changing and what business wants from us that changes, then your standard approach to how you manage, how you lead, and how do you figure out solutions are not going to be based on tried and tested techniques. Something brand new, some raw thinking is required. That means the leader has to shift. The person has to be innovative, to be enterprising, and has to be a go-getter, and not only that, we also want the team which supports the leader to become like it for the organization to get value. So we wanted to touch this particular angle that this trait of figure it out. How do you develop that as a leader? So that said, first, let’s set the stage, and let’s talk about the variety and the gravity of challenges that leaders like yourself, Sam, are facing in such uncertain and turbulent times.

Samuel Sudhakar [00:02:04]:

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. So, times are changing, absolutely, and in the higher education sector that I work in, things are changing pretty dramatically. The demand from our students, the expectations of our students and our faculty and staff are increasing and changing. Students are coming to campus as technology-native students, and so their expectations are pretty high. Combine that with declining funding and resources, we always have to think creatively and innovatively about how we continue to create value in our organization in moving our students forward, making them successful, and helping our faculty and staff work alongside in making the students’ lives successful. So one of the approaches we have taken lately is collaboration. Often, we work independently on projects. We find solutions for campus needs. We are proactive; we anticipate the needs of our students, faculty, and staff going forward. But we have done that very independently so far. Being in public higher ed, it is time for us to collaborate with other public higher education institutions to find out how we can collectively work together in satisfying the demands of our students in the face of declining funding and increasing expectations. We in California State University are fortunate enough that we have 23 campuses across the state, and we work very collaboratively across the state. More so now than before, we are trying to find out how we can do things collaboratively to keep the costs down, reduce the fixed operating expenses, and at the same time improve the customer experience and student experience on our campuses.

Sanjog Aul [00:04:13]:

So these are the basically, you’d say the challenges that you had and the solution to that you said is anything new that comes you go ahead and collaborate. Now given all parties who are collaborating, they should have the ability to figure it out. But if we don’t have that, either there is a weakest link issue or there are separated links which are trying to work together but they are not coming together and thus the outcome. The intended outcome is not reached, and when it comes to be able to figure things out, you got to have the culture, you then have to have the confidence that you can jump in, and then finally the capability. So the fact that you have things coming which you’ve never tackled before, neither you nor your other collaborating partners, what’s that magic pill you’ve discovered that no matter what comes to you, you’ll be able to figure it out?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:05:13]:

So there’s strength in numbers. Distributed across our 23 campuses, we have a lot of expertise. We have a lot of talent and skills. So I believe there’s nothing we cannot tackle together. There might be some weaknesses in some areas and strengths in other areas. But put together, working independently anymore is very inefficient. Working collaboratively provides more efficiencies and better talent pools. It’s almost like crowdsourcing the issues and finding the solutions out there, and with the advent of cloud computing and other new technologies that have come on board, artificial intelligence and machine learning, we are able to face those challenges and put our heads together and see how we can figure out how to solve a problem together. We don’t have to do it alone anymore.

Sanjog Aul [00:06:21]:

And if so I agree with you based on what you just said is that the confidence is there based on what you literally made a claim that there’s nothing that we cannot figure out, but that actually is a great kind of confidence. Would you say there is an underlying culture that got developed not only internally within your university, but also your collaborating partners that you are singing the same song, you are maybe not singing the same song, maybe you’re purposely trying to look at things from different angles and thus you’re able to do, but more importantly, the capability. See, having confidence that I can win over the world is one thing, but having the capability to crack a problem is another. So are you saying besides confidence, somehow you’ve developed a capability like no one else has done where you’re able to figure out no matter which problem is thrown at you?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:07:10]:

Sure. So the culture is hard to change. People have been used to working independently and running their own shops. Especially when it comes to staff, when we start collaborating and buying things together or running things together on the cloud, there’s always this uneasiness about losing control. When you have that mindset of losing control, then you’re not able to think innovatively and creatively. You’re always trying to protect your territory. What I believe is, in order for technological innovation to take place, human innovation needs to take place first. Human innovation leads to technological innovation to solve the modern-day issues that we are facing, and for human innovation to take place, there are three elements that are important. One is the element of hope, the second is vision, and the third is the greater good for humanity. Now in our case, what we have done in our organization is have created that hope. I’ve said about this in our shows before that we have created the hope for our staff that they have something to look forward to whether in their personal or career advancements when they work collaboratively together, and the vision is for the greater good of what we are doing for the society in higher education. Our greatest good is that we produce well-educated and well-skilled graduates that go out in the workforce and are productive in the businesses that they work in and in the communities that they live in. The vision of Cal State San Bernardino is we transform lives, and that’s what we do every day. We create that hope and vision in our employees, and that’s what leads them to work collaboratively with the counterparts across the state. It’s very difficult if you hold on to things and try to do things the normal old way.

Sanjog Aul [00:09:29]:

Would you say that you and the team members who work with you are fully cooked that they could have all the background and training to handle such problems? Or would you say that there are some gaps? And not in particular your university alone, but overall as you see, companies trying to solve problems and get into areas which are totally uncharted territories. Where are the gaps that you find in terms of capability and culture and confidence for them to be able to tackle and figure them out?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:10:00]:

Yeah. There’s definitely there are gaps. There are several areas that we lack expertise in and skills in. That’s where professional development comes in, working with consulting agencies such as Gartner and other universities across the country, we develop those skills. We routinely send our folks to professional development training to learn about the latest and greatest technologies and the solutions that are out there. More than ever, now our team members are attending conferences and workshops and training sessions in order for them to equip themselves for the newer technologies that are coming at us that will help us solve these problems. So the gaps exist every day, and the gap that exists in my organization might not be the gap that exists in another university. So we’re able to collaboratively fulfill those gaps together, and find out how we can put our heads together to solve the problem at hand.

Sanjog Aul [00:11:10]:

Now if you have those problems, and I’m sure these are not new problems in terms of the gaps, I would not call them problems, they are gaps and of course, there will always be gaps in some sort. What is typically an organization doing to fill those gaps because some of them are systemic, then some of them are just a fact that you move on and you improve yourself in one area and then the world moves faster in terms of the type of changes that are brought on us. So do you keep playing catch up, or do you think you get to a point where you say, okay. I have these things under control?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:11:50]:

No. So the culture change needs to happen, and especially in the world of IT, things are changing every day. There are new technologies that are coming on board every day, and new things are being developed. So the mindset of I’m going to run my server, and I’m going to do this job for a long time needs to change. For the most part, I think that mindset is changing. There are some folks who hold on to I’m comfortable doing this. I’m not willing to experiment with newer and emerging technologies. That’s what we are trying to change. There was this one program that we have launched in our institution where we allow folks from different departments to go and work in another emerging, very new technology area about 10 hours a week out of their work week. Without any risk, they are able to go and explore that technology to see if they would fit into that team that’s working on that particular project. It sparks their interest. We have tech exchange programs with folks from other universities going to each other’s schools and seeing what they’re doing, getting them out of their comfort zones and allowing them to meet others and experiment with new technologies without any risk to their current position. Those are all innovative things that we have done to create that hope for our folks. Rather than them coming every day to do the mundane job that they were doing, of course, we have to keep the lights on. We have to run our systems and make sure it’s available 24/7, 365. That’s the operational part of IT. There is the innovative part of IT that needs to become tactical and then operational. There are three levels: innovation, tactical, and operational. We have to be working on all three spaces every single day in order to move us forward.

Sanjog Aul [00:13:55]:

Let’s take a quick break, listeners. We’ll be right back, and let’s talk about the expectations which we should have from a leader that is every leader supposed to be someone who will by default figure things out or at some point the person can actually show vulnerability in front of their executive management to say, you know what? This problem is above us because of x y z reason, so we have to do something about it, but I cannot go and claim to be Hercules that I can do everything possible. What is the environment that would allow people to eventually figure it out by first approaching, with the openness that a leader can also be vulnerable? Please stay tuned, listeners. We’ll be right back.

Speaker 0 [00:14:52]:

Predict your company’s future by creating it. Is your workforce able to connect, exchange ideas, and share brilliance simply and securely? Create tomorrow, today. Empower your people to innovate anytime and anywhere with secured BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Management and document sharing solutions. To learn more, visit blackberry.com/enterprise.

Speaker 0 [00:15:19]:

Patient centered care requires a connected enterprise. Are you ready? If you’re looking to scale your health care IT efforts, visit redmane.com/health today. Whether it’s to connect data from multiple partner solutions or developing software for unique needs, RedMane can help. To find out how RedMane can help your company deliver on the patient centered care promise, visit redmane.com/health or call (773) 693-3919. Visit today.

Speaker 0 [00:15:52]:

Your growing business needs a highly productive workforce, effectively communicating and collaborating without exposing corporate data to cyber attacks. Are you looking to balance security and workforce productivity? Move beyond short term measures and securely scale your business with BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Management Solutions. To learn more, please visit blackberry.com/enterprise. You are listening to CTN CIO Talk Network with Sanjog Aul. To learn more about our program, please visit ciotalknetwork.com. Now back to the show.

Sanjog Aul [00:16:41]:

Welcome back. So here we are talking about, Sam, situations where things cannot be solved at least at the very moment when you are tackling them, and, of course, the people below and above you are getting anxious to get some resolution. Do you always go back and pound your chest and say, oh, I’m going to somehow figure it out or are you allowed or have the permission to show your vulnerability to seek help and actually get a resolution over time but not necessarily taking all the load yourself because that also is like doing justice to the people and setting the right expectations.

Samuel Sudhakar [00:17:27]:

Absolutely. So being vulnerable is very important as a leader, and it’s not only being vulnerable to your leadership team, to your bosses, but also 360 to your peers, your colleagues, and your customers. The minute we think that we’re invincible and we have the answers to everything, that’s when we start sliding down. Nobody knows everything. Nobody has the answers to everything. There are circumstances where we come to a standstill and say we really don’t know the answer to this question, or we don’t know how to solve this problem. We don’t have the resources to solve this problem. So I am very transparent with my boss, my colleagues, and our students, faculty, and staff and say we know this is a problem. We acknowledge that this is a problem, but right now we don’t have the solution. Give us some time and help us figure this out. Help us find out the answers and get back to you. The most important thing about these kinds of situations is to keep our peers and colleagues and bosses informed, being communicated. The last thing our customers hate is that they present us a problem, and we don’t know the answer to it, and we never get back to them. If I get back to them and tell them that I don’t have an answer, they might not like it. You always feel that kind of a sense of responsibility to give an answer to a student or faculty or staff. We always don’t have the answers. As long as we communicate with them and say I acknowledge your request. I acknowledge this issue. I acknowledge this particular problem that needs to be solved. I really don’t have the answer at the moment, but I will research, and I will get back to you. Keep in constant communication about how you are attempting to solve the problem. Let me give you an example. There’s a software licensing deal that we’re dealing with at our university. There’s a group of students and faculty and staff who want this particular software that is very expensive. That particular software is unfortunately a monopoly, and there’s no other alternative to that particular piece of software. Although there’s a great need on campus, the need is not substantiated enough for us to go and buy and implement that software across the institution. Maybe about 1,000 students out of 21,000 students might use the software. So what I do is I constantly keep negotiating with the software vendor. The vendor has come down quite a few notches in the last couple of years, but we still haven’t come to an agreement that the cost we are spending for the software is going to justify the number of users. They understand. The faculty understand what we’re dealing with. As long as you are communicative and you tell them what you are doing, the steps you are taking to solve the problem, I think you’re in good shape. They don’t expect you to know the answers to everything, and they don’t expect you to solve everything. We’re all human, and we have areas of weaknesses where we need to work through these kinds of things.

Sanjog Aul [00:21:07]:

So one is to jump into a problem and in that process you will somehow figure some things out, you will have some burns and bruises and you may end up solving that problem at least partially or even, you know, if you get lucky and things align, then even fully. But then what are you doing or what should an organization be doing that the learning as part of solving or as part of jumping in is institutionalized so that next time it doesn’t look like things which are as formidable as they were the first time, and the organization grows so their ability to figure it out individually or collectively

Samuel Sudhakar [00:21:52]:

improves? So it comes with building relationships with the stakeholders in your organization. There are certain responsibilities that come with my position. Leadership requires collaboration and working with the others who might have the expertise that you don’t have. What I keep telling my folks is when it comes to information security, even though there’s an Information Security office, information security is everybody’s responsibility. When it comes to different things, it’s everybody’s responsibility to join hands together to solve a problem together. When I enter into negotiations with vendors and try to solve problems, I bring our stakeholders along to sit in on the conversation as we are trying to solve the problem. They get the perspective of what we are dealing with and the way we are approaching the issue. Quite often, you get a lot of input from those conversations from stakeholders who might not have expertise in that field. They’ll be like, why don’t we try this or why don’t you try that? It really broadens perspective because as technologists and as leaders in technology, we’re tuned to think in certain ways. When you bring others who have a problem but not necessarily a technological background to solve the problem, they bring a perspective which is pretty unique and pretty valuable most of the time. We need to approach things in a collaborative fashion. The relationship that we build with our stakeholders is very, very important. As they get to know you and you get to know them and you build that credibility with your stakeholders and the relationship, then no matter what comes your way, they know that you are approaching it with the right attitude and the right perspective. They would be happy to jump in and lend you a hand in helping us solve the issue.

Sanjog Aul [00:24:08]:

And you know what? What you just mentioned about getting people along and working with them, building relationships, those are great. I am referring to also, in addition, the knowledge management, if you will. That institutional learning you get when you try to figure some things out because when you jump in the first time, you may not have thought of some parameters that govern the situation. Then some of the things that you try, which worked or not worked or partially worked in one situation or the other, would it not be a good idea that as we go about fighting fires, we have some form of formal or semi-formal system which will allow us to retain that knowledge of figuring things out in-house and not leave with someone leaving the company. So if you are institutionalizing figuring out as what I call as a competency, would there be a way to formalize the related knowledge which gets generated? A form of a formal knowledge management that’s what I can use as a term here. Is there a way to do that?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:25:18]:

Yeah. Absolutely. No two problems are alike, and you don’t solve the problem the same way two times, especially when it comes to technology. That being said, that’s when we talk about mentorship of leaders who are coming behind us, the leadership team and the folks who are involved in the negotiation or solving a problem. When a leader leaves, if the organization crumbles, then the leader hasn’t done a very good job. The leader has to build that knowledge base and leave people with that institutional knowledge that they built during that tenure in that organization. We have mentorship programs in our organization where we allow our subordinates to come and work with us on certain problems. We haven’t done a very good job of documenting how we solve a particular problem because it seems to be different every time we solve a problem. But there are certain basic principles about approaching a problem the way it is and getting stakeholders involved at the very early stage, keeping them informed, and continuing to look for other solutions. These are general principles that we follow when it comes to solving a problem. Unlike help desk, for example, they have users calling in with the same kinds of questions, and they build a knowledge base of the frequently asked questions. When another caller calls or they go to the knowledge base, they’re able to find a solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the issues that we face are complex and they’re changing the dynamic. So there’s not a single way to build the knowledge base other than putting in general principles that adapt through time of how to approach and solve a particular problem.

Sanjog Aul [00:27:26]:

Let’s take a quick break listeners. We will be right back and we have to look at the approach. One is as a leader, but then we are only as good as the team that we have. So to build a culture, build a competence, build the confidence of figuring things out, there has to be something, to be to be looked at at the time when you’re hiring people or in many cases when you inherit, the team members. Do something with them so that they are not afraid of jumping in into a new problem. Figure out a way to be resourceful and innovative. What does it take to build a team which is willing individually and collectively to figure things out? Please stay tuned, listeners. We’ll be right back and explore.

Speaker 0 [00:28:24]:

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Speaker 0 [00:28:55]:

Patient centered care requires a connected enterprise. Are you ready? If you’re looking to scale your healthcare IT efforts, visit redmane.com/health today. Whether it’s to connect data from multiple partner solutions or developing software for unique needs, RedMane can help. To find out how RedMane can help your company deliver on the patient centered care promise, visit redmane.com/health or call (773) 693-3919. Visit today.

Speaker 0 [00:29:28]:

Predict your company’s future by creating it. Is your workforce able to connect, exchange ideas, and share brilliance simply and securely? Create tomorrow, today. Empower your people to innovate any time and anywhere with secured BlackBerry Enterprise Mobility Management and document sharing solutions. To learn more, visit blackberry.com/enterprise. You are listening to CTN CIO Talk Network with Sanjog Aul. Now back to the show.

Sanjog Aul [00:30:09]:

Welcome back. So, with the individual leaders who themselves could become or maybe groom themselves to figure things out, they are only as good as their team. That team may not always come with that approach, that mindset, that capability, that confidence. So there you got two layers that you have to deal with. One is at the time of hiring, you filter people out and only introduce the new ones who bring some of those competency to make your job easier to get them to a point where they can start naturally figure things out. Then you get some people who may transfer from another department or they may be some incumbents who are already there. What are you doing, number one, at your university and what leaders should be doing to get that team to transform into individuals and as groups into those SWAT teams if you will. That’s what we are essentially talking about. A SWAT team which always is ready to jump on a new problem and more likely than not figure it out?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:31:20]:

Sure. When new employees are hired, they don’t come to the job the first day and say I’m just gonna do a mediocre job and collect my paycheck and go home. Most of the time, when you hire new employees, they come with a lot of enthusiasm, and they have a lot of hope for their future and hope for the future of the institution. Over time, when we don’t continue to keep them interested and create an environment in which they can grow and thrive, then they become mediocre. They become very operational. Whether it be new employees or incumbent employees, it’s very important for the leadership team to consider them as a human being and create an environment in which they thrive, grow, and produce for the organization. I always say to our team that it’s a 50/50. 50% you give to the organization and 50% the organization gives to you in terms of helping, allowing you to grow and thrive within the organization. It is a culture shift. We’re no longer dealing with employees who are machine-facing anymore. With everything moving to the cloud, most of the IT employees are human-facing, and they’re expected to be problem solvers and consultants and work with the teams across the university in solving the problems. Keep them interested, give them professional development opportunities, and continue to groom them to be the leaders of the next generation. That is the key. With IT, things are changing at such a dramatic pace. We should never allow a situation where people start thinking this particular technology might replace me. There’s always going to be a need for people who are consultants, who are problem solvers, who are team collaborators, and those are the kinds of skills that we need to develop within our employees in addition to developing specific technological skills.

Sanjog Aul [00:33:38]:

Now talking about the risk, because I would not say that any new area that you jump into you should be totally fearless jumping in, but you cannot be a cowboy either where you totally dismiss the risks that come with trying to figure out a solution which might have other regression issues or it introduces risks in the organization. So do you, on one hand, develop the team and even as you wear your mindset, become totally fearless, but should you be oblivious of what risk can it cause? If you go that route, then you would also somewhere stifle the creativity. Would you think there is a need for a balance when you’re jumping into totally unknown territory but also keeping risk in mind?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:34:36]:

Yeah. Absolutely. There’s always risks that come with newer technologies. There’s security risks and the world we live in, there’s always elements out there that are looking for gaps where they can come in and create chaos in an organization. So we need to balance risk and innovation. If we worry a lot about the risk, then the innovation is getting stifled as you say. The fundamental premises of IT innovation need to be kept in mind such as what are the risks involved and how do we deal with those? You never operationalize an innovative technology until you have vetted all the risks. That’s why I said there’s an innovation layer where we experiment with those kinds of technologies with very low risk to the production environment. The production environment has to be up and running all the time. We can’t be putting innovative technologies into the production environment until they are moved to the tactical level, and then they become operational. There’s always this cycle where we experiment with innovative technologies that have a lot of risk or unknown things we don’t even know about. Then it moves to the tactical level where we pilot with certain segments and vet them out. Before we move to the operational level, that’s where all the risks have to be vetted out. Because once you move to production, then there’s no going back. It’s a constant cycle in which we experiment with unproven, emerging technologies that might or might not hold promise for the future. Once we have semi-vetted it, we move it to the tactical level, and then a lot of care is given before it’s moved to production.

Sanjog Aul [00:36:44]:

Now on one hand, we have to handle risk and then, of course, motivate the team to do this. Given so much going on already. I mean, your regular day job doesn’t have the 2-hour buffer where you go outside, sit in the sun, and sip coffee. On top of it, you want people to jump into totally unknown territories. Yes. There are people who love doing that. So they dig it, and those are the people you would love to have for such situations, but that is not to say that there are other people who also want to have a life. So are we saying the figure it out is going to be an isolated effort and identified people with those propensities are the ones who you will invite and the rest of them can still go and sip coffee and have a life? How are you giving people the workload and the work for IT so that they overall stay incentivized and or maybe what’s other type of incentive besides just giving them a good quality and a good balance of work and life?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:37:55]:

Right. In most organizations, you’ve probably read this before, 20% of the employees do 80% of the job. The rest of them are just doing their job, coming in and producing the minimal and going home. When that continues, the 20% of the folks who are innovative and who want to jump in and do the innovative technologies and solve problems will get burnt out. That’s not a good way to handle an organization. So what we are trying to consciously do is tackle the 80% of the workforce that is not very highly productive. That’s a very big chunk to choose. We’re trying to figure out how to get the next 10% or the next 20% and slowly move them to the productive 20%. In every organization, there are employees who are very willing to tackle new things, and they are on a leadership track. They are intrinsically motivated. Then there are some folks who need a little push to move to that level. As we have discovered, there are several employees within our own organization that are at that level where we just need to give them a little motivation and push them to the top 20%. If we are able to move the next 20%, so 40% of our employees are highly productive and innovative and doing all these things, I think we would have come a long way. That’s something we’re working on as a leadership team, working in collaboration with our team members. In every decision-making process, we involve our team members, not necessarily just the leadership team. They are the ones who deal with the customers on a day-to-day basis at the operational level, and they know the problems better than we do. We involve them in that process, and you’ll see a lot of people having a lot of potential who we would have never tapped into if we didn’t take that approach. It’s a slow process in which you move, you know, first 10-20% of our employees are really good, they are high producers, and then you slowly start moving the rest of them up the organizational chain.

Sanjog Aul [00:40:35]:

So you do mention about these people all coming together and working, and then also some people you said as 20% of the people do 80% of the job. So are we in a way admitting that there will be some people who even though you push, they will still not get there? So are we giving up on an organization? Or in other words, may I ask this? Are you looking at the figure it out leadership to be a privileged thing or something which some people will pick up voluntarily and you are willing to let the other people who are not naturally accustomed to it or that’s not their true trait, they would just become a supporting function so that as a group, you are able to figure things out and not individual heroes.

Samuel Sudhakar [00:41:28]:

Yeah. You need every kind of employee in the organization. You can’t have everybody who wants to be innovative and do cutting edge things. You need people to run the operations, the day-to-day mundane tasks. There are some employees who are always going to be happy with the mundane tasks that they’re doing on a day-to-day basis. We give them opportunities. We have them develop their professional development plans. If they say, well, I’m happy with what I’m doing, and I’m willing to take on new responsibilities as they come on, but I’m not going to be in the cutting edge, that’s okay too. We need those folks, and they are the stable ones who show up every day on time and put their nose to the grind and do the job that needs to be done to keep the lights on. You can’t expect a 100% shift overnight. To the extent we can move to 100%, I think we need to try, and we are succeeding in our organization. It’s a constant effort. You can’t let your foot off the gas pedal. It’s an everyday thing. It’s building relationships. With people, process, and technology, we figured out that people come first. Put people first, and if you motivate them and create hope for them, they’re going to produce for you.

Sanjog Aul [00:42:55]:

Let’s take a quick break listeners. We will be right back, and let’s talk about some of the executive management quirks or gaps or disconnect, if you will, that exist in organizations which prevent some of the leaders like you, Sam. I’m not saying that’s happening in your organization but sometimes executive management wants the world from you but is not able to provide you the support or the right type of input or the sponsorship or the influence which will allow you to become that figure it out leader. What are those, and how do you manage your manager or manage your leader to a point where you’re able to help them help you. Please stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

Speaker 0 [00:43:49]:

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Speaker 0 [00:44:16]:

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Sanjog Aul [00:45:35]:

Welcome back. So we are talking about building a figure it out leader or becoming a figure it out leader, and then also your teams. But then you got an executive management wall. You could work very hard to develop that competence in you and your team, and then on the other hand, you’ve got executive management who may be supportive of the idea but then they may not offer you the necessary support, the sponsorship, the guidance or at least the leeway so that you develop that competency and that approach to leading an organization through uncharted waters. What are some of those limiting beliefs you’ve seen leaders carry that you have to tackle or you may have tackled or your peers may have tackled before you could dream of building this figure it out leadership in an organization?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:46:34]:

Sure. First of all, I’m very fortunate to have executive management that understands the value of IT and how IT contributes to the institutional mission and vision and goals. What an IT leader needs to do is align themselves with the vision, mission, and goals of the university or the organization they work for. IT is a support function. We create a lot of innovation, but it’s in support of the institutional mission and vision. At the CSU system, we have a big initiative called Graduation Initiative 2025 where the goal is to graduate more students in four years and provide quality education and inclusive excellence in the CSU system. What IT does every day is live and breathe GI 2025 and the university strategic plan. Everything that we do is tied to satisfying the goals of the university, the vision and mission of the university. Communicating what we’re doing in support of the vision and mission of the university to our executive team, to our president, our colleagues, and to the campus community continues to keep them engaged in what we are doing because they see the value that we are creating for the organization and how the initiatives that we are putting forward are helping move the needle forward. Often, it happens in collaboration with all the departments and divisions across the university because this is an institutional responsibility to help our students be successful, graduate on time, and find meaningful jobs. IT doesn’t stand alone. We collaborate with the other departments and divisions, and we are highly visible in our organization. Every day, they see the value that we create for the organization. When it comes to funding or support, it becomes easier when you’re constantly communicating, you’re visible, and you’re producing results in moving the institution forward in the strategic missions and goals of the institution.

Sanjog Aul [00:48:54]:

And so you definitely have a congratulations for being fortunate that your team is actually doing all the right things. For many who are not as fortunate, what do you recommend is the best way to align or bring executive management to the same level where they recognize and eventually support your efforts to take the organization to a point where it can tackle anything that comes its way?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:49:23]:

Communication is key, keeping them informed of all the initiatives that you are involved in and tying them to the bottom line for for-profit organizations or to the vision, mission, and goals for nonprofits is key. Many times we might be doing some great things in the background, but we’re not telling a good story about the value that we are creating for our stakeholders and how important it is for us to continue to support IT in order to move the institution forward. When there’s a communication break and you’re not constantly providing reports, milestones, and assessments, it’s a problem. Assessment is a huge thing in our organization. How is what we’re doing benefiting our students, and how is that helping them move forward in timely graduation and retention? Constant communication, providing reports, and providing dashboards of the progress that we are making towards the institutional goals keeps us visible in front of our executive leadership teams.

Sanjog Aul [00:50:45]:

Now, coming to the business unit leaders, like, you would have recognized that while the leadership at the top reached there because they were far more open, far more objective, but then you would find, say, a VP of manufacturing, or in your case, VP of course development. I’m just saying that could be a business function. They may have been doing the same thing over and over and over, and they become expert at it, and they became experienced at it, and that’s why they’ll reach that level. For us to be able to figure out a new problem, it is not going to be only you in IT who’s blessed to have been naturally dealing with so many different changes that you get used to tackling them. This figure it out approach requires building a new muscle for many of these business unit leaders, which they don’t know how, and their first knee jerk reaction is to resist. How do you bring them in your camp or help them feel comfortable with this new way of thinking and working?

Samuel Sudhakar [00:51:51]:

Sure. First of all, we need to keep our ears open. There are two ways in which we operate. One is reactive: when a problem is presented to us, we’re all over it, actively trying to find solutions. The other is being proactive and keeping our ears open. When we attend meetings across campus, when we hear things from people in other departments and divisions, we’re always thinking that we could be a good solution provider for this particular problem they’re facing. They might not come to you and explicitly say, hey, I have this problem. I need you guys to help me. But us approaching them and saying, hey, I heard you saying this in this meeting. I have a suggestion for you. What do you think about this? and offering them a solution even before they come to you and ask them has worked very effectively in our organization. It comes with building that relationship and credibility with colleagues and across the institution, showing that you’re not a threat to them and you’re not undermining what they’re doing. We respect the expertise they have in their area, but we are willing to offer our expertise to solve a particular problem with a technological solution. Keep your ears open, don’t just wait for problems to come to you. We do surveys and a lot of feedback and focus groups to collect issues now and upcoming to solve the problems. There might be things underneath the surface that will never come out unless you proactively approach your colleagues and say I might have a solution for you. Can we sit down and talk? It comes with knowing, building the relationship, and building credibility with your colleagues in the organization.

Sanjog Aul [00:53:55]:

On behalf of the show and our listeners, thank you so much, Sam, for sharing your views and strategies about becoming a figure it out leader. Thank you.

Samuel Sudhakar [00:54:04]:

You’re welcome. Thank you.

Sanjog Aul [00:54:06]:

And listeners, hope you enjoyed the conversation. We all need to become figure it out leaders because what the future holds and the way the faster future is coming ahead. Hope you enjoyed it. Listen to us through different podcasts we have available through iTunes, TuneIn, iHeart, Spotify, WesAmerica, you name it, and then also, of course, join us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Please stay tuned for the next segment next week. This is Sanjog Aul, your talk show host. Take care, and God bless.