Transforming roles and reputations - what do you do when no one knows what you do?
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Everyone is keen to succeed when they start a new role, but what do you do when your role’s remit, reputation or relevance is unclear? Drawing on personal experience, this session will begin with the speakers sharing the challenges faced and lessons learned in starting new and contentious roles. They will identify the key practical steps they took to transform perceptions and generate engagement and support at every level, from students to senior management. There will then be an opportunity for small group discussions where participants can reflect on their own experiences and discuss show potential approaches might work for them. Following several rounds of discussions, the key points from each table will be presented to the whole group for a final collective discussion.
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Transforming roles and reputations - what do you do when no one knows what you do?
- 1. Welcome… Please sit next to someone you don’t yet know! Transforming Roles & Reputations: What do you do when no one knows what you do?
- 2. Jenny Medland What do you do when no one knows what you do? Transforming Roles & Reputations:
- 4. “If you were me, what would you focus attention on?” Establish the problems
- 6. • Do your research • What can you offer? • Now? • Later? The power of networking
- 7. • What do you do? • Why do they care? • Confidence! Pitch yourself
- 8. Convert findings into actions Seek feedback from manager and colleagues Communicate: What’s working or worked well? What’s working or worked less well? Re-communicate the goal/aim Action Plans
- 9. 1) What’s the networking culture at your institution? How could you benefit from it? 2) Why do people want to work with you & your role? e.g. what’s your ‘connection’ with them; what can you offer; what do you need? 3) How will your communicate your action plan? link back to Stakeholder mapping & what their priorities will be. QUESTIONS
Editor's Notes
- Icebreaker: Roxanne – sing/air punch to chorus? Snowstorm!
- Jenny – Student Experience Officer: New to the UOB, new(ish) role – predecessor had struggled to establish role with Faculty colleagues; Faculty weren’t terribly keen on role & didn’t really know what to do with it. Speak to my CV – where I’m from, how I got to this role etc. New unknown role…. New role I got for moving across different areas. The purpose of this presentation is to talk about my own experience and to provide you with tips and tricks on establishing, building and using your network to help in establishing your role when its remit, reputation or relevance is unclear. I’ll briefly outline my own experiences before giving you chance to work in small groups to discuss applicability to your experience, before a brief group discussion. Human connection – very strategic, but also this is how you meet & get on with peers. Community & collaboration.
- - All discussion will be confidential – a chance for you to be honest, share your experiences and perspectives.
- Start by working out why you’re there. What was the business case for your hire - is it to generate ideas? Support colleagues? Meet external regulations (me!)? What’s the benefit of your role to your immediate team/area – where do you make the difference? For me, as I was new to the institution and hired to meet external regs, I had to look at my immediate Faculty surroundings and make the difference – did so by identifying the gaps and seeing where I could fill them. Overall its time (“this would be a good idea, but I don’t have time to do it/I see this problem, and have the time to address it”) and linking up different areas. What are you trying to make? What you trying to do? Particularly in HE which can get a bit woolly. Establish expectations with your boss: Ask who the key players are – and what you should ask them Identify some easy wins for yourself – confidence boost, demonstrate your worth. Establish and communicate clear priorities – SMART targets etc. Unpick & explain. For me there were equivalent SEOs (ensure explain acronyms!) in other Faculties who Support network Collaborative projects – can achieve more Advice/commiseration Both had been at the Uni previously, so were able to advise! Dependent on your role/experience, might also be useful to do this with colleagues or other stakeholders – mine were students, so I ran a few focus groups with students around key events/priorities (Induction) and linked in with our SU. Ensured I was linked to the key stakeholders.
- Be tactical in approaching meetings – do you want to stop/start/continue work in the area? What kind of involvement do you want from the other person? Identifying party poopers – and how to overcome/Advocates and how to utilise. Raise awareness of kind of people you’d be interacting with – communicate to fit the style/preferences of the person – are they detail focused? Blue sky thinker? Four colors – ICS. Which ‘colour’ does the person fit in? How do you appeal to them? Tactical. Remember the attendees might not have
- - Get a feel for the company dynamic/communication patterns – how does networking work (at my place you can schedule one-on-one coffee meetings & pick people’s brains)? Does your line manager want details or the big picture? Helps you be confident that you’re taking the right steps. Spot the high performers and use them as role models. “Every organization is different, which means the key attributes of top performers in those organizations are different, too. Maybe the top performers work more – or different – hours. Maybe relationship building is more important than transactional selling. Maybe flexibility is more important than methodology. Pick out the top performers and study them. Figure out what makes them tick. How they approach problems. How they make decisions.” Don’t reinvent the wheel/make more work for yourself – learn from others examples. Helps boost your confidence that you’re behaving appropriately When meeting people Think about what you want to get from the conversation – ideas? Face to a name? Specific actions? Other people to contact? Face to face over/instead email? Appropriate comms. Look at the big picture – how can your role contribute down the line? Where do you want to go/develop your skills? Think ahead – where might a task/responsibility lead you? How does it link in with other areas, either within your department or across the institution? Begin by establishing your place in the bigger picture & increasing visibility of your role Who else might I want to talk to? - JM: The ‘gap’ seemed to be in linking up different areas – people stayed in silos. My role is to bring areas together for more productive collaboration, and to ‘plug gaps’ (placement fund). - How can you be a resource for colleagues? Time, contacts, ideas,
- Before you set out to meet anyone, develop a 30-second pitch that concisely explains your role and responsibilities, followed by three bullet points that describe why your new contacts should seek you out. You could say, for example, “I’m the new senior supply chain manager, responsible for supplier sourcing, strategic planning, and quality control. Come directly to me whenever you need help with pricing or supplier negotiations or if you have a question about the global commodities market.” Share your commercial whenever you meet new colleagues to educate them about your new role, the value that you add, and why they should come to you. Can you help them? Lucky in my role I get a lot of flexibility – did some data analysis for a colleague which lead to a place developing business engagement strategies. Follow up after meetings/coffee cooler conversations etc. Example of pitching yourself: I’m Jenny, the Faculty’s Student Experience Officer, responsible for leading & contributing to projects & initiatives focused on improving students academic and extracurricular learning experience. Come to me if you want someone to support or run a relevant project (previously I’ve worked on X, Y, Z) or if you’ve a question about the resources available across the institution. Why did I apply in the first time – what intersests did it meet? What skills developed? Journey. Remember to listen too.
- To be successful at your job, you need to take your key findings and convert those into actionable items. This will empower you to carefully review with your manager and peers how you plan on doing your job. It also provides everyone an opportunity to provide you feedback, and they won’t be surprised by how you are approaching your new role. At the same time, you are also increasing your value to the company because you are providing people the opportunity to contribute and collaborate with you. Every plan is going to be different based on the problems and role, but try to clearly state the problems, solutions, and vision you have. Share your plan with all the same people that gave you valuable feedback previously and refine it until it truly addresses the needs of the organization. What would you concede on? What won’t you concede on?
- All very well me saying what worked for me – these questions are designed to get you thinking about what might work for you, in the specific context of your institution etc. When you do me do X that’s your indicator that we’re nearly ready to stop. Icebreaker-style Build your pitch! Stakeholder mapping? Who are the key players? How is best to get in contact? Use handouts – put on the table live. Tips (3) from the groups. Takeaway. Network? Sign-up list/mailing list. Key takeaways: research your company networking culture & work out how best to capitalise on it? Need to make this punchy!