Welcome to

CIO 101:
Successfully Navigating Your First Year as CIO

Please fill out the

“Getting to Know You” handout
as you wait for the session to begin.
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 CIO 101
Getting Ready to Be a CIO

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 2
 Key Actions

• Know yourself
• Do your homework
• Prepare your marketing strategy
• Navigate through bridge period
• Take control of your own learning

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 3
Know Yourself

Socrates

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 4
Be Authentic

• Identify own core values, principles

• Principles = values converted to
action
• Find values in lessons learned
• From difficulty, real life stories

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 5
Be Reflective

• Test yourself through real experiences

• Move from external to internal validity
• Reframe negative to positive
• Find how you rose above challenges
• Observe how you practiced values

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 6
Understand Your Style

• Know your DISC, MBTI

• Know how to compensate
• Lead from behind vs. in front
• Know when to swap

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 7
 Do Your Homework
Get Beyond the Rhetoric

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 8
Key Institutional Information

Formal:
o Institutional
strategic plan
o Admissions, capital materials
o University handbook
o Trustee reports, meeting minutes
o Org chart
o Alumni magazine

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 9
Key Institutional Information

Informal:
o Presidential doings/musings in the
news
o Princeton Review, rankings
o Chronicle, etc.
o Institutional, administrator, student
blogs

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 10
Key Departmental Documents

• Department strategic plan

• Annual reports
• Budgets
• Org chart
• Workflow, consultant, review reports
• Benchmarks

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 11
Prepare Your Marketing Strategy

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 12
 Map Vision To Position

• Control the buzz

• Establishes your authority
• Begin building your reputation
• Shape, correct others
perceptions

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

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 Elevator Speech #1

• Map strengths to institutional future

• Cite what you were hired to do
• Tell who you are professionally
o Vision
o Accomplishments
o Values, principles
o Traits
o First steps
Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101
EDUCAUSE 2008 14
 Elevator Speech #2

• Describe who you are as a person

• Map personal interests to
institutional future
• Be authentic
• Reveal a whole person
o Family
o Interests, hobbies
o Interesting idiosyncrasy

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Create your Bumper Sticker

• Bombardment of queries
• Develop an upbeat response

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

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 Putting It All Together

• Memorize elevator speeches

• Memorize bumper sticker

• Be prepared to cite ad nauseum

• Beware of reporters!

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

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Navigate Through Bridge Period

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 18
 New CIO Position

• Clarify expectations during interim

• Identify mentor in new administration
• Identify guide in new department
• Avoid making decisions

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

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Sidestep Potential Landmines

For unavoidable decisions:

o Listen to the facts
o Ask tough questions
o Provide guiding principles
o Allow interim team to make decision

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 Ending Position

• Groom interim management team

• Wrap up essential duties
• Take some risks
• Keep key files close at hand
• Reward yourself!

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Take Control of Your Learning

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

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 Self Development

• No one will hand you a learning plan

• Commit to lifelong leadership learning
• Stay familiar with skills of leadership
• Be dedicated to developing your
potential

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 23
 Training

• Frye Leadership Institute

• Educause seminars:
o Institute Management Program
o Institute Leadership Program
o Institute Learning Technology
Leadership Program
o Survival Training for New Managers
o Seminars in Academic Computing (SAC)
• Harvard Institutes for Higher
Education
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EDUCAUSE 2008 24
 Resources

• CIO 101 “Contacts and Resources”

Handout
• Read Educause publications
• Identify potential mentors
• Strengthen, work your network

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EDUCAUSE 2008 25
Getting Ready Exercise

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 Getting Ready Questions
1. Which people and experiences in your early life had the greatest
impact on you? What traits or qualities about them affected you?

2. What tools do you use to become self-aware? What is your authentic

self? What are the moments when you say to yourself, this is the real
me?

3. What are your most deeply held values? Where did they come from?
Have your values changed significantly since your childhood? How do
your values inform your actions?

4. What motivates you extrinsically? What are your intrinsic

motivations? How do you balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in
your life?

5. What are major professional accomplishments most qualify you to

become a CIO?

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 Getting Ready Questions (cont.)

6. What personal traits and experiences best describe you as an

individual apart from being a CIO?

7. Is your life integrated? Are you able to be the same person in

all aspects of your life—personal, work, family, and community?
If not, what is holding you back?

8. What does being authentic mean in your life? Are you more
effective as a leader when you behave authentically? Have you
ever paid a price for your authenticity as a leader? Was it worth
it?

9. What steps can you take today, tomorrow, and over the next
year to develop your authentic leadership?

Adapted from: George, Bill, et al. “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership. Harvard Business
Review. Reprint. February 2007, pp. 1-8

Joanne A. Schneider CIO 101

EDUCAUSE 2008 28
 CIO 101

Summer: Getting Acquainted!

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Getting To Know You!

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 Getting to Know
Your Office Staff
• Setting up the physical space
• How will your calendar be managed?
• How will phones be handled?
• Social expectations, birthdays, etc.
• Meeting the people who clean, deliver
mail, order supplies, etc.
• How is the budget process handled?

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 Invest in Your Own Leaders!

• Build on pre-employment information

o Review summaries
o Use notes from phone calls/interview
• Visit in each location
• Meet with leadership team
• Formal and Informal
• Assess need for immediate or crisis
management

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 Get to know all employees!

• Large vs Small Organization Strategies

• Methods
o Meet with leader and their employees
o Town Hall
o Open Office Hours
o Other???
• Have your sound bites ready
• Ask about a joy and a challenge

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Manage Expectations

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 Group Activity
(Directions Given in Session)
• Questions to consider
o How can a new CIO manage expectations?
o How will the new role differ from that of
a director? Or whatever previous role.
o How can you leave the old role behind.

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Governance

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 Connect with Your Boss(es)

• Initial meeting
• Use the top 10 issues as a discussion
point
• Meet individually with each person in
the executive group
• Establish some initial priorities
• Find ways to gather data and benchmark
• Work toward a set of goals

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 Governance

• Discover and analyze present governance

structures on campus
• Attend meetings for each constituency
o Faculty/Staff/Student Groups
• Examine and analyze governance
structures in your own division
• Establish advisory groups or rekindle them

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Gather Information

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 Culture

• You are not in Kansas anymore…

• Examine the culture
o Student or faculty centered?
o Team based or silos?
o Polite or Efficient
o Cutting edge or bleeding edge
o Quick adaptation/Slow to embrace
technology

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Assess Overall Communication

• How do others see your division?

• Do people you meet say that the division
communicates well?
o Outages
o New Initiatives
o Help Desk
o Licenses and Purchasing Equipment
o Crisis communication

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 Data???
• Which surveys have been done?
• What goals have been set for last year
and
for the coming year?
• What contracts are in place? Length?
• Review the core data from EDUCAUSE
• Establish benchmarks
• Insist on data-based decision making

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Charting Your Course!

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 Setting Your Own Agenda

• Be ready with some soundbites

• Identify strategic initiatives
• Set your own public and personal
agenda
• Don’t make big changes the first year if
you can avoid it
• Listen, Listen, Listen, then act

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 Dealing with the Media!

• Group Activity--Dealing with the media!

Directions will be given in the session

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Tips And Tools

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 Beware!

• First impressions often lie

• Make no promises
• Do not assure anyone that things
won’t change
• Respect chain of authority
• Realize the power with which you speak
• You can’t do it all the first year

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 What’s in your toolkit for
Summer?
• Mentor Contacts
• Peer Directory
• CIO Listserv
• EDUCAUSE Core
Data
• ECAR Membership
• Other tools???

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 CIO 101
Fall: Building Key Relationships

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 Key Actions In This Phase

• Identify and solidify key relationships

• Set goals, manage expectations
• Calibrate your communication style
• Balance continuity and change

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Identify and Solidify Key
Relationships

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 This Time, It’s Personal

Transition to senior management:

• From transactions to relationships
• From arms length to personal
• Trust as working capital

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 Identify and Solidify Key
Relationships

Start with a 360 degree scan

• Up: Trustees, your boss
• Side: Your peers
• Down: Your managers and staff

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 Trustees

• Do you have a trustee committee?

• Balance deference to your boss
• Understand how trustees
communicate and learn
• Consult with peers
• Learn the pecking order among the
trustees

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 Your Boss
(President, Provost, CFO)

• Learn how to communicate with your

boss
• Understand your boss’s agenda
• Use regular meetings to build a
relationship
• Consult with peers
• Importance of spouses and partners
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 Your New Peers

• Understand the formal pecking order

• Understand the informal pecking order
• You are the Secretary of Agriculture

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 Your New Peers

• Add value to the work of your peers

• Use lunch to build contacts
• Use dinner to build relationships
• Seek out the advice of your peers

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 Key Questions for the CFO

• How well has your area’s budget been

managed in the past?
• Are your budget priorities clear to the CFO
and the campus?
• Where are the pressure points in your
budget?
• Where are the pressure points in the
institution’s budget?
• How can the relationship with the CFO be
improved?
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 Your Managers
• Test your first impressions of them as
individuals
• Test your first impressions of them as a
team
• Settle on a one on one meeting schedule
• Settle on a group meeting schedule
• Use lunch to build relationships
• Seek out the advice of your managers

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 Your Staff
• Use one on one meetings
• Invite staff to lunch in groups
• Seek out the advice of your staff
• Memorize the names of your full staff

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 Your Executive Assistant

• Establish regular meeting schedule

• Clarify expectations:
o meeting setup,
o travel arrangements,
o who gets through to you
• Ask for clarifying questions

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 Identify and Solidify Key
Relationships

• Campus committees
• Campus task forces
• Informal groups, clubs, gatherings

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 Student Body

• Leverage campus committees

• Meet with the editors of the student
newspaper
• Invite students to periodic open
sessions

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 Your Professional Network

• Build a network of colleagues

• Seek counsel beyond your new
institution
• Seek colleagues at similar institutions
• Learn from the mistakes of others

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 Set Goals,
Manage Expectations

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 Set Goals,
Manage Expectations

• Review your initial personal plan

• Test understanding of your boss’s
expectations
• Seek out the advice of your peers

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 Set Goals,
Manage Expectations

• Review your initial personal plan

• Test understanding of your boss’s
expectations
• Seek out the advice of your peers

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 Calibrate Your
Communication Style

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 Calibrate Your
Communication Style

• Seek the advice of your peers

• Use your ‘elevator speech’
• Use your ‘bumper sticker’
• Test the effectiveness of your
narrative

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 Calibrate Your
Communication Style

Calibrate your communication style to

• Trustees
• Boss
• Peers
• Staff
• Student body
• Campus community
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Balance Continuity and
Change

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 Balance Continuity and
Change

• Calibrate changes with the culture

• Observe informal events, birthdays,
holidays
• Recognize successes before your
arrival
• Honor positive accomplishments
• Recognize exemplary staff

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 Exercise

Do a 360 degree scan

• Up: Trustees, Your boss
• Side: Your peers
• Down: Your managers and staff

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 Exercise Examples

Dimension Name How He/She Can How You Can Help Plan
Up, Side, Down Help You He/She

Side CFO Provide support in Provide business • Analyze budget

budget process intelligence before meeting
• Arrange meeting to
review budget
• Arrange lunch’
• Schedule regular,
brief update
meetings

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 CIO 101

Winter: The Business of Business

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Taking Stock – Solicit Midpoint Feedback
(individual and departmental)

• Solicit Feedback from peers

• Solicit Feedback from your supervisor
• Solicit Feedback from key constituents

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 Tighten Key Messages and
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

• Tighten up key departmental messages

and communicate to all constituents in
multiple forms
• Communicate early wins and project
successes broadly

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Did I Mention Communication?

• Assess progress on first-year projects

and focus efforts forward
• Assure that top projects are
appropriate and focus efforts on follow-
through and execution

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 Assess Team Development and
Your Perceptions of Individual
Team Members’ Strengths

• Do some team development work and

exercises
• Assess your initial perceptions of team
member alignment and strengths—
consider mid-point adjustments and
professional development needs

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 Know your people:
Relationships Building is Key
• Meet one-on-one again with key peers
and groups
• Focus on advancing relationships and
gaining mid-point input

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• Where are you on track?
• Are you off track anywhere?
• Do you have any unexpected needs?

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Begin Developing Your Budget Plan
and Strategy for the Next Fiscal Year

• Start cataloging your capital and

operating needs and planting seeds for
their support

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 Recharge Your Batteries and
Reset Your Perspectives
• Take time for a mid-point break
• Take a day to reflect on your progress
and your future goals and strategies

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 CIO 101

Spring: It’s all about assessment

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 Summary
Q2: Building Q3: Reviewing

Q1: Planning Q4: Assessing

Preparation: Learning

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 What Needs Assessing?

• Institutional Goals
• Organizational Structure
• Staff Performance
• Self

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What needs assessing?
Institutional Goals

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Institutional Goals Assessment

• Focus on departmental performance

• Build on previously established plans
and goals
• Engage staff participation
• Share with institution for relationship
building and expectation management

Resource: The Assessment Portfolio

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Tools for Spring

The Assessment Portfolio

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What Is an Assessment Portfolio?
• Comprehensive, but selective presentation
about the activities of an individual or a
business unit
• Opportunity to reflect on mission and goals
• Tool for documenting and benchmarking
performance
• Feedback to management team and institution

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Assessment Portfolio Content

• Introduction: mission, staffing, organization

• Goals and progress toward achievement
• Evidence of impact
• Unit contributions to division goals
• Areas needing improvement
• Significant accomplishments
• Preliminary goals for next year

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Assessment Portfolio Evidence

• Compilation of monthly service reports

• Problem-solution reports
• Policy statements
• Written comments from customers
• Summary evaluation reports of unit
events
• Commendations, awards received

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Assessment Portfolio Benefits

• Incorporates multiple assessments

• Engages department/unit
• Provides insight into department performance
• Builds a culture of assessment
• Gives visibility to administration and clients
• Enhances personal evaluations

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Assessment Portfolio Example

• http://sites.google.com/a/umb.edu/it-
portfolio/fy2008

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 Other Assessment Tools

• Balanced score card—translates unit’s

mission into tangible objectives and
measures
o Balances internal and external measures
o See UVA Library
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/bsc/index.html

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What needs assessing?
Organizational Structure

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Organizational Assessment
• Staff allocations: do you have enough staff?
• Skills gaps: do they have the right skills?
• Organizational structure: are they positioned
effectively in the organization?
• Benchmarking the organization
o Are you collecting the right data?
• Environmental scanning
• Organizational development goals

Resource: EDUCAUSE Core Data Survey

EDUCAUSE Current Issues

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Tools for Spring
Educause Core Data Survey

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 What is the Core Data Survey
• Launched in December 2002
• Conducted annually, 900+ respondents
• Captures “core” campus data for
benchmarking and peer comparison
o Organization, staffing, planning
o Finance
o Faculty and student computing
o Information systems
o Networking and security

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Using the Core Data Survey

• You gotta “pay to play”

• First time entry is complex, but
easier after that since it builds on
previous data
• Tools to create peer groups
• http://net.educause.edu/apps/coredata

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Tools for Spring

Educause Current Issues Report

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Using the Current Issues Report

• Published annually in May

• Snapshot of strategic issues
• Education of campus executives
• Benchmarking
• Planning ahead
• http://www.educause.edu/issues/

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What needs assessing?
Staff Performance

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Staff Performance Evaluations
• Understand your institutional system
• Ensure equitable application of the system
• BUT, standard evaluation form may not touch
on areas of key importance.
• May need to revise or supplement in order to
really improve staff performance.
• Set a tone of continuing improvement.
• Encourage professional development planning

Resource: The Four Pillars

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Tools for Q4
Manager Competency Planning
Grid

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 GMU Version:
The Four Pillars
• Leading and Managing People
o Customer relations, staff development etc.
• Knowing the Organization
o Policies, university plans, etc.
• Managing Resources
o Project management, budget management, etc.
• Communicating
o Meeting management, presentation, etc.

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 The Value Of Shared Value
• Developed collaboratively with IT/HR
• The process itself as important as results
• Reflects local sense of values for
managers as well as best practices
• Flexibility to use in multiple ways
o Performance reviews
o Program planning
o Career development

• http://pillars.gmu.edu

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What needs assessing?
Self

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 Self Assessment
• Assessment portfolio
o Review personal goals
o Reflect
o Identify gaps
o Determine new goals, needed skills
• Feedback from direct reports (be brave!)
o What do they need from you?
o Do they see your values in action?
Resources: The Administrative Portfolio

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 Self Assessment
• Time management
o Where are you spending most time? Is it on
the highest priority?
• Network enhancement
o External networking
o Virtual networking

Resources: Covey Time Matrix

10 Ways to Get LinkedIn to Work for You

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Tools for Spring
TIME MANAGEMENT MATRIX
There is never enough time to do everything,
but there is always time to do the most
important thing, provided you know what the
most important thing is.

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Covey’s Time Management Matrix

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Tools for Spring
Social Networking
More people have joined LinkedIn than live in Sweden.

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 Uses of Social Networks

• Enhanced contact list (constant updates)

• Hiring/recruiting tool
• Marketing/branding
• Gathering expertise
• Visibility in the community

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Using Social Networks Effectively

• Decide what you want to be known for

• Create a full profile emphasizing what
you want to be known for
• Contribute your expertise to the network
o Forums, groups, discussions
• Spend time updating and connecting

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 Spring Action Planning

• What tools do you want to explore further?

• What’s important in bringing the first year to a
successful close?

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