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How to Be a Super Tech Leader
7/1/2008
"The institute really catapulted me to the next level of understanding IT from the viewpoint of the campus," she says. "How often in mid-career do you get a chance to make 40 or 50 new best friends who are specialists in your area and who are available to you 24/7?" Now when Gorney-Moreno needs feedback, she posts it to the Frye listserv and gets responses within hours.Secret #6: Form Partnerships, Build Coalitions
The first project Gorney-Moreno faced in her new role was a redesign of the university's website. As a first step, she put together an advisory board for the discovery process, with 12 individuals representing every major constituency on campus. Because she had served in the senate and knew the "players," when she called, they signed on. Gorney-Moreno advises: "Demonstrate early on that you're consensus-building; that you're not a silo maker; and that everybody can sit at your table and share their opinions."
Secret #7: Think Mentoring 2.0
Traditionally, newcomers to a field seek out experienced members to advise and provide guidance on career and organizational matters. Commonly, female professionals seek other females to serve in that capacity. Gorney-Moreno didn't exactly go that route.
In truth, the dearth of women in her field put her off at first. "I remember the first big IT event that I attended," she recalls. "There were about 100 people in the room; six were women. My first thought was: Can I do this? Is this a battle I want to fight?"
What kept her going was that in a university setting, people are used to sharing information. Then, at a DAT meeting in San Diego, she met James Frazee, an associate director of instructional technology at San Diego State University who looked like a young "surfer dude," but was working on his doctorate in IT. Unexpectedly, he became her mentor.
"Had I gone into it looking for a mentor, I would have picked someone older," says Gorney-Moreno. "But he was very bright, with outstanding ideas, doing great things, and [representing] a unit that was obviously making more progress than San Jose State at that time." She brought Frazee to San Jose to consult with her team members about how they could develop their 21st century skills. Frazee (now in a director position) and his protégé have since reversed roles many times: Gorney-Moreno, for instance, helped Frazee's group understand the finer points of setting up a laptop program, an initiative she launched several years ago. "It really has been a reciprocal relationship," she maintains. "Sometimes he's the mentor and sometimes I am."
Secret #8: Exploit Your Superpowers
Gorney-Moreno admits that much of her career success has resulted from "being in the right place at the right time-- and having people know you have a set of skills." But she's also taken on projects with which she had no direct experience, and she's made them work by tapping other powers she's developed throughout her career. One of those powers came from a lesson she picked up at Frye: to know how to create an "elevator" speech-- a short, powerful snapshot of what you're trying to get across. Without this skill, it's exceedingly hard to move projects forward, or sell them internally. "Wherever I move about the campus, I recite the same mantra," she says, "until people really understand what I'm about and what I want to do."
Exploiting all the powers she's collected in her toolbox pays off for the campus, and for her own personal career development, she says. "Every two years, the campus comes up with a new challenge, and I get to educate myself in a totally new field."
Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business. Send your higher education technology news to her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.
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