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017 - Sitting in the Big Kid's Chair for the First Time | Tanya Massey [Feature Topic]
4 Plays2 years ago
We start the New Year off with Tanya Massey, who about six months ago began her new role as the Senior Managing Director for University Student Housing at Texas Tech University. To mark her first-time accession to the SHO role, Tanya shares going through the candidate process, the experience of sitting in the "big kid chair". While this episode will certainly be beneficial to our region's mid-level professionals, professionals of all levels will benefit from Tanya's nuggets of insight demonstrating how all things are scalable between position levels.
Download the Reflection Guide! (forthcoming) - If you put anything into action from the Podcast, please consider sharing it via swacuhopodcast@gmail.com and you may get featured on an upcoming episode.
Seeking professional advice? Fill out this anonymous form and a panel of housing staff will give you their take on your situation on an upcoming podcast.
Resources Mentioned:
005 - Reflections on Professional Families [Podcast Episode]
015 - Reflections on the New Professional Experience [Podcast Episode]
Recommended![025 - Fun Topics from the ACUHO-I Community Forum | Joel Gatti [Feature Topic] image](https://media.zencastr.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=112,quality=85/image-files/605db9539a00e40074826685/733e7e3d-9d73-4dce-9fd9-65d29d14b4dd.)
Transcript
Professional Development Idea
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Swakuhot Podcast.
00:00:04
Speaker
Before we begin today, I have to share something neat I recently learned.
00:00:08
Speaker
Carly Smith at Texas A&M inserted a, quote, popcorn and podcast session in their staff professional development series, where they listened to episode two individually and then got together to talk about the episode content.
00:00:21
Speaker
Here are a few quotes from Carly given to me in an email exchange about it.
00:00:26
Speaker
She said, we had our first popcorn and podcast yesterday with our staff and it was so, so good.
00:00:32
Speaker
We all listened to episode two and then put together some discussion questions.
00:00:36
Speaker
There were 20-ish people there, and it was such a good conversation and just a good time to connect with each other.
00:00:42
Speaker
Even the people who didn't listen or didn't finish the episode could jump into the conversation.
00:00:47
Speaker
This has been officially added to our Pro Devo series mix.
00:00:51
Speaker
And personally, and most importantly for supervisors out there, I want to share this other thing that she said.
00:00:57
Speaker
This was so simple for me to put together, so I really think everyone should be doing it.
00:01:02
Speaker
And that's the point.
00:01:03
Speaker
Swakuho is providing more content for professional development on a smaller scale, whether it is the podcast or social media posts or the blog, professional development menus.
00:01:13
Speaker
So take advantage of these things.
00:01:14
Speaker
They are simple and small and already made for you.
00:01:18
Speaker
All you have to do is to direct yourself or others to take advantage.
00:01:23
Speaker
Since we are still creating reflection guides for past podcasts, Carly agreed for her discussion questions to be uploaded.
00:01:29
Speaker
So episode two now has a reflection guide.
00:01:31
Speaker
If you facilitate a podcast book club, send me your questions and I'll get them posted, giving you full attribution, of course.
Transition to Senior Housing Officer Roles
00:01:39
Speaker
But now on to today's episode.
00:01:41
Speaker
Because everything is transferable skills in campus housing, today's episode is applicable to all housing staff, but may be of particular interest to our mid-level professionals looking to ascend to the SHO role sometime in the future.
00:01:55
Speaker
Today we are discussing serving in the SHO role for the first time, specifically talking about transferring specific skills to broader application at higher levels and being able to mentally project yourself into the role you wish to occupy.
Tanya Massey's Challenges at Texas Tech
00:02:08
Speaker
Since our guest is less than one year into her first role as a senior housing officer, we're going to dive into the actual experience of sitting in the big kid's chair for the first time and how she got there.
00:02:19
Speaker
To help us achieve this goal, our guest today is Tanya Massey, who took her kiddo on a college tour and something strange happened.
00:02:26
Speaker
She decided she wanted to go there too.
00:02:29
Speaker
And so it went that she applied for the Senior Managing Director for University Student Housing at the same school her son decided to attend for college, Texas Tech University.
00:02:39
Speaker
The fear of rejection and the worry of moving the whole family away from the familiar is strong.
00:02:44
Speaker
But as Chris Stapleton says, quote,
00:02:47
Speaker
Nobody wins afraid of losing, and the hard roads are the ones worth choosing.
00:02:53
Speaker
So after 16 years, Tanya and her family decided to take a chance and move to West Texas.
00:02:58
Speaker
Tanya, welcome back to the show.
00:03:01
Speaker
Thanks, JC.
00:03:02
Speaker
It's good to be here.
00:03:04
Speaker
We're so glad to have another repeat guest.
00:03:07
Speaker
Yeah, when you emailed me about doing this, I thought, do they really want to listen to me again?
00:03:13
Speaker
Well, and I think I've also started to show, but maybe my network's drying up.
00:03:17
Speaker
I got to go back to the big hitters.
00:03:20
Speaker
So first things first, Tanya, do you consider this your very public six-month performance self-evaluation?
00:03:27
Speaker
Well, you know, pretty close to it.
00:03:29
Speaker
I started July 15th, and so I am hitting that six-month mark, or pretty close to it, but it has been a phenomenal six months.
00:03:39
Speaker
Good.
00:03:40
Speaker
Well, and more importantly, was your first order of business when you got there to change your son's room assignment to be a broom closet to ensure there was no perception of favoritism?
00:03:51
Speaker
You know, it's really funny.
00:03:53
Speaker
He lived in a learning community for education.
00:03:56
Speaker
That's his major.
00:03:57
Speaker
And when I talked to parents and they walked
00:04:00
Speaker
The really nice suites that we have or the high-end housing, they're like, well, your son wouldn't live there.
00:04:06
Speaker
And I'm like, well, my kid lives in Hewlin.
00:04:08
Speaker
It is a double-loaded corridor, two people to a room, nothing fancy because I think I really value that experience.
00:04:18
Speaker
Well, good.
00:04:18
Speaker
The real old-timers there speaking out from all the double-corridor gang bathroom days and the development your son's getting.
00:04:26
Speaker
Well, well done.
00:04:28
Speaker
So, Tanya, let's start.
Career Ladders in Housing Departments
00:04:30
Speaker
What the heck is the difference between a senior managing director for university student housing and a director of student housing?
00:04:38
Speaker
I think some of that has to do with the way that Texas Tech aligns their titles.
00:04:43
Speaker
My predecessor, Sean Dugan, who is a longtime known in the profession and phenomenal setup that he left me with, but he was a managing director.
00:04:55
Speaker
When they were going to repost the position upon his retirement, they did some alignment for budget and the scope of our department within the TTU structure.
00:05:05
Speaker
And that put my position at a senior managing director.
00:05:09
Speaker
And so would you have applied for the job if the senior part wasn't a part of the title?
00:05:14
Speaker
Oh, I don't know.
00:05:15
Speaker
I mean, it does seem more daunting that way.
00:05:18
Speaker
But I do think, you know, there were some really great things that
00:05:22
Speaker
We talked about in my interview, but we've also been able to do in the past six months.
00:05:27
Speaker
And some of that is I want every job in our department to have a career ladder.
00:05:34
Speaker
And so in doing that realignment and changing my title, I was able to also be part of a conversation with Dionne Green, who was our senior associate managing director and convert her title to managing director.
00:05:51
Speaker
because of her scope and her length of service here and just have the chance to be able to honor that work.
00:05:57
Speaker
And so I appreciate that the university structure lets us do that.
00:06:03
Speaker
So I guess my real question is, do you think Sean would have retired if they had given him a title bump?
00:06:08
Speaker
Oh, I don't know.
00:06:09
Speaker
I think he, you know, his wife had retired a couple of years before from teaching school.
00:06:15
Speaker
So I think he's ready.
00:06:17
Speaker
You know,
00:06:18
Speaker
I think he lives on Instagram and sleeps till 930 every day.
00:06:24
Speaker
Well, well-deserved, well-deserved.
00:06:26
Speaker
I just thought he was going to love it because he and I have been playing phone tag about catching lunch and catching up, but we have not been able to do that yet.
00:06:36
Speaker
So speaking of Sean, how frequently do you call Sean asking him to explain something to you that he left behind?
00:06:42
Speaker
Only once.
Support During Transition to Texas Tech
00:06:44
Speaker
Good.
00:06:44
Speaker
Only done it once.
00:06:46
Speaker
Usually I call more about, hey, I need a doctor.
00:06:49
Speaker
What does Amy recommend?
00:06:51
Speaker
Or where's this in town?
00:06:54
Speaker
And he's like, I don't know.
00:06:54
Speaker
I stay in the loop.
00:06:57
Speaker
But they have been great support for us.
00:07:01
Speaker
One of his close friends was our realtor.
00:07:03
Speaker
Another one of his close friends works at the public school system and helped my husband when he was looking for a job.
00:07:10
Speaker
So
00:07:11
Speaker
Sean and his circle of friends have adopted us and made our transition very smooth.
00:07:17
Speaker
Oh, that's nice.
00:07:19
Speaker
I always love thinking and laughing about job titles sometimes.
00:07:23
Speaker
And a number of years ago, there was actually like a higher education job title generator that would just randomly make these job titles and then put like a projected salary based on how prestigious it appeared or whatever.
00:07:36
Speaker
And some of these job titles that take up two to three lines on a business card just make me smile like what the decision making behind all that was.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yes.
00:07:46
Speaker
Well, and within our system, we have several directors that report up to managing directors.
00:07:52
Speaker
So it's a different setup within the system.
00:07:56
Speaker
And I think it's kind of interesting, but the title is, you know, we use a lot of section supervisors and lead supervisor titles as well.
00:08:05
Speaker
Nice.
00:08:07
Speaker
So you talked about the responsibilities.
00:08:10
Speaker
Give our listeners a 30 second rundown of your responsibilities.
Department Responsibilities at Texas Tech
00:08:14
Speaker
Sure.
00:08:14
Speaker
So our department has kind of three main functions.
00:08:17
Speaker
Our operations area, which includes facilities, housekeeping, pest control, warehouse work, some construction work.
00:08:26
Speaker
We have a full trades area within that department.
00:08:29
Speaker
We actually have our own upholstery staff and they reupholster furniture on a regular basis for us.
00:08:35
Speaker
So we have that area.
00:08:36
Speaker
We have our traditional residence life area.
00:08:38
Speaker
That includes our summer camps and conferences, our student intervention, case management work, and our academic support, as well as our leadership and traditional hall staff.
00:08:51
Speaker
And then we have our administrative and business services area.
00:08:53
Speaker
That is our occupancy, finance, IT, marketing.
00:08:58
Speaker
A lot of our enrollment management partnerships are also tied within that area.
00:09:02
Speaker
That's a lot.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty fun.
00:09:05
Speaker
And Tanya, you've worked, correct me if I'm wrong, you've worked at only three schools full-time in your career prior to this.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yes.
00:09:13
Speaker
So do you think you're an example of longevity, providing depth of experience compared to moving around a whole bunch to get breadth of experience?
Career Depth vs. Diverse Experiences
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think some of that is a balance of what your personal life looks like as well as your professional life.
00:09:30
Speaker
For me, we had committed that we would not search for jobs when we had a child in high school.
00:09:37
Speaker
And so Garrett graduating gave me this perfect little window of I have a year and a half.
00:09:42
Speaker
If I want to look, this is the time to look.
00:09:44
Speaker
But I do think I've always worked at land grant institutions until now.
00:09:50
Speaker
But while Texas Tech is not a traditional land grant, it operates a lot like that.
00:09:55
Speaker
We are the main higher ed institution in West Texas.
00:09:59
Speaker
And so I think it still has some of those fields.
00:10:02
Speaker
But I do think, you know, there's something to be said for longevity.
00:10:06
Speaker
It gives you a lot of history.
00:10:09
Speaker
I go to our longstanding employees and say, hey, can I have context on this?
00:10:13
Speaker
Or can you give me background of why we made these decisions?
00:10:17
Speaker
But I've never been one that wants to up and move because I think I'm just losing all that equity in my house every time I have to buy or sell.
00:10:26
Speaker
Always the planner you are, Tanya.
00:10:28
Speaker
That's right.
00:10:29
Speaker
I love land-grant schools, the people's college.
00:10:32
Speaker
That's right.
00:10:34
Speaker
You said you had this small window.
00:10:36
Speaker
And given that Sean Dugan had been at Texas Tech for some 30 years, it probably wasn't a surprise that he was going to be retiring sometime in the future.
00:10:44
Speaker
Were you kind of patiently waiting and hoping that he was going to retire within this year and a half window you had?
00:10:49
Speaker
Or were you patiently waiting for other things to open up?
00:10:53
Speaker
No, you know, I had not thought anything about working at Texas Tech until we, Garrett had narrowed his school choices down to four final schools.
00:11:04
Speaker
And we were trying to tour them all at the last little bit of his senior year to make some final decisions.
00:11:11
Speaker
And he had applied to them.
00:11:12
Speaker
And we were down here in September, had dinner with Sean.
00:11:16
Speaker
And he said, hey, I'm retiring in January.
00:11:19
Speaker
You should apply for my job.
00:11:21
Speaker
And I told him, I said, I can't do that, Sean.
00:11:23
Speaker
This is Garrett's school.
00:11:24
Speaker
You know, I'm not ready for this.
00:11:27
Speaker
And I think that's where some of that imposter syndrome comes in.
00:11:30
Speaker
You have to think about, well, I do have this skill set.
00:11:34
Speaker
I do have this knowledge base.
00:11:35
Speaker
Maybe I should look at it.
00:11:37
Speaker
I had been thinking for about a year of what my next transition was going to look like.
00:11:42
Speaker
But it was more of a question of, do I pivot out of higher ed to stay in Stillwater where I had established a strong family connection and had a good family support network?
00:11:55
Speaker
Or do we move the family?
00:11:57
Speaker
And I think that's a debate everybody has to have is, is this the right move for all of us?
00:12:03
Speaker
And what does this look like?
00:12:05
Speaker
when you're moving a spouse, when you're moving kids in school that are well-established within their community.
00:12:11
Speaker
I just think it's interesting to think about the patient, you need more patients the further up you're trying to move because there's less positions, there's less openings, they come open less frequently.
00:12:21
Speaker
And that, you know, sitting around thinking about like, who's going to retire next or who might possibly be job searching that I think that's on a lot of people's minds is when they're trying to project out their next steps.
00:12:33
Speaker
Well, you know, Henry Ford says, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right.
00:12:38
Speaker
And I think, you know, looking at what that next leap of faith looks like, you have to kind of reimagine and really rely on your circle to kind of cheer you on in that.
00:12:51
Speaker
And I think that's part of it is having good peers and mentors that will say, hey, you are ready.
00:12:57
Speaker
And this is why, like, remember when you did this?
00:12:59
Speaker
And I think as I prepared for it,
00:13:02
Speaker
you know, the interview process and going through what that looks like.
00:13:07
Speaker
I had a lot of people that were telling me, hey, don't forget who you are.
00:13:12
Speaker
And I think that's the important thing is you have to remember who you are.
00:13:15
Speaker
You have to remember what your skill set is.
00:13:18
Speaker
And then you have to, you know, rely on that strength.
00:13:21
Speaker
Definitely.
00:13:23
Speaker
And like you said, when Sean originally contacted you, you're like, I can't do this.
00:13:27
Speaker
It's like,
00:13:27
Speaker
Well, you're the person removing you from the process before it even begins.
00:13:31
Speaker
And I know I've talked to a number of people, even on this podcast before.
00:13:34
Speaker
It's like, you can always pull out later, but you can't put yourself in after the fact.
00:13:39
Speaker
And don't negotiate against yourself, I guess.
00:13:43
Speaker
That's true.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
Let other people make that decision for you, even though then it becomes more public.
00:13:49
Speaker
So you were at Oklahoma State for what, about 16 years?
00:13:52
Speaker
Yes.
00:13:54
Speaker
When your current job at Texas Tech Posted,
00:13:57
Speaker
Did you have to scramble to remember 16 years worth of stuff or did you regularly update your resume and make tweaks along the way?
00:14:05
Speaker
I had updated a resume when I joined school board, but it was not very in-depth at that point.
00:14:13
Speaker
And, you know, you and I have talked about Derek Jackson and how I really trust him as a mentor.
00:14:19
Speaker
He once told me that he kept
Resume Update with Spelman Johnson
00:14:21
Speaker
a resume in his binder.
00:14:22
Speaker
And every time he got a new assignment, a new committee, he would write that on the back of his resume and then update it annually.
00:14:31
Speaker
I did not do that.
00:14:33
Speaker
So it took me an entire weekend of sitting down and trying to do that.
00:14:38
Speaker
And it really helped that my job search was facilitated through Spelman Johnson's
00:14:42
Speaker
And they have a very specific way that they want your resume.
00:14:47
Speaker
So doing that in that format helped me kind of align and give me a starting point to get it pulled together.
00:14:55
Speaker
Well, tell me, please, and listeners need to know, did you put on your resume when you were updating it that you were a guest of episode six on this podcast?
00:15:06
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yes.
00:15:08
Speaker
JC, I totally forgot about that.
00:15:10
Speaker
I didn't do that.
00:15:13
Speaker
I feel like I could have doubled my salary if I had alluded to my radio work with you.
00:15:21
Speaker
Missed opportunity.
00:15:22
Speaker
Lesson learned for everybody out there.
00:15:24
Speaker
Next time.
00:15:25
Speaker
I'm going to update my resume tonight just with that information.
00:15:28
Speaker
Just in case.
00:15:29
Speaker
Draw your binder that Derek Jackson told you to have and write podcasts now twice.
00:15:35
Speaker
Given your new position was much more expansive in terms of responsibilities, what did you really focus on or lean into with your application materials to demonstrate your ability to lead such an expansive department?
00:15:47
Speaker
I think I'm a learner.
00:15:48
Speaker
or I have a curiosity about things in general.
00:15:52
Speaker
So I had not had just a traditional res life experience.
00:15:55
Speaker
I had, you know, done a lot of work in human resources.
00:15:58
Speaker
I had spent a lot of time working with enrollment management in my last position.
00:16:02
Speaker
Plus I had some construction process under my belt.
00:16:05
Speaker
So I really did focus on not having just res life experience, but having a breadth of knowledge about the overall department and really understanding
00:16:15
Speaker
kind of tying all of that back to our main job is to serve students.
00:16:19
Speaker
And it does not matter what your role is within the department.
00:16:23
Speaker
The impact on the student is what matters.
Managing Larger Budgets at Texas Tech
00:16:26
Speaker
And so really relying on that, you know, I spent some time thinking about and really deep diving into budget review, which I had done a little bit in my human resources work, but the budget for our department is significantly larger.
00:16:40
Speaker
And so how do you manage that?
00:16:43
Speaker
How do you scale up?
00:16:44
Speaker
when you're used to this small budget, but now you're going to a really large budget.
00:16:49
Speaker
And I think just really making sure that you understand the language, that you're capable of really talking about all of your experience and what that looks like, but that you also are aware these are my learning areas.
00:17:01
Speaker
These are areas that I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with staff.
00:17:04
Speaker
And a lot of it, from institution to institution, things change.
00:17:09
Speaker
account, how you title an account changes, how you title processes, some of those things.
00:17:15
Speaker
And so really, I think your first couple of months are a lot of listening and looking around.
00:17:24
Speaker
And, you know, I think that's one of the things that really I focused on is I made a hundred year or a hundred day plan.
00:17:32
Speaker
And I had a very clear intention of how I was going to spend my first hundred
00:17:37
Speaker
Really, it's kind of like 150 days.
00:17:39
Speaker
But what I was going to do in that time to set myself up for success.
00:17:45
Speaker
I mean, Tanya, I know you're a planner, but even for you, a hundred year plan sounds a little ambitious.
00:17:52
Speaker
I wouldn't hold it against you, but... Yeah, that's a little more than I can do.
00:17:56
Speaker
A little full of yourself, maybe.
00:17:58
Speaker
But a hundred days, you know, a hundred days of deep diving into everything I can to make sure that...
00:18:06
Speaker
When I sit down and say, this is where I want us to move, I am doing that with a lot of intentionality and with a really clear understanding of my team and my student population and the structure of our department.
00:18:21
Speaker
And on what day of those hundred days did the wheels come off the wagon and the plan went out the window?
00:18:28
Speaker
Well, you know, the plan's still in place at this point.
00:18:30
Speaker
Nice.
00:18:31
Speaker
You know, I really wanted to spend the first couple of weeks, months,
00:18:36
Speaker
looking.
00:18:37
Speaker
I walked every building on our campus.
00:18:39
Speaker
I walked every floor.
00:18:41
Speaker
I went in student rooms before they got here.
00:18:43
Speaker
I spent a lot of time just, you know, popping into staff meetings across the department, but just observing and making notes kind of internally in my head about what I was thinking.
00:18:54
Speaker
And then I kind of did a listening tour where I met with our mid-level staff.
00:18:59
Speaker
And I just actually finished that up the other week.
00:19:02
Speaker
but really
First 100-Day Plan as a Leader
00:19:03
Speaker
listening to them.
00:19:03
Speaker
And I asked all of them three questions.
00:19:06
Speaker
What do you love about your job?
00:19:08
Speaker
What would you change about your job?
00:19:10
Speaker
And what do you wish your supervisor knew about you or the work you do?
00:19:13
Speaker
And that wasn't a, you know, rat out your supervisor.
00:19:16
Speaker
It was, I think we all take on work that our supervisor may or may not understand how we do that work.
00:19:23
Speaker
And so really trying to understand that I got to go around and meet all of our housekeeping teams and spend some time with them.
00:19:30
Speaker
And then
00:19:31
Speaker
From there, I want to make sure that I'm learning.
00:19:34
Speaker
I got to learn how to do packages at a front desk, how to operate a KIVAC, really spending a lot of time just learning the ins and outs of the department.
00:19:44
Speaker
You know, if something happens and we are shut down, can I answer the phone up front with confidence about what the housing signup process looks like?
00:19:53
Speaker
And then I think
00:19:54
Speaker
After that, that's where you start the real true leadership is leading your team to where you want to go next because you have all this knowledge base.
00:20:04
Speaker
So is it your professional opinion that everybody should work the front desk for a minimum an hour a week?
00:20:10
Speaker
I totally support that.
00:20:12
Speaker
I think as you move up, you disconnect from some of those low-level things.
00:20:17
Speaker
But ultimately, as the director, you're responsible for everything that goes on in your department.
00:20:23
Speaker
And if you don't understand it,
00:20:25
Speaker
How do you help work through that?
00:20:27
Speaker
If you don't understand what the process looks like or the impact it has on your staff team or the students in your building, I think it makes it hard for you to really be able to voice change or to say, this is why we do things the way we do.
00:20:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:44
Speaker
Well, and if problems are truly best solved at the lowest possible level, if you don't understand the processes or the barriers to being successful in that level, then how do you
00:20:54
Speaker
accomplish anything really.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:56
Speaker
Well, and think about, you know, you and I have worked a desk as a undergrad student at some point in our career, but that was before the days of Amazon.
00:21:04
Speaker
And you think about how much stuff comes in from a package standpoint in our desk, in our older buildings, they're not designed to store mass quantities of packages or how you check them in and check them out.
00:21:20
Speaker
And so, you know, there are systems that have evolved to help with some of those things, but our building design hasn't necessarily evolved as fast or we're using buildings that were put in place before that.
00:21:32
Speaker
And you can't really know that until you're actually in that and doing that process.
00:21:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:38
Speaker
Go work the package room on Black Friday these days in an old building and you're going to see all the failures of foresight that nobody could have anticipated.
00:21:46
Speaker
Very true.
00:21:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:49
Speaker
You mentioned this was done through Spelman Johnson or it was facilitated, the hiring or the recruitment was facilitated through Spelman Johnson.
00:21:56
Speaker
What are your candid thoughts on outsourcing hiring to a company?
00:22:01
Speaker
You know, I think it depends on what your staff structure looks like.
00:22:05
Speaker
If you have the internal capacity to do that, I always think your department knows your department best.
00:22:12
Speaker
And
00:22:13
Speaker
So in some ways, if you have capacity to do a big search and to do all the reference checks and follow through with all of that, that's great.
00:22:23
Speaker
If you don't, that's where a search engine or a search company really can kind of come in and do that legwork for you.
00:22:30
Speaker
You know, I won't say that it felt significantly different other than, you know, some of the initial screening process.
00:22:36
Speaker
But I think it really just depends on how your department is set up and what that looks like for you.
00:22:42
Speaker
Okay.
Interview Strategy Insights
00:22:43
Speaker
Let's talk about your interview process.
00:22:45
Speaker
Did you get to pick your interview time slot from a selection of options?
00:22:51
Speaker
I did.
00:22:52
Speaker
So let's overthink this for a few minutes.
00:22:55
Speaker
If you were given five options to pick from over the course of, say, a two-week period, when would you pick to interview?
00:23:02
Speaker
Would you go first, in the middle, or would you want to be last?
00:23:07
Speaker
I think ideally I would like to be first or last.
00:23:11
Speaker
And why is that?
00:23:12
Speaker
Well, I think if you're first, you're the first impression they have.
00:23:16
Speaker
And so you set the bar.
00:23:17
Speaker
I think if you're last, you provide them a solid wrap up and you're the fresh candidate in their mind.
00:23:24
Speaker
I was in the middle because that's what worked.
00:23:27
Speaker
Based on my schedule, I was given three options.
00:23:31
Speaker
And it was really interesting that I had a school board that backed up to one of them.
00:23:36
Speaker
And then one of them overlapped Connect Tech, which is kind of an admitted student's day here.
00:23:42
Speaker
And I was already going to be here with Garrett.
00:23:44
Speaker
And I thought that would be really awkward to leave my child to go interview.
00:23:49
Speaker
And so I chose the middle one as part of the process.
00:23:55
Speaker
Well, and our small data sample size here proves that the middle worked out okay.
00:24:00
Speaker
It does.
00:24:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:24:03
Speaker
I don't know.
00:24:04
Speaker
I would really trust that in a large sample data size, but...
00:24:10
Speaker
Again, overthinking way too much.
00:24:12
Speaker
I think if it was like a small window to choose from, like less than a week, I'd want to go first to set the bar.
00:24:19
Speaker
But if it's over like an extended period of time over two weeks, I think I'd want to go last as to be like the most memorable, the most recent impression.
00:24:26
Speaker
Sure.
00:24:27
Speaker
But it's fun to think about, especially when I'm not actually interviewing for anything.
00:24:32
Speaker
It's always fun to think about these things when they don't actually apply to you.
00:24:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:24:36
Speaker
You didn't have to give a presentation, but I imagine we have both sat through a number of presentations or open forums, either in housing or across student affairs for leadership position.
00:24:47
Speaker
If you had to give a presentation, what would be a piece of advice for prepping for a job interview presentation you'd give?
00:24:53
Speaker
One of the things that stick out to me is sometimes in presentations, you can see that people aren't reading the room and you can tell when you have a disengaged audience that
00:25:06
Speaker
And I think it's really important that you need to change tactics at that point.
00:25:10
Speaker
You need to ask a question or feel comfortable engaging the audience because otherwise you're losing them.
00:25:18
Speaker
And I think knowing and having some of those ideas in your back pocket to help kind of pull them back in and re-engage them in the process is important.
00:25:27
Speaker
They're fun and all, but sometimes people are just like, my boss made me be here.
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:25:32
Speaker
I always think like, how do you be unique?
00:25:35
Speaker
And I remember I applied for a job, you know, 10 years ago or so.
00:25:40
Speaker
And I had to give a presentation about, I think it was engaging students.
00:25:44
Speaker
And I was like, this is the time of like learning communities were the hot topic.
00:25:48
Speaker
I mean, they still are, but it was like the prime.
00:25:50
Speaker
If you weren't talking about this and you didn't know what you were doing, but I was like, everyone's going to talk about learning communities.
00:25:55
Speaker
So I'm going to talk about like engaging students to feel like they matter and
00:25:59
Speaker
And, you know, switch it up in that way.
00:26:01
Speaker
And I'm like, how do you be unique in a situation to be memorable, I guess?
00:26:07
Speaker
Yeah, you know, I think some of it is having an odd question that you can tie back to the rest of your team.
00:26:15
Speaker
I met with all of our managing directors yesterday and I threw out, we were really just ideating the entire meeting.
00:26:22
Speaker
And I threw out some questions for them and I could tell that they had to start thinking through that process.
00:26:29
Speaker
And I had kind of shocked them because they were like, oh, wait, my brain is not in this mode yet.
00:26:34
Speaker
So I said, hold on, let's start with an easy question.
00:26:37
Speaker
Is Die Hard a Christmas movie?
00:26:39
Speaker
Yes or no?
00:26:40
Speaker
And I made them vote on that first.
00:26:42
Speaker
Then they could think about, okay, now I've had a chance to settle into the thoughts and get my thoughts in order.
00:26:48
Speaker
But I think just being able to understand that you have different learner types, you have processors,
00:26:56
Speaker
some of those type of learning styles within your audience, you have to be able to understand that and feel comfortable engaging with them, not just talking at them.
00:27:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:08
Speaker
And also remember that like 95% of the people in the audience are not decision makers in this process.
00:27:14
Speaker
So, you know, get through it, deliver the content and move on with your day.
00:27:20
Speaker
Now, my real question, though, is if you had to give a presentation, would you have found a Texas Tech template to use or would you have done something original?
00:27:29
Speaker
You know, I don't know.
00:27:33
Speaker
I've never even thought about that, really.
00:27:36
Speaker
I think, well, you know, here's one of the things that I love about this team here.
00:27:41
Speaker
They have, they will Texas Tech up everything.
00:27:45
Speaker
And so we have a phenomenal marketing team.
00:27:49
Speaker
They, you know,
00:27:50
Speaker
The Texas Tech swag is strong.
00:27:52
Speaker
And so I think it would be really easy to do that.
00:27:55
Speaker
For us this year, it's our 100 year anniversary as an institution.
00:27:59
Speaker
So everything has this 100 year logo on it.
00:28:03
Speaker
But I don't know that I would have necessarily done that in an interview.
00:28:07
Speaker
I might have stepped to school colors, but maybe not full out Texas Tech theme.
00:28:13
Speaker
I like that.
00:28:14
Speaker
I like that.
00:28:15
Speaker
But Tanya, hold on, a 100-year anniversary.
00:28:18
Speaker
What better year to roll out your 100-year plan than now?
00:28:22
Speaker
Here I am.
00:28:23
Speaker
Yeah, you better get back to that.
00:28:24
Speaker
It's a gift right there.
00:28:27
Speaker
So let's go back.
00:28:28
Speaker
We talked a little bit about you and your role in the first 100 days and all that.
00:28:33
Speaker
But let's really dig into what it's like to sit in the big kid chair.
00:28:37
Speaker
You talked about your 100-day plan, but what did your first day actually look like?
First Day Strategy as a New Leader
00:28:45
Speaker
I started on a Friday.
00:28:46
Speaker
I love that.
00:28:50
Speaker
I wish we could only start people on Fridays.
00:28:53
Speaker
And I did that intentionally because my thought was, let me get in and get oriented.
00:28:58
Speaker
Let the system have time to catch up and make sure that, you know, processes, hopefully then I'll have email earlier the next week.
00:29:07
Speaker
But I also wanted to kind of dip my toes in and then take some time to really reflect that weekend about what I was doing.
00:29:15
Speaker
And so, you know, my first day, this is where I really do think I cannot thank Dr. Dionne Green enough because she has been a phenomenal interim for us and helping on board and giving me information and helping me navigate campus and what that looks like.
00:29:35
Speaker
But really, I started.
00:29:36
Speaker
I took my ID photo, got set up in the office a little bit.
00:29:42
Speaker
I think I did one meeting.
00:29:44
Speaker
And then I really just had the rest of the day to just kind of get familiar with what life looks like.
00:29:50
Speaker
Spin in your chair.
00:29:51
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
I did come in the week before and actually set up my office.
00:29:56
Speaker
I took some time between my last position and this position because obviously we moved six hours away.
00:30:03
Speaker
And I will tell you, no matter...
00:30:05
Speaker
How good do you think you are of cleaning things out?
00:30:08
Speaker
We are all hoarders in different ways.
00:30:11
Speaker
And unpacking my house took a long time.
00:30:16
Speaker
My husband has realized over time that he cannot defeat my love of Christmas.
00:30:22
Speaker
And so you're moving 11 trees and all of the holiday accoutrements that come with that and a whole house worth of furniture and everything else.
00:30:32
Speaker
I took time before I came in.
00:30:34
Speaker
But I was able to come in the week before and kind of set up my office and spend a lot of time laying around, just really thinking and working on that 100-day plan.
00:30:43
Speaker
But start on a Friday.
00:30:45
Speaker
That's what I would recommend because then you work one day, you have a weekend to kind of recover, and then you can kind of start in the next week.
00:30:54
Speaker
Well, and everyone's generally in a good mood on Fridays.
00:30:57
Speaker
So, so Tanya, you kind of talked about this a little bit earlier, or at least alluded to it, but I want to ask you very directly, did you come in wanting to make your mark and start changing things?
Advice for New Leaders
00:31:09
Speaker
Or did you put like a moratorium on your personal workplace desires?
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely came in with the mindset of if it's not broke, don't, don't mess with it at this point.
00:31:21
Speaker
but really just observe.
00:31:23
Speaker
I think it's really important for new leaders to come in and really pay a lot of attention to the why of processes, to know kind of what are the sacred traditions within the department that you don't want to touch?
00:31:36
Speaker
What are the things that are frustrating to people?
00:31:39
Speaker
But to gather that information and I teased my staff, I wanted a lamp in the office and they were bringing me all these options.
00:31:48
Speaker
And I said, like,
00:31:50
Speaker
Don't buy anything.
00:31:51
Speaker
Just find something in the warehouse.
00:31:52
Speaker
I am not that high maintenance.
00:31:55
Speaker
But, you know, I don't feel like we need to make big sweeping changes because I don't know that that builds a lot of understanding of the why behind it.
00:32:04
Speaker
And so I think it's really important for new staff coming in to learn what's going on and then to help kind of get that buy-in.
00:32:14
Speaker
And you referenced this before, but this is one of the things that we've talked a lot about in the department.
00:32:20
Speaker
I want our staff to feel competent and comfortable making decisions at the lowest level possible.
00:32:26
Speaker
Because I think that's where you get true employee engagement.
00:32:29
Speaker
That's where you get a lot of buy-in and they don't need to ask my permission to do their work.
00:32:35
Speaker
They need to do their work and then really kind of escalate things up to me if they can't make progress with what's happening or if they need that additional support.
00:32:46
Speaker
But I think, you know, when, you know,
00:32:48
Speaker
If I came in and changed everything, no one would know what their work was.
00:32:53
Speaker
And then we're in chaos.
00:32:55
Speaker
Well, I think how many young professionals have come in out of grad school and been like, hey, we should change this to do it how I did at my grad school.
00:33:03
Speaker
Yes.
00:33:03
Speaker
And I can say, you know, there are times that I'm like, we did this this way.
00:33:07
Speaker
But I think, you know, that's your experience.
00:33:09
Speaker
And referencing that at least gives you a point of reference in conversations.
00:33:15
Speaker
And I will say, I've done that.
00:33:16
Speaker
You know, in my previous institution, we did this.
00:33:18
Speaker
Tell me how it happens here so I can learn that transition and that information.
00:33:24
Speaker
But I don't think that making wholesale changes ever works out.
00:33:29
Speaker
So were you given any mandates upon your arrival from up above?
00:33:33
Speaker
Like, were you given a charge to do X?
00:33:36
Speaker
No.
00:33:36
Speaker
You know, my supervisor, I'm not actually in student affairs.
00:33:40
Speaker
Our division is
00:33:42
Speaker
is auxiliaries.
00:33:43
Speaker
And it's very student affairs focused.
00:33:45
Speaker
Our associate vice president is former military and retired out of the Air Force.
00:33:52
Speaker
But he really, you know, I really enjoy working with him because he trusts me.
00:33:57
Speaker
He knows that I know my business and really just kind of lets me do my work.
00:34:04
Speaker
But he encourages me to focus on
00:34:06
Speaker
what are the areas I want to see our department grow in?
00:34:09
Speaker
You know, we're in the process of an RFQ for a new build.
00:34:13
Speaker
And so we've spent a lot of time talking about that.
00:34:15
Speaker
We've spent a lot of time walking facilities because he is only a year into his position as well.
00:34:21
Speaker
And so a lot of, in a lot of ways, we are growing and learning and developing as a team together.
00:34:27
Speaker
What was your biggest surprise so far?
00:34:30
Speaker
Something you really didn't expect.
00:34:32
Speaker
I am less busy than I was in my previous role.
00:34:36
Speaker
And
00:34:37
Speaker
So that was kind of a shock to me.
00:34:41
Speaker
Some of it is I am committed to role modeling really good work-life harmony for my team.
00:34:48
Speaker
And so I tell them, hey, it's five o'clock.
00:34:51
Speaker
You know, if nothing's on fire at this point, we should all be going home.
00:34:56
Speaker
And really trying not to send emails or do lots of work on the evening or weekends unless they're essential work.
00:35:05
Speaker
because I want to make sure that we are talking about whole life engagement and this idea that we all should have something outside of this office that takes our time and energy and our passion so that when we come back, we are charged up for what we're doing.
00:35:23
Speaker
And I think about, I mean, think JC, this is you to a T. You've learned candle making and pasta making and Legos and refinishing our garage.
00:35:34
Speaker
That's,
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:35:35
Speaker
So, you know, what are those things outside of work that recharge us?
00:35:40
Speaker
We have to spend and invest a lot of time in that.
00:35:43
Speaker
And if we're always working, we're not we're not doing that.
00:35:46
Speaker
And I say that with a lot of knowledge of I'm entitled here that I have a team that is set and doing great work.
00:35:53
Speaker
And I don't have to spend a lot of time doing that, but also trying to make sure that I'm creating space for them to have time away from the office.
00:36:04
Speaker
Well, I love that.
00:36:05
Speaker
And the comment about like, you know, you're entitled with such a strong staff.
00:36:08
Speaker
It's like in supervision and leadership, it's like sometimes it's all about just trying to get all the right pieces and all the right places.
00:36:14
Speaker
And so often one of those is off or it doesn't quite align or whatever.
00:36:19
Speaker
But when you get it together, you can just feel like we're on the horizon of a very productive, very enjoyable period of time.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:29
Speaker
And, you know, I think a part of that is there's always room for growth.
00:36:33
Speaker
You know, we want to we want to be challenging.
00:36:35
Speaker
We want to innovate.
00:36:36
Speaker
We want to think about how we fix what our problems are.
00:36:40
Speaker
Nothing is ever going to be perfect.
00:36:42
Speaker
But knowing that you have a solid team, you're on a clear plan of how you're serving students and making sure that that's your end goal.
00:36:52
Speaker
I think to me, it's a perfect picture of where I want to be.
00:36:56
Speaker
That's great.
00:36:58
Speaker
Let's talk about the psychology of the senior housing officer role.
00:37:02
Speaker
There's this one West Wing episode when the president's talking to his deputy chief of staff, Josh Lyman, and the president says, you know the difference between you and me?
00:37:11
Speaker
I want to be the boss.
00:37:13
Speaker
You want to be the person the boss counts on.
00:37:15
Speaker
Tanya, I imagine you've been the person the boss has counted on your entire career.
00:37:20
Speaker
What's the difference in mindset now that you're the boss?
00:37:24
Speaker
I think the biggest thing is making sure I'm not playing in their weeds.
00:37:28
Speaker
You know, I think for me,
00:37:30
Speaker
I have three very strong direct reports that know their area and have been working in their area.
00:37:37
Speaker
And yes, there are tweaks that we will make along the way.
00:37:40
Speaker
But if a parent calls me and raises a complaint about something, I don't know the details of that.
00:37:47
Speaker
And I can't promise to fix it or imply that my staff did anything wrong.
00:37:51
Speaker
I have to send that parent and tell them why I'm doing it.
00:37:55
Speaker
I'm going to connect you
00:37:56
Speaker
with the associate director over your area who knows the details and can fix this or, you know, can help you navigate through this process.
00:38:04
Speaker
But I think while I could take those calls and I talk to lots of parents about experiences, you know, they'll say, well, if you had a son here and I'm like, well, I do, which is phenomenal from a parent standpoint.
00:38:18
Speaker
But I think part of it is really,
00:38:22
Speaker
not getting into the middle of their decision-making processes and working with them about leading their own areas.
Empowering Staff Autonomy
00:38:30
Speaker
Because I think part of it is we have to build leadership and we have to build leadership at all levels.
00:38:35
Speaker
And if we're getting in there and stirring their pots, we're not letting them lead.
00:38:40
Speaker
I love that.
00:38:41
Speaker
I've got two follow-ups.
00:38:42
Speaker
The first on the comment about, well, if you had a kid here, I get the exact opposite of that where I don't have kids.
00:38:49
Speaker
And when parents always ask me, oh, and well, you wouldn't understand that.
00:38:53
Speaker
I was like, well, I've got 5,000 kids that all have different parents.
00:38:57
Speaker
And just because I don't have a child doesn't mean I can't relate because I also have a home I live in.
00:39:03
Speaker
And these problems happened to me in my life that infected me.
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:06
Speaker
Well, and I think some of it is just really helping parents understand they're not on an island alone.
00:39:13
Speaker
Whether if you have children or you don't, if you have dealt with that specific incident or you haven't, they're not alone.
00:39:20
Speaker
And so some of it is having some empathy for what they're going through and listening to that, but also letting them know, hey, we are professionals here.
00:39:29
Speaker
We deal with student behavior and student interactions.
00:39:33
Speaker
on a daily basis for 20 plus years.
00:39:36
Speaker
You know, I think with our senior level leadership, we have over a hundred years of housing experience.
00:39:42
Speaker
And so trusting that and helping parents understand you've trusted us with your kid and we're going to do our best to serve your student and serve them well.
00:39:52
Speaker
That to me makes parents feel safe about what we're doing.
00:39:57
Speaker
Well, the real question now is, in what meeting or who was responsible for figuring out the 100 years of experience among your leadership?
00:40:06
Speaker
Like, how did that come up?
00:40:08
Speaker
So we actually were working on a presentation to give to our university president about this desire to build an increase in upperclassmen housing.
00:40:18
Speaker
We have 8,100 bed spaces right now.
00:40:21
Speaker
We have one building offline this year that we are renovating.
00:40:25
Speaker
Structural plumbing, fire suppression, cast iron, all of those things are happening in there.
00:40:31
Speaker
But we have had to limit the number of upperclassmen that can return
Expanding Housing for Upperclassmen
00:40:36
Speaker
to campus.
00:40:36
Speaker
And last year, that limit was 800.
00:40:38
Speaker
And we had a lot of students that wanted to come back, but we didn't have room for them.
00:40:45
Speaker
And so we were packaging together some information to provide to our CFO and our president about why
00:40:53
Speaker
a new build is a good idea.
00:40:55
Speaker
And what we have as a department that helps support that, and we just got to chatting about it.
00:41:01
Speaker
And I was like, oh, you know, I started in 1996 as an RA, but I started as a professional in 2000.
00:41:08
Speaker
And so we just kind of chatted and added it up.
00:41:10
Speaker
And I thought, wow, that is, that's a lot of service and a lot of commitment to students and a lot of focus on student development and engagement and
00:41:20
Speaker
and processes over time that mattered.
00:41:24
Speaker
And it was something that someone else, you know, once we put it all in and sent it off, they're like, 100 years?
00:41:29
Speaker
That's a lot of time.
00:41:30
Speaker
But it is because I think we've seen students at a variety of institutions and timeframes that give us a good picture of how to serve.
00:41:41
Speaker
Did you include that stat in your presentation to the president to flex your credentials?
00:41:47
Speaker
I don't know if it was a flex on our credentials, but I do think it was to say, hey, we really have a great knowledge base.
00:41:55
Speaker
And I think it was more of a, your trust in us is not misplaced because we have the credentials to back it up.
00:42:04
Speaker
Going back to your comment about not playing in your staff's weeds or whatever, I think that's a great thing, very valuable, but I'm trying to now project it back to lower levels and thinking about the times where we've had staff that are high performers who don't necessarily get as much attention because they are high performing.
00:42:28
Speaker
And then because they don't get as much attention,
00:42:33
Speaker
And there's a difference between just like paying attention to micromanaging, of course, but then they'd feel like they aren't important or the supervisor doesn't care about them because they're not getting regular playing in their weeds by their boss or whatever.
00:42:47
Speaker
Any, I know that was a little rambling, but any thoughts on, because it changes as you move up where you have higher level of specialization, higher level of expertise, but on lower levels, it's not like a hall director can just be like, I'm not going to play in the weeds of my RAs or my grad students.
00:43:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:04
Speaker
You know, I think there's a difference between playing in their weeds versus not knowing how they're doing as an employee.
00:43:11
Speaker
You know, we talked in our first podcast about the mullet one-on-one.
00:43:16
Speaker
And I think... Of course.
00:43:18
Speaker
I still keep that kind of philosophy.
00:43:21
Speaker
I meet with each one of my direct reports for 30 minutes a week, sometimes longer, and we catch up periodically throughout the week.
00:43:28
Speaker
But I still want to know, how's your staff doing in your area?
00:43:34
Speaker
What are your concerns?
00:43:35
Speaker
What are the big things that are coming up?
00:43:38
Speaker
What I think is...
00:43:39
Speaker
important is I want the knowledge of, but I'm letting them make the decision for.
00:43:45
Speaker
And they may come to me and ask, you know, hey, are you okay with this?
00:43:49
Speaker
Does this align with what we want to do?
00:43:51
Speaker
And that's one conversation.
00:43:53
Speaker
But if they are moving forward and they're on a process there, I think playing in the weeds is where I want to say, hey, nope, swerve left here, when they're already doing it.
00:44:04
Speaker
And I had this conversation with our senior leadership we created
00:44:08
Speaker
this group called the Brain Trust.
00:44:10
Speaker
And they're really our middle management level.
00:44:13
Speaker
And we meet once a month.
00:44:16
Speaker
I met with them yesterday.
00:44:17
Speaker
And I told them, I said, here's the deal.
00:44:20
Speaker
We can make decisions in this top four senior leadership group, but we don't always know the boots on the ground information.
00:44:29
Speaker
And you're the group that not only has that information, but you have to implement the decisions that we make.
00:44:36
Speaker
And so you should have a very strong voice in that.
00:44:42
Speaker
And we need to, one, develop y'all as leaders so that you are growing in this and growing in your decision making, but also kind of connecting all three areas of our department together.
00:44:54
Speaker
So really the supervisors from the middle management group from all three areas meets once a month.
Engaging Mid-Level Managers
00:45:01
Speaker
And we put out a topic and we're like, okay, here's the problem.
00:45:04
Speaker
How do we fix this?
00:45:05
Speaker
And they get to make recommendations and decisions about what that looks like.
00:45:10
Speaker
And I told our senior leadership group, I said, they may make decisions that aren't the way we would do it.
00:45:16
Speaker
But if it works, we have to let them do it.
00:45:20
Speaker
Because otherwise, they're not going to grow.
00:45:22
Speaker
And we're still making all the decisions.
00:45:25
Speaker
And that was not designed so that we work less.
00:45:28
Speaker
But I think it was designed so that we were growing that as a department.
00:45:33
Speaker
And we're making those decisions at lower levels.
00:45:35
Speaker
We are engaging our staff in the process.
00:45:38
Speaker
We're kind of building that understanding of engagement at work and how we all have value in what we do.
00:45:47
Speaker
Because I think a lot of employees, they come, they punch a clock, they do the same rote job, and they don't see how that relates to the overall value of the organization.
00:45:56
Speaker
And I want to make sure that from our housekeeping staff to our managing director and everyone in between, they understand that what they do
00:46:05
Speaker
it matters to our students.
00:46:07
Speaker
If a bathroom doesn't get clean, that matters.
00:46:09
Speaker
If, you know, a phone call gets dropped and doesn't get called back, that matters.
00:46:15
Speaker
And so, you know, thinking about how we grow that as a group.
00:46:21
Speaker
But for me, when I think of playing in the weeds, that means that it's my decision and no one else's.
00:46:28
Speaker
And while the ultimate responsibility rests with me,
00:46:31
Speaker
Their ability to lead their own areas is something that we have to engage.
00:46:35
Speaker
I think that that is a phenomenal idea in the abstract of like this mid-level managers meeting.
00:46:45
Speaker
Actually, I was in one once upon a time and we actually called it the bridesmaids meeting because we were always the bridesmaid, but never the bride.
00:46:52
Speaker
But it's...
00:46:55
Speaker
It's a great idea in the abstract.
00:46:57
Speaker
So, but from a tangible like takeaway to people out there is like, I really want to emulate this culture.
00:47:02
Speaker
Like what was last month's topic that you gave them to talk about?
00:47:06
Speaker
So I told them really it was, we called it ideation station and it was, what are the problems that we face in the department and how do we solve them and how do we keep work fun?
00:47:20
Speaker
And I gave them all stacks of post-it notes and
00:47:23
Speaker
They wrote ideas and posted it on the three areas.
00:47:27
Speaker
And then we kind of pulled them together in themes.
00:47:29
Speaker
How do we communicate so that all three areas in the department know information at the right time?
00:47:35
Speaker
How are we cross-training and creating departmental leaders so we don't have, you know, managing or assistant managing director of facilities?
00:47:46
Speaker
We have a assistant managing director of university student housing, and they have
00:47:50
Speaker
When they're in a meeting, they're representing our whole department, not just facilities.
00:47:55
Speaker
But to do that, they have to have knowledge and understanding more than just facilities.
00:48:02
Speaker
So we talked about communication.
00:48:03
Speaker
We talked about a lot of just cross-training and professional development.
00:48:09
Speaker
How do we engage our younger professionals in regional conferences?
00:48:14
Speaker
And how do we have a strong presence there?
00:48:17
Speaker
What events do we do annually?
00:48:20
Speaker
That's great.
00:48:21
Speaker
That's great.
00:48:42
Speaker
Donnie, in a typical organizational pyramid, the odds are you have less direct reports now than in the mid-level role, but that isn't always the case.
00:48:51
Speaker
And I know you've talked a little bit about this with like your 30-minute weekly staff meeting or meetings with your staff, but how do you manage supervising less people?
00:49:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's 30-minute check-ins once a week.
00:49:06
Speaker
It's
00:49:07
Speaker
making sure that they feel like they have the support they need to do their work.
00:49:12
Speaker
And then it's really getting out of their way.
00:49:15
Speaker
Do you ever consider, do you do weekly reports?
00:49:18
Speaker
No.
00:49:19
Speaker
If you're not doing something actively with that information, you're wasting their time.
00:49:24
Speaker
Couldn't agree more.
00:49:26
Speaker
I imagine you did weekly reports at some point in your career.
00:49:29
Speaker
At what point did you stop?
00:49:31
Speaker
I think I stopped when I started supervising just grads.
00:49:35
Speaker
Because that's what your one-on-one is for.
00:49:38
Speaker
Use that time in your one-on-one to get that information and problem solve what the issues are.
00:49:43
Speaker
A report, it's just paper.
00:49:48
Speaker
This may just be me, and I'm imagining now that I'm saying it out loud, it probably is just me.
00:49:52
Speaker
But do you have an issue with the terminology, quote, one-on-one as a meeting name?
00:49:58
Speaker
No.
00:49:59
Speaker
I mean, one of my staff called them a one-to-one.
00:50:05
Speaker
I think they're on my calendar right now, which check-ins.
00:50:08
Speaker
I don't really, I mean, it doesn't matter to me what we call them.
00:50:11
Speaker
I think it's time where that is individualized supervision and communication with each one of those staff members that is uninterrupted.
00:50:22
Speaker
And, you know, like I had to move one yesterday because I had a conflict and I was going to go to their office.
00:50:28
Speaker
And then based off of what the rest of the day looked like, it ended up being a team's meeting.
00:50:33
Speaker
but trying to make sure that I'm committing to them to give them that time every week so that they have a voice and a communication channel.
00:50:42
Speaker
It must just be me then.
00:50:43
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:43
Speaker
Cause I'll never get, I cannot stand that name.
00:50:46
Speaker
What do you call it?
00:50:49
Speaker
Weekly meeting, which then also bothers me because I hate naming a meeting meeting because it's redundant or individual or weekly wrap up.
00:50:58
Speaker
I don't know.
00:51:00
Speaker
I, every semester it's something different and I have,
00:51:03
Speaker
I'll never get over it.
00:51:04
Speaker
You should give it a nickname and then that's what it is.
00:51:07
Speaker
But then that just doesn't seem like professional enough or serious enough.
00:51:10
Speaker
Like I'm going to get subpoenaed one day in court and they're going to be like, tell us what happened in your mullet meeting with Tanya.
00:51:16
Speaker
Well, you know, when you said that about it doesn't sound professional enough or serious enough.
00:51:22
Speaker
I think one of the things that I challenged myself on moving into this position is not to take myself too seriously.
00:51:30
Speaker
Well, and that's why you're in the big kid's chair and I'm here in my lowly middle manager desk.
00:51:36
Speaker
No, because I think sometimes we put too much self-importance on who we are and what we're doing.
00:51:43
Speaker
And I can pick up trash just like everybody else, just like I can swipe a package log, just like everybody else.
00:51:50
Speaker
And so I think as we move up, we have to realize we are not above those roles.
00:51:56
Speaker
Right.
00:51:56
Speaker
Oh, no, I totally agree with that.
00:51:58
Speaker
And I have personally no problem with it other than it just feels funny to me.
00:52:03
Speaker
I'm really not sitting here.
00:52:04
Speaker
I fully realize how unimportant I am in the full scope of the university.
00:52:10
Speaker
But it's just something about it.
00:52:13
Speaker
I'll get back to you on that.
00:52:14
Speaker
Okay.
00:52:15
Speaker
All right, then, Tanya, let's talk about your budgets.
00:52:18
Speaker
You've talked about it a little bit here and there.
00:52:20
Speaker
When I spoke to Nancy, we talked about scaling budgets as you move up.
00:52:24
Speaker
It's like
00:52:25
Speaker
You know, it's all transferable skills and basically you're just adding a zero at the end of it.
00:52:30
Speaker
How many zeros did your new budget increase compared to your old budget, your budgetary area?
00:52:38
Speaker
Zeros?
00:52:39
Speaker
I don't know that it increased there.
00:52:42
Speaker
Or orders of magnitude.
00:52:43
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I went from, you know, like a $2 million payroll budget when I was doing human resources to a $44 million budget.
00:52:52
Speaker
So...
00:52:56
Speaker
Yeah, one order of magnitude.
00:53:00
Speaker
So, you know, I think it's really just really learning it.
00:53:03
Speaker
And one of the things that I love is our finance team has a budget guide.
00:53:09
Speaker
And it's this booklet that is such a huge help in walking through the budget.
00:53:14
Speaker
But I spend a lot of time with them.
00:53:15
Speaker
You know, when I reconcile at the end of each month, I sit down and I'm like, okay, tell me why this looks different.
00:53:21
Speaker
How does this compare to
00:53:23
Speaker
And one of the things that, you know, I'm tracking pretty closely is what does our savings look like from month to month?
00:53:29
Speaker
And what are our overages look like?
00:53:31
Speaker
And are we capitalizing those savings in a way that still impacts the students that paid into that?
00:53:38
Speaker
So, you know, if we have revenue that we didn't allocate or we had savings from salaries or something else, I don't want to just suck it away in a fund and not touch it.
00:53:51
Speaker
If there are things that we can do this year, if there's things that we can add to the student experience, let's do that.
00:53:58
Speaker
Because we've already budgeted at this point.
00:54:01
Speaker
Gotcha.
00:54:02
Speaker
All right.
00:54:02
Speaker
So the last thing I want to talk about is not your new role, but departing your old role.
00:54:09
Speaker
And I think this is something that always comes with mixed emotions, whoever you are and wherever you are.
00:54:15
Speaker
How difficult was it to leave your previous staff behind?
00:54:19
Speaker
You know, it was hard because we had gone through the fire together.
00:54:23
Speaker
And I think I care about those team members and I want the best for
Emotional Departure from Previous Institution
00:54:28
Speaker
them.
00:54:28
Speaker
But I also had to say, I can only control what's in my circle of control.
00:54:33
Speaker
And this is the best decision for me and my family.
00:54:36
Speaker
But I remember at my going away party, one of, I don't even think it was my staff.
00:54:42
Speaker
It was a campus partner said something and I cried.
00:54:46
Speaker
And I thought, oh,
00:54:47
Speaker
You know, what is happening here?
00:54:49
Speaker
And I think when you've been at an institution for a long time, you've developed some really strong relationships and you miss those because you don't necessarily have those right when you first move.
00:55:02
Speaker
But I think really it's just knowing that I've done the best that I can for them.
00:55:07
Speaker
We stay in touch, but we don't talk about work anymore.
00:55:10
Speaker
So.
00:55:10
Speaker
Is there anything you particularly did to set them up for success during their upcoming transition period?
00:55:16
Speaker
Oh, I cleaned out 16 years worth of emails and documents and put everything I possibly could on a OneDrive.
00:55:25
Speaker
And I emailed them old things and basically gave them any piece of knowledge or history that I had in my possession.
00:55:34
Speaker
Here you go.
00:55:35
Speaker
So that you have it to refer back to.
00:55:38
Speaker
Now, I will say I had a phenomenal staff, but I had one staff member that she was email gold and she could find things from her first year, like six years earlier.
00:55:49
Speaker
She's like, here it is.
00:55:50
Speaker
And so I think that helped.
00:55:52
Speaker
I think I wrote a long transition binder and I referenced back to different documents, but tried to do everything possible.
00:56:01
Speaker
And I had some staff call and say, hey,
00:56:04
Speaker
tell me this, or do you remember this?
00:56:06
Speaker
And I could kind of navigate them to where that was in the, in the drive.
00:56:10
Speaker
But, you know, really I told them, I'll give you five months to call about anything you need to call about.
00:56:18
Speaker
That was very generous of you.
00:56:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:23
Speaker
Here's the thing though.
00:56:24
Speaker
There's still our, you know, there's still our colleagues and our professionals, even though they're not directly reporting to me, there are still people that I want to see succeed.
00:56:32
Speaker
And so,
00:56:33
Speaker
I think helping them, you know, if they had questions and I will say, you know, the calls were frequent at the beginning and then they really became more of a how are you doing?
00:56:42
Speaker
How's the family?
00:56:43
Speaker
Some of those type of chat.
00:56:45
Speaker
But I think it's really hard just to cut that off and not ever keep going.
00:56:52
Speaker
Well, I love the treasure troves of like old emails and OneDrive documents.
00:56:56
Speaker
It's like there's ghosts of former staff members all throughout departments.
00:57:01
Speaker
And when you're digging around for some document, it just brings back fond memories of like whoever edited it last or you're like, oh, this is Tanya definitely wrote this.
00:57:12
Speaker
You know, I found when I was still at Oklahoma State, I found an inner office envelope that was from
00:57:21
Speaker
Kevin Solomon at that's at Arkansas Tech now.
00:57:25
Speaker
He's not even in housing anymore, but he had sent it and somehow it got stuck in a drawer.
00:57:30
Speaker
But to open it up and see him and think we've never worked together, but he was my first real connection in Swakuho and thinking about, oh, this just brings back really fond memories.
00:57:43
Speaker
I love that.
00:57:44
Speaker
All right, Tanya.
00:57:45
Speaker
So any closing thoughts as we wrap up the day?
00:57:48
Speaker
You know, I would say you miss 100% of the chances you don't take.
00:57:53
Speaker
And whether you are successful in that job search or not, moving up into new positions, it comes with its own set of challenges.
00:58:03
Speaker
But I think if someone is thinking about what the next position looks like, don't let your imposter syndrome be the thing that stops you.
00:58:12
Speaker
It's great advice across the board.
00:58:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:15
Speaker
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:58:18
Speaker
It really means a lot that not even six months into sitting in the big kid's chair, Tanya found some time to invest with us grunts at the bottom of the org chart.
00:58:29
Speaker
Be sure to join us next month.
00:58:32
Speaker
And don't forget to submit questions or ask for advice via the link in the show notes.
00:58:36
Speaker
And with that, I say to you, good day.