Reflections for My Mirror: Entry 10
Posted by scearcekg on November 4, 2008
During the last class, we were discussing chapters 12 and 13 in Schein…and something jumped out at me: leaders have a big role in determining who is let in to the culture, and currently career services is without that piece to the puzzle! Over the last several years, our executive director worked diligently to create a successful career services culture across all campuses that worked. Success rates are at an all time high in terms of placement percentages, customer service ratings, and career fair attendance. Turnover is at an all-time low and communication has increased among all campuses. Well, the executive director responsible for this culture change has left the organization for a new and exciting opportunity. Corporate has decided to set aside the need to fill her position, due to other important issues that require immediate attention. I fear that the longer we wait to hire a new “leader”, the more our culture will dissolve as a whole. For instance, when career advisers were hired…our executive director had a big part in that process – ensuring that the person would fit in the overall culture of our department. Well, with out this influence…the decision to hire rests solely in the hands of the campus president – at each campus. Therefore, new members to our team will (well, “could”) be hired to fit a particular campus culture, rather than the career services culture. Now…this is not a fact, just a hunch. The good news, though, is that the various campus career services directors are getting together to ensure the continued success of our culture. I sparked this idea, and will be leading a directors meeting next week with all career services directors in the region (Virginia). This will be the first meeting of its kind, but we hope to have a successful go at it and leave with some great take aways and calls to action. We also hope it will gain further support from corporate and become a norm for career services – perhaps a quarterly process among all 3 regions (VA, NC, and SC). Experiences could be shared and communicated through newsletters, VCom meetings, etc. It would keep us all on the same page in the absence of an executive director…and our culture in check, so to speak. Our fearless leader paved the way for a new career services department…and I for one plan to resume her vision…our vision!
November 5th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Wow, that is powerful! That’s a really interesting point about the individual campus cultures being different from the careers services culture. I like the idea of the directors meeting to tie people together from all over the region. Things like this should happen frequently, I think, in organizations that are more spread out. What about sharing experiences through blogs too?
November 6th, 2008 at 8:37 am
It looks like what the past director has created has been instilled in those she left behind because you are probably doing something that she would have done to maintain the culture. I do not think that the culture exactly diminishes once someone/a leader leaves, what happens, in my book is a filtration of the ‘good/bad’ behaviors or those that are valid enough to gain success.