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- Sep 11, 2018
Putting Mission and Strategic Objectives at the Heart of Transformational Change
Seventy percent of all change efforts fail according to Gallup, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. A McKinsey & Co. study on radical change weighs in with only 38% of change efforts having a solid impact on performance and around 10% completely failing. Add the fact that most employees resist (even sabotage) change, why would anyone take on a transformational change effort, especially in higher education? A few years ago, I left the corporate world after long career at Ac
- Mar 6, 2018
Which Direction Should Your Career Center Go?
I spent much of February glued to the TV watching the Olympics. I’m drawn to it not so much for the individual sports – some of which I know nothing about – but for the allure of a big stage. I find it exhilarating, heart-breaking, pride-inducing, awe-inspiring, and moving. The amount of training and sacrifice that goes into preparing for that one moment to shine on one of the world’s biggest stages is inconceivable to me. In an interview during the Games Meghan Duggan, capta
- Feb 20, 2018
Iterate or Eliminate: Making Courageous Choices in Moving your Career Center Forward
There are two common operational pain points that usually stand out in neon lights as I interact with career center teams. In fact they have been around for quite some time, but in this era of change and growth, they are becoming more prominent. Our volume of work is high - often overwhelming We stink at saying no - this perpetuates #1 If this is you, don't feel guilty, feel normal. But the time is now for a new normal. And many are figuring out the amazing benefits of co
- Jan 22, 2018
The Strategic Risk Skillset for Career Center Growth
Starbucks. Netflix. Twenty years ago, who would have thought you would pay $5 for a cup of coffee and access all your favorite TV shows and movies online? If you had recognized how these companies’ innovation would transform our world, you may have taken a risk and invested in their stocks. In fact, if you had invested $1,000 in Netflix just 10 years ago, you would be rewarded handsomely to the tune of over $50,000 today! Yet very few of us are willing to take the risk and in
- Nov 8, 2017
Scaling Career Services (Part 6 of 7): Embracing Change as a Staff
There was an elephant in the room during our Summer 2017 Think Tanks on Scaling Career Services. We saw it coming and spoke directly to it in multiple ways. I think you probably know this elephant quite well...its your Career Center staff team. A well led change process with an agile and committed staff can yield incredible results. But that is not easy to do. It takes a lot of group dialogue and understanding, a good amount of iterating, and knowing that change is more tha
- Sep 11, 2017
Scaling Career Services (Part 4 of 7): How TED, Zappos, and Lyft can transform us!
A couple years ago when I was at The Career Center at Colorado State University, during a leadership team meeting, one of our staff recapped a short and simple conversation she had with a colleague from another institution. Here is a paraphrase the conversation: Outside Colleague: 'you all are doing such innovative work, who do you benchmark with?' Lead Team member: 'well, we look at TED Talks, a lot of the big tech innovations, some local start-ups, and some of our employers
- Sep 5, 2017
Scaling Career Services (Part 3 of 7): What Then Shall We Scale?
I have talked with a lot of career pro's about scale recently. The topic is almost always received with excitement and anticipation related to its potential for lasting transformation - which is quite real. As we together discuss stretching the envelop, changing service delivery models, and considering unique mindsets, this positive energy pauses in front of the hard work it takes to actually scale, and one thing becomes clear: It is foolish for a career center to try to sca
- Aug 16, 2017
Scaling Career Services (Part 2 of 7): The Problem
I have asked over a thousand career services professionals to tell me about the problems we face on a regular basis in our field. Rightly so, the groans come before words, then sometimes laughter (because there are things we just can't change), but there has never once been a hesitation for people to speak freely about our challenges. I love the honestly of our colleagues, and the fact that they pursue hope in the midst of these realities. When facing the topic of how to sc
- Jul 31, 2017
Scaling Career Services (Part 1 of 7): What's the big deal?
Let me start with a global reality check that might be perceived as bad news: for the past couple decades, the university career services field has flat out stunk at scaling. It hasn't really been in our DNA, and many might say, it hasn't really needed to be (a few others would beg to differ). Don't get me wrong, our field has had a few home run moments with scale: no one can argue the amazing feats near the turn of the century when we automated some core services like job p
- Jul 17, 2017
Solving the Talent Shortage in Career Services: Leadership for Organizational Effectiveness
There’s a leadership shortage in higher education and career services departments are not immune to this shortage. Though we spend countless hours talking about the need for talented, innovative, change agents, it appears little is being done to actually identify, hire and retain these superstars. How can career services do their part to change this? A basic search on higheredjobs.com yields hundreds of vacant leadership positions across the US. Today alone, I counted over 80
- Jun 26, 2017
The Case for Organizational Capacity
Already Restructured, Leveraged Technology, and Developed Hybrid Staffing Models – Now What? Leading change in the past Many leaders have experience restructuring offices, leveraging technology and developing hybrid staffing models. The majority of offices extend their reach with combination of volunteers, peer advisors, student and graduate assistants, executives in residence, employers and contract staff in addition to our own full time staff. Often these efforts are more
- Jun 19, 2017
2 Leadership Hacks that will Maximize your Team
Smart leaders know that the success of their vision rests largely on an empowered and effective team. Here are two simple leadership pro-tips that any level of leader can implement today, brought to you via video in less than 90 seconds each: 1. Set Ground Rules for Team Engagement 2. Avoid Mega Meetings and Focus on Frequent Check-Ins Caroline Dowd-Higgins authored the book "This Is Not the Career I Ordered" now in the 2nd edition, and maintains the career reinvention blog o
- May 31, 2017
Up, Down, Sideways: The Unique Mid-Manager Role in Career Services
This post is a recap of our live video Accelerator that took place on May 15, 2017. If you are interested in a stimulating staff training video for mid-managers on your campus, or if you prefer seeing and hearing from people in a high impact, authentic, and inspiring way, you can access a recording of the live Accelerator. Mid-level managers in career services have a voluminous and strategic role that serves as the essential pivot between an office's vision and operational e
- Apr 17, 2017
3 Mindset Shifts to help New Career Services Staff Succeed
Beginning a new job can be charged with an odd combination of excitement, fear, and anxiety. You’re pumped to start this chapter of your professional life. You’re scared of all the new stuff you’ll be required to learn. You’re worried about fitting in (or worried that your boss is worried), catching on quickly, and excelling in your role. These feelings are all completely normal. While you probably won’t be able to extinguish all of them in your first week or month, you can m
- Apr 3, 2017
Replacing “Services” with “Engagement”
What happens when a Research I university granting almost 7,000 bachelor’s degrees each year commits that every undergraduate, regardless of major, will experience learning that makes their studies relevant to their career aspirations, allows that student to start to make a mark on the world while still in college, and develops the skills most valued in the world of work? At the University of Arizona, we’ve implemented 100% Engagement, now in its second year of operation, to
- Mar 13, 2017
New Staff in Career Services
Evaluating and honing our staff competencies is at the heart of any re-imagine effort. In Part 3, our final video on How to Re-Imagine Career Services, sponsored by PeopleGrove and Handshake, Jeremy Podany, Founder of The Collective, sat down with Christine Cruzvergara, Associate Provost and Executive Director of Career Education at Wellesley College, to unpack the role of new staff in leading massive change. The following questions highlight themes from Part 3 that you migh
- Mar 6, 2017
Ecosystem Integration in Career Services
The ability to successfully integrate into the campus ecosystem may be the single biggest game-changer for career services today. In Part 2 of How to Re-Imagine Career Services, sponsored by PeopleGrove and Handshake, Jeremy Podany, Founder of The Collective, sat down with Christine Cruzvergara, Associate Provost and Executive Director of Career Education at Wellesley College, to unpack what it's like to lead massive change. The following questions highlight themes from Part
- Mar 3, 2017
Employee Engagement in Career Services: A Preliminary Analysis
The concept of employee engagement is fairly ubiquitous in 2017. A simple Google search presents around 10 million results on the subject, and among those results are numerous studies, white papers, reports, and opinions. The concept was first applied to the workplace by William Kahn in 1990, who argued that engagement was the “extent to which people employ physical, cognitive, and emotional degrees of themselves during work-role performances”. Since that time the concept
- Feb 27, 2017
Leading a Re-Imagine Effort in Career Services
The Collective is truly delighted to announce the first video in our three-part video series on How to Re-Imagine Career Services, sponsored by PeopleGrove and Handshake. Jeremy Podany, Founder of The Collective, sat down with Christine Cruzvergara, Associate Provost and Executive Director of Career Education at Wellesley College, to unpack what it's like to lead massive change. The series is broken into three important topics: Leading a Re-Imagine Effort Ecosystem Integrati
- Feb 14, 2017
Beware of the Success Assumption
Whenever I’m leading discussions on recruitment, retention and engagement of new employees, I often caution leaders and organizations to “Beware of the Success Assumption.” I offer the same warning to college students who are preparing to enter the workforce. Beware of the Success Assumption. It’s dangerous. It’s subtle. It tends to be in our blind spot. The Success Assumption can hurt a leader’s ability to connect with a team member or employee. It can also hurt a new emplo
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