Blog posts

From manager to C-level, do you have what it takes?

Headshot of panellists
The panellists, left to right: Julie, Leila, Jane

We know IT has a long way to go before it can call itself “an inclusive industry”. We recognise that and work towards bridging that gap. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion is one of our strategic pillars as a part of our strategy – Investing in people and talent. In support of our EDI initiatives, we are collaborating with a number of partners that help us strive to achieve that mission.

We had excellent engagement for our latest collaboration with Everywoman, From Manager to C-Level: The steps, skills and qualities that can give you the edge webinar. 420 of you registered and more than 100 tuned in live! I encourage you to watch the recording if you couldn’t make the live session on 28 January! Some of our top female leaders were panellists:

  • Julie McCann, Interim Vice-Dean for Research in the Faculty of Engineering
  • Leila Guerra, Vice Dean of Education at the Imperial College London Business
  • Jane Neary, Director of Campus Services

The panel shared fantastic career insights and tips. They can be applied by anybody who’s aiming at a C-level role in their 5-year plan!  Jane, Julie and Leila took the audience through the steps you can take to make it happen, and the skills and attributes needed to make it to the top.

Here’s my favourite quote from the event:

Seema: What skills and attributes does someone need to succeed?

Leila: Networking and building relationships are universally important. Making sure you have diverse, rich and global circles. Self-awareness is of course important to have as well. Being able to look at yourself and identify what’s your voice, your passion. The element of passion is so important! Having an innovative mindset as well, knowing the role will not be linear. On the other hand, being resilient, patient and generous with yourself and others. Being in peace with yourself does really help. Your employer hired you for you!

You might also find the How Imperial’s ICT and digital team leaders are moving the needle on diversity article interesting!

More general on-demand content can be found on Everywoman’s webpage.

New year, new strategy!

I thought I had better write something on our brand new ICT blog, as the default message is…

… leaving that up is like the WordPress Blog equivalent to ‘Computer says no!” and we have a bad enough rep as it is! 😉

2022 has finally arrived, and we have a new years resolution in the guise of a new ICT strategy and roadmap to work towards making some exciting improvements to ensure:

  • A seamless, digital student journey
  • The best tools and systems
  • Robust and reliable technology
  • Delighted customers placed at the heart of the services
  • Confidence in cyber security
  • The best technology talent

But how did we come up with all that lot?

Peter Brown showing his post it note workIn summer 21 we set up some ICT Tech Days for all our 250 staff to attend (Hybrid mode of course!)

When I heard we were going to be attending workshops to strategise for the next 5 years, I thought great – I love a post it note session! But when I found out it was every day for a week, I thought blimey that is a lot of post it notes!

The strategy workshops were broken down in to daily sessions for each Functional Area where we looked at their current ‘playbooks’ and what our teams are working to achieve, we then did the obligatory post it note exercise to identify your needs as a customer, looking at your pain points, and mapping out the potential gains, and many, many mor exercises!

We determined steps to plan out ‘what great looks like’ and feed this in to a long term strategy and roadmap.

The days were long and lots of coffee was drunk, but the outcomes were totally worth it – as we now have a really clear direction of travel and we are all pulling in the same direction as a team, and we have new ways of working with you – our clientele.

Our teams 7 days culminated in a social distanced gathering (Not party!)

Staff DJ'ing at the party

Stick with us through this blog to see how we are delighting you and providing a first class service.