The Rebel Leader: Is That You Lurking Inside?

Martin Bernier, Chief Information Officer, University of Ottawa

Martin Bernier, Chief Information Officer, University of Ottawa

Don’t get me wrong; I want to do the right thing for the right reasons in the best interest of my organization, but that doesn’t always mean playing by the rules. I draw energy from results, so I need to be creative and challenge the status quo. If you need to take risks to get the right things done, just do it!

So how do we break the rules in our workplace and strike a balance?

We need to develop rebellious talents and be more authentic but with empathy for our colleagues, students, staff, and our community in general. Indeed, encourage our employees to seek out new challenges, be curious, broaden their perspective on diversity, and reach out to those who are different.

Diversity increases our creativity and positively challenges our way of thinking. An organization can grow by leveraging differences. It’s a diverse world out there, including in the digital world. And let’s not forget that there is a lot of diversity among our users and customers. I remember when I realized at the beginning of the pandemic that students connected to the University of Ottawa from more than 160 countries. Mind-blowing! That’s diversity for you.

How can we deliver a more equitable service to such a diverse audience? Are we creating inequalities with new digital implementations we have made in the last couple of years? Just remember that technology can be transformative for people, positively or negatively.

In the post-pandemic world, to increase innovation and performance, your staff and colleagues will need to be more engaged, confident, and creative. Technology is increasingly relevant and is more available and accessible in many different formats: SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS, and IaaS, to name a few, but technology and/or technological skills should not be our primary focus. People come first.

Most organizations are fortunate to have talented people working in their Information Technology departments. They make a real difference. We need to align our core values with a new mindset. At the University of Ottawa, for example, we deliver digital solutions and services and have defined who we are and who we aspire to be: innovate boldly & sustainably, build trust & connections, and collaborate with transparency.

Which brings me to this: are you tired of nodding during virtual meetings? Then STOP!

Stop following mainstream opinions in Higher Ed and become a happy rebel! We should experiment with new ideas and challenge the common path, choosing the road less traveled. The status quo is not an option. We need to stop being so comfortable with our current state and change: evaluate risks against the potential gains and thrust our employees out of their comfort zone.

Technology is reaching a point of maturity and is becoming the responsibility of everyone in our organizations. Most are struggling to align with today’s reality, everyone from staff to executives to boards. We owe it to ourselves to better engage our people. Let’s rethink our environment, our workplace (physical and virtual), our governance (inside and outside our organizations), and our engagement (with our employees, customers, and our community in general).

In conclusion, we need to hire smart and passionate people. The real challenge is to encourage them to succeed. People first, never been so true!