I had the privilege of interviewing
Mrs. B, the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Heilbrunn Department of
Population and Family Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Most recently, she
served as the Director of Sponsored Projects at Columbia School of Social Work where she implemented systems and processes
to enhance grant submissions, compliance and post award management. Mrs. B has
worked within Columbia University for eleven years, though she has only worked
at her current position for four months.
My role has been to support proposal development and
management of ongoing business operations for faculty research projects. My job
is to synthesize information and provide faculty with what they need to know in
order to make informed decisions about the administrative, operational and
financial issues that impact existing awards and future projects. I serve as a
strategic thought partner in order to help facilitate the research and move
projects forward.
~Mrs. B
1. What type of manager/supervisor do you think you are?
Currently I do not oversee any direct reports, however in
previous positions I have overseen staff.
I have an ‘open door’ work style. I prefer my staff to
approach me with questions early on and to work together to figure out a
solution. I am collaborative and open minded, and solution oriented. I have
high expectations of myself and therefore of my staff, but I also am supportive
in helping my staff achieve and maintain a high level of performance.
2. What type of leadership style do you possess?
I am a nurturing leader by nature. I lead by example and like
my staff to take initiative and go the extra mile in providing support, and so
I try to do the same. I do challenge my staff to think critically and manage
their work holistically in order to improve performance and gain efficiency.
3.
How do your subordinates perceive you?
This is a difficult question to answer, but I believe they
see me positively, as someone who is easy to work with and supportive, but also
a stickler for details.
4.
How many people do you manage?
Currently I do not have a staff, however in my most recent
previous position I oversaw two direct reports. Perhaps most challenging, I was
required to exercise leadership and achieve deliverables with 39 faculty and 76
research staff without the benefit of direct line supervision. This requires
leadership, humility, flexibility, and the ability to prioritize competing
needs.
5.
Do you delegate work and if so, how?
Work is delegated within assigned portfolios, where each
person on my team handled the projects for a specific faculty member.
6.
How do you ensure that tasks are carried out to completion?
I use a dashboard to track the status of all open items and
their various status updates. I also hold weekly staff meetings and one on one
meetings with my direct reports to ensure that nothing falls through the
cracks.
7.
How do you recruit people to work for your company?
Columbia has its own online job portal. We also have used
online sites such as idealist.org or higheredjobs.com. The best recruitment
tool, however, has been word of mouth and utilizing one’s existing networks.
8.
Are you more of a hands-on or hands-off manager?
I think I am more of a hands on manager, but not a micro
manager. My experience is that if you are too hands off then things get away
from you and you miss major mistakes or issues. As a supervisor, I found that I
needed to track what my staff was working on at some level in order to provide
support and guidance when needed.
9.
Do you believe that rewards or punishments are more advantageous for employee
motivation?
Feeling supported and heard is important for an employee. Having ongoing
performance evaluations and metrics in place to measure performance so it is
not a surprise to an employee if they receive constructive or critical feedback
is important. Rewards are appreciated and important for employee’s feeling
valued and part of a team.
10.
What is your view on Unions?
I think Unions provide important protections for workers. I
myself am not in a Union, but I appreciate their importance and history.
11.
Have you ever been audited?
I
manage funding that is granted either by the US federal government or private foundations. These projects are audited annually
and are subject to great scrutiny with respect to how the funding is spent and
in what time frame. I operate from a baseline of keeping complete records and
backup information for a likely audit. This makes for overall better business
practices.
12.
Who are your competitors?
I do not have any direct competitors, but I would say that
Columbia as a whole strives to compete with the top research Universities in
the world and I support that process by the work I do in compliance and
research development.
13.
Who are your stakeholders?
The client base (faculty) are the stakeholders, as well as my
fellow colleagues and University staff. We support one another and when project
administration and operations are moving smoothly, the research can progress on
time and within budget. We all benefit.
14.
Who is your client/customer base?
My client customer base is the faculty. I support their
administrative, operational, and financial management needs so that they can
concentrate on the research. I also support their administrative staff so that
they can better support the overall research.
15.
How do you cater to them?
I work with them closely as an operations manager for their
research. I am accessible via email and in person meetings, and I communicate
issues that impact their work clearly and concisely. I also try to identify
solutions that make sense for the work within the compliance framework that
governs our work.
16.
What advice would you give to a person in a leadership position?
My advice would be to be open and supportive of your staff
but clear in the level of quality that you expect because that can get away
from you. Your staff’s performance reflects on you as a manger, and your
behavior and style in the workplace is informative to your staff. It can be a
fruitful relationship for both parties.
17.
Would you consider yourself proactive or reactive?
I am definitely proactive. Submitting proposals, meeting
reporting requirements, and responding to sponsor requests requires you to
anticipate upcoming challenges and plan ahead in order to make deadlines. If
you are purely reactive, you will miss something.
18.
What are some challenges you face as a manager?
One key challenge I face is assuming people are prioritizing
the work as required, and that things are moving forward. The solution to this
is open communication and training staff so they know what is considered urgent
and important, and what steps should be taken to proactively move business
along. When dealing with sponsored projects you need to be timely and efficient
and communicate with your investigator, otherwise you must absorb the loss, and
sometimes it can be a significant financial penalty.
Columbia University has a diabetes research center as well as a medical center that supports and benefits from the Mailman School of Public Health. One of the cutting-edge activities of the department is using big data and advanced analytical techniques to detect slight changes in population electronic health records. This, along with the annual $600 million in research sponsorships puts Columbia University at the forefront of global research and gives their faculty the opportunity to pursue innovative biomedical and public health investigation and research.
