Sophia Joseph’s First Group Mentoring Session – Group 3, Session 1

Group mentoring leader, Sophia Joseph, Class of 2016
Photo courtesy of LinkedIn.com

On October 10th, Sophia Joseph hosted her first group mentoring session where she received a hearty turnout for mentees and mentors alike! Her group’s general focus was centered on how technology is rapidly altering the way our world used to manage businesses and the need for IT majors. This effect is a critical turning point in our history as a society, and Sophia’s group dove right into this challenge head-on in order to prepare the students with a taste of what to expect when they enter the work force.

The executives themselves had to adapt to these changing conditions while they were already on the job. Their insights emphasized the need for adaptability to survive in an environment where the “next best thing” is just around the corner. These different advancements lead to a domino effect of different aspects to be affected. The executives educated the students about the preconceived notions and nuances about the nature of business so that they can be fully equipped to skip over these intermediate learning steps in their careers and acknowledge the crux of the issue they need to deal with immediately.

With such a discussion that hits so close to home for everyone, the bittersweet nature of technology and human behavior was a loaded topic for Sophia’s group’s first session, but in the Leadership Program, it’s common for our students to hit the ground running. Tackling major subjects without hesitation allows students to maximize their learnings from the executives. The initiative of the students was truly complemented by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the executive mentors; these teachings will resonate with the students for a long time to come.

Congratulations, Sophia, on such a successful group mentoring experience! We look forward to hearing about your next discussion!

Below are the meeting minutes (summarized by Alison Kruse and Pracchi Makkar):

Meeting Notes: Group Mentoring 10/10/2013

• Lack of IT Majors
  • Average Age of an IT employee: 48
• Things are moving too fast!
  • Is technology safe?
  • Privacy and regulation issues
• Key Leadership Trait: Adaptability
• Customers now have the power
  • Companies can’t be product-centric, must be customer-centric
• Companies aren’t fast/speedy
  • How will they adapt?
  • Companies that are doing a good job of adapting:
    • Proctor and Gamble
    • Coke
  • Sales, marketing, service, etc. need to work together
    • Create a better customer experience
    • Collapse the “Silos”
      • Silos: breaks in communication; organizational and data walls
      • Customer data must be available to all
• Leadership is about vision
  • Strategic plans are now by the day … hard to plan 1,5,10 years into the future
• Working at home vs. an office
  • Many people are more productive at home
  • Others are more productive in an office setting
    • Find your personal preference
      • This may change over time
• Knowing all of this information:
  • What type of company do I want to work for?
  • Stay open to possibilities to change jobs
    • Our generation will switch jobs approximately 10 times in our careers

Major topics:

Roles in the workplace

Technology in the workplace

IT boom- boom in use of technology but less people are IT majors

Gaming techniques influencing the way people think

Mobile commuting- privacy- paying with your phone

Openness and Transparency- values in modern leaders

Two in a box- having an older and younger leader working together

“Lead, follow, or get out of the way”

As a leader you need to be able to accept change and new values/ideas

Capacity to adapt

Customer really is the king now

Product centered culture to customer centered

Society with speed, agility, change, adapt

“Status Quo Mentality”- they don’t want to change

Today is all about reimagining- leadership is about vision

Sales, marketing, and service are diminishing- customers don’t care they know what they want

Actions need to be more personalized- silos (walls in between functions of a company) everywhere

Look for progressive companies- Enemy of every company is growth

Look up- Amazon’s mechanical turk

Work- social vs technological and home vs office

Ask your interviewers- look for what you want

You might end up seeing 10 jobs- no real longevity

Advanced robotics- simple/intelligent machines producing everything that humans can work with

“New Machine Age” (book by MIT professor)

Machines that can run themselves- people aren’t necessary

New skillsets will be needed because of technology- old jobs are disappearing

• ← NY Times Article on Women’s Leadership
• Danielle Andreani’s Second Group Mentoring Session – Group 1, Session 2 →