This week, Pete Wright and Howard Teibel dive deep into the topic of weak communication practices and their consequences in organizations. Howard, drawing from his extensive experience working with teams and leaders, shares insights on how miscommunication often stems from focusing on passing information rather than producing action and exploring assessments.

The duo discusses five key consequences of weak communication: mistrust and lack of listening, working in isolation, blame-shifting, people not making offers, and building consensus over-commitment. Howard emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between assessments and assertions, encouraging individuals to back up their assessments with evidence. He also highlights the transformative power of making offers, which enables innovation and engagement at all levels of an organization.

Throughout the conversation, Pete and Howard stress that merely knowing these concepts is not enough; embedding these skills into an organization's culture requires practice, repetition, and a willingness to embrace discomfort. They invite listeners to reflect on their own communication practices and consider how adopting these principles could lead to more effective collaboration and accelerated change within their teams.

Being of service. This is at the heart of the roles we play in higher education.

At the 2024 WACUBO Annual Conference at Disneyland in California, leaders and practitioners in administration came together to explore how they can Dream, Lead, and Inspire others to serve the mission of our industry. Lupe Valencia, Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Facilities Officer at the University of Texas at El Paso, recently served as President of WACUBO and just turned the reins over to Michael Clune, who serves as Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer at the University of California San Francisco.

Howard sat down with the two of them at the annual conference to talk about service and what inspires them about being part of this extraordinary association committed to providing professional development and networking opportunities for business officers serving higher education in the West. 

Don't miss the opportunity to consider participating in next year’s Annual Conference, taking place on the Big Island of Hawaii! You won't want to miss this experience!

Learn more and start planning your trip right here!

We are thrilled to present this episode of the Net Assets Podcast, a partnership between NBOA and Teibel Education Consulting, with NBOA President and CEO Jeff Shields and Teibel Education President Howard Teibel.

This episode marks the first in what we hope will become a collection of some of the best and most illuminating interviews dedicated to you, independent school business leaders. As NBOA grows into its new brand identity, we have the great privilege of launching this podcast with a conversation about an institution unafraid of telling the story of what makes them great, a school unburdened by the weight of telling the stories they think the public wants to hear. And who better to share that story than the extraordinary leaders of the Lakefield College School themselves?

Lakefield College School is a coeducational boarding and day school in Lakefield, Ontario, Canada, for students in grades 9 through 12. Today, Jeff and Howard are joined by Anne-Marie Kee, Head of School since 2017, and Tim Rutherford, Associate Head of School and Chief Financial Officer since 2014.

If you've ever wondered what it takes to be authentic in your mission, elevate faculty, staff, and students, and transform enrollment growth along the way, you need to check out this conversation.

This show is made possible thanks to the generous support of Community Brands.

This week, Jeff Shields, President and CEO at NBOA, joins Howard Teibel for a conversation on the future of independent schools ahead of the 2024 NBOA Annual Meeting & Business Solutions Showcase. Howard and Jeff speak about issues of integrating telework, the sustainability of post-pandemic innovations, and the critical importance of community and collaboration in sparking transformative ideas.

“Your next best idea is not going to come from walking down the hallway at your own school,” he says, “It will come from being among more than a thousand people in an international community who have walked in your shoes,” he continues, stressing the invaluable benefits of shared experiences and collective wisdom that can be found at the NBOA Annual Meeting.

Jeff offers a sneak peek into what attendees can anticipate at the 2024 NBOA Annual Meeting & Business Solutions Showcase, taking place February 25 – 28 in Atlanta, Georgia. The event promises to be a hub for independent school leaders to converge, share their experiences, and learn from the collective wisdom of the community.

Links & Notes

• Learn More about the NBOA Annual Meeting
• NBOA Keynote Speaker Lineup
• NBOA Deep Dive Sessions

As we continue our gradual emergence from a certain hibernation over the last three years, the opportunity to engage with our colleagues is more critical than ever. Brad Bacca, President of Western Colorado University and the Western Association of College and University Business Officers, sits down this week with Howard Teibel as they turn their attention to the upcoming WACUBO Annual Conference coming April 30 to May 3 in Phoenix, Arizona. 

This year's theme is Rising to the Challenge - A call to intentionally engage in what we've learned and face our challenges with renewed resilience.

You can join Howard at the conference in his pre-conference workshop on producing innovative and creative thinking in the business office.

To learn more about this conference or register for the event, visit WACUBO.org.

NBOA President and CEO, Jeff Shields, joins Howard Teibel for a conversation on indepenent school business, finance, and operations, all in preparation for the association's 25 Anniversary Celebration in Los Angeles, February 19-22.

What’s top-of-mind for business officers coming out of the pandemic after three years? How are finance professionals addressing the ongoing financial issues pre-K-12 independent schools will face in the future? All this and a preview of the broad array of speakers, guests, and presenters coming to LA next month.

Learn more and register now for the 2023 NBOA Annual Meeting & Business Solutions Showcase.

Unbeknownst to us in February 2020, we were about to go into a certain kind of hibernation, one forced on us by the circumstances of our time. Two years into this, we may be seeing the beginning of the light at the end of the tunnel – learning how to live with this global pandemic and bring back the kind of social connection we value and need.

Jeff Shields, CEO of the National Business Officers Association and Howard Teibel turn their attention to looking forward in anticipation of the upcoming NBOA Annual Meeting to be held in Chicago this February. The theme this year – Elevate! A call to step up our game and bring into our work what we’ve learned these past two years.

You can also join Howard at the conference in his talk with Taylor Hastrich from FAEF in an experiential session to elevate Strategic Thinking as a Business Officer.

To learn more about this conference or register for the event, visit NBOA.

Whether your challenges are financial, structural or simply the need to build strong teams, Teibel Education can help your people move to the next level of excellence. Check out how we can help you be a stronger leader and build stronger teams at teibelinc.com!

Howard Teibel

Links & Notes

• Learn More and Register for the 2022 NBOA Annual Meeting
• Schedule
• Registration
• Follow Jeff on Social Media
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

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Joining Howard Teibel today in conversation is Dr. Nathan Grawe, distinguished teaching professor of the social sciences at Carleton college, where he has served on the faculty since 1999. You might have seen Nathan's work as it relates to the framing of the enrollment cliff, something that's been exacerbated and accelerated in this last year.

As we find ourselves beginning to emerge out of lockdowns in our lives — and for many of us on our campuses — the big question is how will we navigate back to what Georgia Tech is framing as a return to better?

This conversation with Nathan covers many important topics, including his most recent analysis of enrollment trends, issues of shared governance, and how we need to think about work as we come out of this pandemic.

Reach out to us at Teibel education if we can help you build an intentional mindset and process to navigate your challenges over this next year.

About Dr. Nathan Grawe

Dr. Nathan Grawe the Ada M. Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Carleton College. He is a labor economist whose work examines intergenerational connections with education and labor market outcomes. Nathan's book, Demographics and The Demand for Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018) examines how recent demographic shifts are likely to affect demand for higher education. In a follow-up project, The Agile College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021), Nathan draws on interviews with higher education leaders to provide examples of how proactive institutions are grappling with demographic change.

Links & Notes

• About Dr. Nathan Grawe
• The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Challenges by Nathan D. Grawe
• Visit Nathan's Website at Carleton College

As we turn our energy to 2021, we can begin to catch a glimpse of getting on the other side of this crisis. Independent school leaders have implemented innovations over the last nine months that they could only dream about prior to the pandemic. The question now is can they sustain these changes with intentionality. 

Jeff Shields, CEO of the National Business Officers Association and Howard Teibel explore these questions in anticipation of the upcoming February all-virtual NBOA Annual Meeting.  The opportunity in this year is to prepare ourselves with the right state of mind – resiliency, ambition for change and living our vision.

Join Howard at the NBOA Annual conference for a Goldmine session on Being a Leader Without Being an Expert, February 22 and for a Deep Dive session around Building a Culture that can Innovate from the Bottom Up, February 23.  

To learn more about this conference or register for the event, visit NBOA.  

Whether your challenges are financial, structural, or simply the need to build strong teams, Teibel Education can help your people move to the next level of excellence. Check out our work with Independent Schools today!

At Teibel Education we are committed to having your people be connected with a higher purpose. As we look to 2021 and the hope for greater ease and less uncertainty, we bring you a podcast on learning.

How do you produce active listening in a colleague, student, or peer? Active listening is a central tenant to the capacity to learn and acquire new skills.

In this podcast, we explore learning with UCLA professor Dr. Christopher Surro. Chris is committed to his student’s success and he teaches us how to engage others to learn by applying a few simple principles – showing care, guiding versus doing and creatively using technology.

As administrators, Deans, CFO’s, or faculty, this is an invaluable conversation to listen to and share with others. We look forward to hearing how this resonates with you.

Links & Notes

• About Chris Surro — UCLA Department of Economics

About Dr. Christopher Surro

Chris Surro is an Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Economics at UCLA. He primarily teaches macro courses but has teaching interests across a variety of economic fields. His main teaching goal is to provide students with both economic knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge in practical ways to their future careers. He also tries to incorporate new technologies into his classes to improve student learning and engagement. His research focuses on using recent computational methods to improve economic analysis.

Mission in Action

Today on the show we bring a demonstration of living a mission. Our guest is Doug Brown, President of UMass Memorial Community Hospitals and Chief Administrative Officer for the UMass Memorial Health Care system. He had a vision for their community - looking in their own backyard and anchoring their institutional mission through local investing, local procurement, and local hiring.

As a $2.4 billion integrated health care delivery system in Central Massachusetts, Umass Memorial’s “Anchor Mission Project” is addressing the social determinants of health beyond the traditional approach of providing excellent clinical care. UMass Memorial is putting their money where their mouth is by investing part of their institutional portfolio in local resources, purchasing directly from local businesses, and hiring a greater percentage from the surrounding community.

Links & Notes

• “Anchoring Health beyond Clinical Care: UMass Memorial Health Care’s Anchor Mission Project” — Harvard.edu
• Harvard School of Public Health Highlights UMass Memorial’s Anchor Journey — DemocracyCollaborative.org
• UMass community hospitals chief appointed to AHA trustees — Telegram.com
• UChicago Joins the Higher Education Anchor Mission Initiative — The University of Chicago Civic Engagement