Education

A collaborative spirit

By Meredyth McKenzie

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Eduardo Padrón
president, Miami Dade College

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While he was a student at Miami Dade College, Eduardo Padrón learned many lessons about how to be a good leader.

Now as the college’s president — a position he has held since 1995 — Padrón uses many of those lessons in his daily tasks.

Padrón has set a vision for the college — which has more than 160,000 students on eight campuses — to lead it into the future. He also listens to his nearly 8,000 employees to get their input on important decisions.

“One of the skills that we need to have in order to be able to be successful is to listen and foster collaboration by which you achieve much more in the long term than those who try to dictate,” Padrón says.

Padrón’s focus on listening and collaboration has helped him oversee the school’s $315 million operating budget and guide it through future growth.

Smart Business spoke with Padrón about how to establish a collaborative environment and how to communicate when establishing a vision.

Develop a vision. You need to have a vision in order to be able to know where you want to go and how to get there. Collaboration has to be key, because I could have hundreds of wonderful ideas, but I accomplish nothing if left on an island by myself.

The other important factor is communication, because that’s a constant process. You need to make sure your vision is shared. If you have your vision, but it is not shared by the people you work with, your ability to succeed is limited.

If you don’t have a vision, you’re going to go in many different directions, spread yourself too thin, try to be all things to all people and not be able to focus on what’s essential for the growth and development of your business.

Collaborate with employees. It should be an open process, and frankly, sometimes we underestimate how people, even at the lowest level, can have bright ideas that can help you better formulate your vision. In an institution where you want to take advantage of the talents that are inherent in each of your employees, you need to provide constant opportunities for employees to provide feedback.

We have a strategic plan ... and that plan has several components. Employees at all levels have the opportunity to participate in that. So the plan is in constant evolution based on the feedback and so forth that we get from employees.

You have to honestly believe. It should not just be something to give people the impression that they are participating; you need to take it seriously and believe that you can do much better by getting people to give you ideas.

When you have people who believe they know it all, you have a problem. As long as you believe that by giving people participation, your ability to lead is going to be enhanced. If you want answers, you need to present employees with the questions you feel are important.

Collaboration depends on the willingness to listen and respect another viewpoint. Bureaucracy is too often defined by organizational divisions and the roles to which people adhere, often too rigidly. Collaboration is dynamic, not limited by hierarchy. It depends on people being, on one hand, human and open to each other, and on the other, willing to be accountable as part of a team.