Howard Pincham realized a leadership lesson many years ago when he labored at Hyland Software. In the open up business office setting, Pincham viewed as then-CEO A.J. Hyland took the last glass of h2o from a cooler, then replaced the vacant jug with a whole one particular. “I was struck by this man, the CEO of a big corporation, transforming the water for everybody else,” Pincham explained. Pincham tries to convey that solution to his function as main information officer at Koinonia Residences, a nonprofit that supplies residing spaces and encounters for these with mental and developmental disabilities.
What IT challenges have you had to deal with at Koinonia?
I commenced in the slide of 2019, and when COVID strike, we experienced two months to transform from a put where all the function happened to a single in which some do the job could very easily happen somewhere else. A whole lot of us have the exact stories, but it took us a very little additional operate, for the reason that we were being guiding in conditions of technological know-how. We have also tried out to aid the people in the entrance line report facts back about shoppers with some quite demanding disabilities. How nicely somebody had lunch that day or how a person else is acquiring self-care behaviors. Our business is about treatment, and we have to have to doc that care. A lot of what we have done is par for the class, but this is a path to maturity for us.
Your state of mind looks “other”-driven. Is that reasonable?
I believe of myself as part of the group, and I will need to keep up my close. If I am the executive and people have to dazzle me, specifically just before they dazzle conclude buyers, their productivity goes out the window. If I can make this office drama-free of charge, I sense like I’m serving them due to the fact the workforce — and it is an outstanding group — is contributing for finish prospects.
How do you mesh servant leadership with IT?
I am a normal person, but I’m also likely the major nerd you know. 1 of the complications that nerds like us have is we assume tech is the be-all and conclusion-all. I see a few legs that are significant: people, process and tech. For a person in my house to say tech solves all the problems, unquestionably not. Tech permits a small business, supports persons, supports course of action.
Are you able to interact with purchasers?
We have much more than 60 areas spreading as a result of Cuyahoga County and Summit and a little bit of Lorain, so there are quite a few possibilities for all of us to engage. It is really amazing that we are referred to as just to give a house for our purchasers. When I exhibit up, I don’t have the talent established to offer the care that some of them need to have, but I can speak and expend time and be existing — and ideally that helps somebody. Seeing the do the job that the complete staff does to offer the tiniest factor for someone on the autism spectrum or a person who is nonverbal but so significantly desires to be portion of the group, observing the mission and seeing what entrance line people today do, it’s been a blessing and a privilege.