A few weeks ago, St Nicholas Burrus, the Smartsheet expert at Stria, sat down with Smartsheet for a brief chat on Identifying your Process Power. Discover your Processing Power and understand how Stria can assist you with your Smartsheet requirements by reading this interview. Burrus is a qualified PMP, possesses two Master’s degrees, and is now pursuing a doctorate. Together with our outstanding Solutions Engineer team, they have guided Stria through the innovations that Smartsheet brought forward and are prepared to assist any organization reinvent its processes using Smartsheet.
Smartsheet would want to recognize people that design processes, as well as the teams that use these processes and implement them using Smartsheet. Smartsheet believes that this quiz will assist new and prospective users determine their “Power of Process” in order to enhance their usage of Smartsheet! We ask you to complete this questionnaire and discuss your results with Stria at your next meeting. Please contact us to learn how we can leverage Smartsheet for your team and or organization!
Stria has utilized Smartsheet to do a variety of amazing things from:
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- Automated website contact form
- Guest tracking
- Employee metrics
- Team profitability with weighted metrics
- Legal automated contracts
- Full on work order systems with real estates
- Forecast tracking
- And so much more! The box doesn’t limit Stria!
You can read the exciting interview with Smartsheet about Identifying your Process Power below. A select group of early candidates participated in this interview, and had quotes from their interviews featured into the quiz itself.
How do you use Smartsheet at work?
I employ Smartsheet every day at work. Tracking team performance using a sophisticated analytics system allows me to determine how lucrative people are, who needs more training, and more. We have developed a multitude of methods to use Smartsheet to stay ahead of the competition and assist our clients in doing the same. I use Smartsheet to handle a contact form that, when submitted on our website, sends comments to the appropriate individual based on their geographic location. We utilize it on a daily basis for an inventory request system resembling a shopping cart, denoting a sequence of actions to shift assets from one area to another. We use it to track mistakes and compare them to employee performance to determine who needs more training.
Smartsheet has granted me tremendous authority in my leadership role at Stria. Almost all of my administrative tasks are automatable, allowing me to obtain crucial reports, metrics, KPIs, and whatever else I want. It has assisted with managing projects, time obligations, and staff.
As a doctoral candidate, I utilize my employer-provided Smartsheet account to handle the study lists of a few other doctorate candidates in my institution. I’ve used it throughout both of my Master’s degrees to set my goals and deadlines and time out my day. I have even used Smartsheet to track my PMP training and progress.
Describe a time when you utilized your power and Smartsheet to succeed at work?
One of the most challenging aspects of being a leader in an organization is effectively managing change and separating emotion from decision-making. As humans, it is difficult to separate emotion from facts. If someone tells you they can accomplish anything simply, they are almost certainly lying. My professional and academic careers have been devoted to leadership and research.
Keeping all of this in mind, I am able to automate metrics, project management, and more by constructing processes and connecting them to systems through the use of Smartsheet. These reports provide us with information stripped of all emotion. We can determine a person’s inexperience, training status, and performance. No opinion is required. When conducting a performance review, we were able to simply retrieve information on a team member and include it into their evaluation. In my earlier studies, individuals have guessed this far too frequently.
Throughout my academic career, I have utilized Smartsheet to advance my studies and discover new leadership theories. I’ve utilized it to manage my doctoral-level work, keep track of group projects, and even share with classmates. I have using it for PMP training, class tracking, and my academics. There, I entered my quiz scores so that I could follow my progress in a report with charts. I utilized it even for my Government Archives and Records Administration certification last year. Smartsheet has provided me with an exceptional tool for enhancing my leadership skills, allowing me to access and organize the resources I need to become a greater leader.
Is your power something you intuited or something you learned?
During my time at the University of Maine at Presque Isle pursuing a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership, I engaged in several disputes over this topic. Great Man Idea is an old theory that is regarded as a cornerstone of management and leadership studies, however I dislike it. I think and have advocated that this theory and its nuances represent a watershed moment in the history of research on corporate leadership. This thesis began with the notion that men are born great and destined to lead, and that leaders cannot be molded. Nonetheless, this theory is also contradicted by several other hypotheses. The Great Man Theory sprang from the extremely sexist notion that only males were capable of becoming great leaders. Then it grew into the notion that men who are born to be great leaders are destined to be so by God. I dispute that. Now, new theories contend that your surroundings may be what makes you a good leader, challenging the previous view. It evolved into becoming natural leaders or born leaders. Perhaps your experience qualifies?
With my training being well-balanced in academic research and real world experience, using Smartsheet to track my team, to track metrics, and more, I am able to compare and evaluate things much more extensively then I would normally be able to. I’m able to use Smartsheet to help me connect the history of organizational theory, human understanding, and psychology, as many of these are building blocks. These come together with Smartsheet reports to allow me to see a bigger picture.
I used Smartsheet to defend my beliefs on this theory to challenge it. I’m able to change my environment, I’m able to track things more effectively, to be a stronger leader more effectively because I have Smartsheet and the power of automation and reporting behind it.
While some of your default shy characteristics may be advantageous as a leader, can you also learn to overcome or mitigate your flaws?
Has there ever been a time when you needed to flex your power to accomplish something?
Certainly, I have had to use my authority in order to accomplish something. Such a complicated power, leadership is at the forefront of both projects and teams. Many organizations do not hold this position in high regard due to the fact that it is frequently misused and misplaced. Managers are not leaders. A leader is someone who can motivate a team and assist the team in achieving organizational objectives. A successful manager is one who can and will eliminate hurdles from their team’s path, allowing them to operate autonomously.
In the past, I have had to exercise my leadership abilities, particularly with the assistance of Smartsheet, during meetings with executive teams of our clients and my own workplace. People are frequently frightened to say no to their employer. Are you frightened to say no to your boss? I’m not. I can utilize report data sets to demonstrate why I said no. My leaders and supervisors respect this. To be a good leader, you must know how to distribute yourself and your team, as well as how to use your authority to protect your team.
Fill in the blank: I feel most in my power when I _______.
I feel most in my power when I am able to accomplish the new and unknown.
What does your power mean to you?
The power comes with a duty. There is no straightforward way to define what a power is and what it does. Through understanding the Power of Leadership, I am required to take in the complete scope of a project in order to successfully build and guide solutions that not only power my business, but also many other organizations that impact the everyday lives of many of us. My function is unique. My firm is unique. In the agricultural, financial, energy, education, and health sectors, we have a significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of countless individuals. I have led programs that have affected the lives of tens of millions of people on a daily basis.
You can view this interview embedded into Smartsheet’s quiz, or directly here.
