In the world of higher education, we frequently hear institutions tout their selectivity. Your prestige as a college or university is tightly connected to your admission standards. The more selective you are, the greater the achievement of being admitted — making your institution more desirable to prospective students.
On the surface, it positions the college as a gatekeeper, upholding standards and ensuring that only students of a suitable caliber will enroll. But it’s really the other way around. And the same principle applies to all companies and organizations.
You can only be selective about who you do business with if your products and services are in high enough demand. In other words, you can’t be selective unless many people first select you. And the burden is on you to develop and maintain that kind of organization.
At Cuyahoga Community College, I like to say that we are a selective institution because people select us. And they select us because we work tirelessly to meet their needs. We have held listening sessions with students, employees and community stakeholders. We have gathered their input and used it to form our Vision 2030 Strategic Transformation Plan, which will provide the direction for our institution for the remainder of this decade and beyond. We have reorganized Tri-C’s academic pathways into five schools, better aligning areas of study to smooth the process from enrollment to completion. We have created new community partnerships and strengthened existing ones, deepening the pool of resources available to our faculty and students, and further enhancing the learning experiences we can offer.
These and many other initiatives have had a great impact on our community and, by extension, our enrollment. While other colleges and universities have seen their enrollment numbers decline in recent years, Tri-C has seen an uptick in enrollment over the past several years.
How can you live up to the selective criteria of the people you serve? Here are some things to consider:
Maintain a humble mindset: Don’t confuse humility with low confidence. When I say “humble,” I mean coming to work every day knowing that success is fleeting, customers can go elsewhere if they want and you’re only as good as what you’ve accomplished that day. No matter what success you have achieved to that point, it can reverse itself quickly, so stay hungry and don’t let yourself or your company grow complacent.
Connect with customers: Communication and feedback sound so simple, but so many companies let those lines break down as they grow. The bigger your organization gets, the harder you have to work to maintain those personal connections. Only through those connections will you ensure that your customers are heard and that you can address their needs.
Maintain your maneuverability: The needs of the people you serve will change. The landscape of your industry and marketplace will change. How are you building maneuverability into your systems and processes so you can evolve along with the needs of your customers?
It’s good to be wanted. But in the business world, it’s essential for survival. What steps are you taking to ensure that customers keep on choosing you? ●
Michael A. Baston is President of Cuyahoga Community College
