Biggest Challenges Faced by a Senior Manager of Academics at TNTP
A significant challenge in Ashley's role as Senior Manager of Academics at TNTP is balancing contracted work with external barriers outside the control of the teams Ashley works with; this necessitates navigating how to "address those" challenges and make progress despite limited capacity and the inability to "change everything all at once".
Overcoming Challenges, Executive/Leadership, Project Management, Teamwork, Problem-Solving
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Ashley D. Essary
Senior Manager of Academics
TNTP
Texas Christian University (2010)
University of Colorado at Denver, MA in Curriculum & Instruction: Pedagogy for Urban Leadership, concentration in English Language Acquisition
Fine Arts, Music
Education
Strategic Management and Executive
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, LGBTQ, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Balancing competing demands of consulting contracts and external barriers.
2. Navigating challenges outside the immediate control of the team, such as limitations imposed by district leaders or regulatory bodies.
3. Prioritizing and making progress on crucial issues despite limited capacity and the inability to address all problems simultaneously.
Transcript
What are some of the biggest challenges within your current role?
So, balancing a contract that pays for execution as consultants with the additional barriers that arise during that work is a challenge. For example, in the school district I work with, I collaborate with a small team of district leaders, not the superintendent.
Similarly, at the Texas Education Agency, I work with a small team, not the commissioner. This means there are challenges outside the locus of control of those district leaders or the team I work with at the Texas Education Agency.
We need to figure out how to address these challenges. That's a really big task because it's outside the scope of our work and limited by our capacity.
I think one of the biggest challenges is that we can't change everything all at once, but we still need to make progress. This comes up often in all of our contracts and different contexts.