For many people, one of the best things about work is the ability to grow your skills and mentor other people. When you have a team that challenges you to improve and expects the same from you, you feel more energized about your work and proud of your progress.
One of the questions we hear regularly about Managed Services consulting is, “Will I have the opportunity to mentor other people and grow my career?” The short answer: Yes, absolutely. But don’t take our word for it. For this post, we sat down with Managed Services Senior Consultant Kevin Bricker to discuss his experience growing and teaching other team members at Nordic.
Q: What opportunities for growth do you have in Managed Services?
Kevin: Because Managed Services is a relatively new, fresh offering, it has a degree of startup-level excitement, and you’re really able to define what your role means. You’re treated like an adult. For instance, if you’ve identified a problem and you have a good solution to it, everyone is interested in hearing your solution and applying it.
One example is that I’ve been doing a lot of cross-application knowledge sharing. A few times a month, we come together as a team and someone explains an area where they have a lot of knowledge. Our Managed Services team has a blend of backgrounds between project managers, technical services, people with Epic experience, people from other industries, and recent college graduates, which means you can really help to build your teammates’ strengths in certain areas and learn from them at the same time.
Q: What has your experience been as a mentor on the Managed Services team?
Kevin: I’ve been able to take on that mentor role with one of our associate consultants, and it’s been really rewarding to share my day-to-day tasks with someone who’s eager to get in there and help me. It’s fun to feel like my contribution doesn’t have to be directly to the client – it can be in mentoring someone else to serve the client well. I love doing that “behind the scenes” work that helps to build up my coworkers.
Q: How does the culture of Managed Services support that kind of mentor relationship?
Kevin: Well, we often sit right next to each other or have remote team members who are just a Skype message away. A lot of our interactions are at-the-elbow, leaning over the cube, or face-to-face on our webcams. I might say, “Take a look at this – I think it might be a security problem, so dig into it and let me know how far you get, and let’s reconnect in 45 minutes.”
It gives me the ability to give immediate feedback and work through open-ended problems together. The setup helps us support each other in that way.
Q: How have you been able to shape your role and decide your own growth path?
Kevin: With EHR systems in general, they’re so intense and complex that there’s always a need for somebody to develop a niche knowledge in one area. And since Managed Services is a growing business at Nordic, there are always opportunities to grow and develop in a new area. If you encounter an area that intrigues you, it will probably be useful to the team for you to explore it. I’ve gravitated toward interfaces; I know a little bit about the topic, and it interests me. That interest has evolved into pursuing an interface certification that will benefit our team.
One of the other people on our team identified some project management gaps in our process, and he stepped into a new role as an upgrade testing coordinator. Any time you get a bunch of intelligent, driven people onto a project, they’re going to identify places where they can apply themselves. We have such a high level of trust with each other that we trust each other to pursue these interests.
Q: How have you seen the Managed Services team evolve during your time at Nordic?
Kevin: We’ve developed a lot more across-team engagement as time has passed. We’re really good about having regular internal recaps and asking, “What weird issues have you guys seen lately?”
Having a physical office space really contributes to that, as well as the ability to get in touch with a remote team member over your webcam very quickly. You’re a three-second walk or quick Skype call to the application that knows all about your issue, and you can get in front of the experts and ask for their perspective. We really feel like a cohesive and collaborative team these days.
Q: What advice would you give to a new Managed Services consultant?
Kevin: Be fearless when it comes to ownership. Everyone is happy to help you, but nobody is going to take your hand and force you down the path of learning something. If you’re eager to learn, you’ll do great. There are so many areas to investigate and learn about and become an expert in. As long as you have that drive, everybody will always be excited to help you and learn from you.
