Scott Howland, MBA, CCP, DDI
Director of Compensation, Benefits, & Employee Services, Tellabs
Teaching focus: Management, Human Resources

Where I come from

I taught high school math before joining Hewitt Associates, a human resources consulting organization. Hewitt loved secondary math and science teachers because they are analytical and comfortable before an audience. For six years I worked with clients and helped design their compensation and benefits plans. Feeling that I should know more about business strategy and financials than a math degree had taught me, I pursued my MBA at Keller Graduate School of Management.

With the MBA, I went on to manage human resources for the next 15 years. Along the way, I supervised mergers and acquisitions. I directed HR staff responsible for employee services as well as the SAP HRIS. As Vice President of Human Resources at Van Kampen Investments from 2000-2007, I was accountable for HR activities including employment, employee relations, training and development, compensation and benefits. We were acquired by Morgan Stanley, and I developed and implemented strategies to integrate Van Kampen with their investment division.

Classroom is a stage

I began teaching part-time at Keller in 2002, at a time when my job felt like I was just terminating people. I lost faith in HR when I saw only the negative side of it. Teaching gave me a chance to look at both the positive and negative sides of Human Resources. Teaching Keller students re-energized me, and it has led to my returning to Tellabs in 2007 as Director of Compensation, Benefits, Stock Administration, HRIS, Employee Services and Learning & Development. My future goal is to get a Ph.D. in adult education.

Being in front of a class energizes me. I try to make every class a combination of a rock concert, sporting event, and a seminar. I love to learn from students their perspective on HR from their companies. Bringing that together with my experiences and tying it all back to the theories in the text book makes the class an exciting collaboration. Students feel that they are part of creating the learning that happens; their opinions, their ideas are valued.

Insights and hindsight

It takes a lifetime to build a career. Your undergraduate and graduate training provide tools that you take from your tool belt at the appropriate time. Unlike many training professionals, I know that the business is looking for return on investment, so I look for the measurement angle on training.

Early on I learned to take an analytical approach to HR and be an advocate for the company. In order for HR to be invited to the C-level table on strategy, you have to understand the thought process of the C-level. If I had kept it at the personnel level, I would never have moved up in the organization. By being an advocate for the business, you end up satisfying the needs of the employee most of the time, but the business all of the time.

"Egg-cersize" your team

Every week in Organizational Behavior, we do a different exercise. One of my favorites is the "egg-cersize" we do on team-building and communication. We divide into groups. Each team is given raw eggs and has to build an egg-catching contraption out of a plastic container, masking tape, and straws. It's hilarious, adults become kids again, and you see the wear of the workday melt off of people.

At the end, we debrief. We discuss the learning from the task, and ask how this relates to their workplace. If your team can figure out how to use ordinary kitchen items to catch an egg without breaking it, why can't it solve this organizational problem? What would this "egg-cersize" do in an organization with a dysfunctional team? With a high-performance team? This is something they can take to work. With a few dollars in materials, you get million-dollar ideas and innovation driven performance increases.

The final exam is not the end

I have become a good counselor and mentor for a vast number of students, and not by hanging out a shingle. I've gained a good trust with students to where they feel comfortable asking for advice. I don't give them the answer; I help them reflect on what the right answer is for them. We stay in touch over the years.

Occasionally I'll have ideas for a business and I bounce them off students who are looking for a capstone project. Nothing has come to fruition yet, but I'm working with a student now on an Internet idea. In addition, I connect students and former students with jobs in my network and I have hired Keller graduates.

Why Keller?

The first day of the Organizational Behavior class, I talk about why I chose Keller. All schools should have the same focus, and it's not helping students to get a promotion or raise. It's to put tools in your tool belt. It is to create leaders. The difference between Keller and other business schools is the practitioner approach. I work in the field of study I teach, and I am successful. I bring that back to the classroom. And it's not just me; it's the Keller way.