Photo captions provided by Theo. All photos, credit to Theo Long. Click on a photo to see a larger version.
Theo Long is close to celebrating his third year at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA); as a member of NCSA’s leadership team, he’s known to most of the Center’s staff. With an open-door policy, Theo supports everyone at NCSA with an upbeat attitude and a willingness to sit down over coffee and listen, even with his tremendously busy schedule! Without further ado, here’s Theo Long!
What is your title and team?
Director of Administration and Operations, overseeing our Business Office, Communications, Facilities and Human Resources teams at NCSA.
Tell us a cool fact about your job.
In my role, I get to work with some extremely talented and diverse teams. I’m not just managing administration and operations. I get to play a role in driving strategy, shaping policies, driving growth and aligning multiple core functions (finance, HR, communications, facilities) to support cutting-edge research and innovation.
What are you most proud of in your experience here?
I’m most proud of how resilient everyone at NCSA has been in the short time that I’ve been here. In the short period of time that I’ve been in my role, there have been so many global, national and local events that have truly challenged all of us in so many ways. It’s really been amazing to see how we have all come together to support one another, all while doing our best to be more efficient, strategic and purposeful.
What would you consider your superpower?
I have a knack for cutting through complex issues, aligning people and processes, and making decisions that keep projects moving forward.
What might people find you doing outside of work?
Outside of work, my priority is being a father to my two boys, who are nine and six. When I have parenting downtime, my passion is playing drums and, every now and again, I play live for a couple of bands in town.
What are a few items on your bucket list?
I would love to travel to Portugal to see people try to surf the gigantic waves at Nazare. I’m not a surfer, yet I’m amazed that people are crazy enough to surf those waves. I would also like to visit Japan and Hawaii at some point. Besides travel, one day I plan to ride a motorcycle out to Colorado, up Pike’s Peak, because my dad used to do that with his buddies, and I feel like that would be a great tribute to him.
What are you binge-watching now? Tell us why we should watch, too!
I just recently got hooked back on Portlandia. I had started the show a long time ago, yet never finished the first season. I just recently got back into it and forgot how absurdly hilarious it is. I am a huge fan of Fred Armisen, and Carrie Brownstein is exceptionally talented – not just as a musician, yet also as an actress. You can stream it on Netflix. “Put a bird on it!”
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was at Carle and doing employee relations work post-merger between the hospital and the clinic, I had to constantly deal with lots of stressful, high-conflict situations. Sometimes it felt overwhelming, so I sought some help from their employee assistance program, much like our Faculty/Staff Assistance and Well-Being Services. My goal was to find techniques to help me through layoffs and tense employee relations issues. One theme I encountered was that I often had negative thoughts in my head about how these situations would play out, even though they hadn’t even happened. I was challenged to turn those negative thoughts into positive thoughts before each meeting, conversation, etc. For example, if I knew I was going to have to have a difficult conversation around a HIPAA violation with an employee, I would often at first think, “This is going to be really tense, emotional, and probably confrontational.” Before the meeting, I would replace that thought with something like, “I can use this as an opportunity to educate this employee on privacy laws and help them be better at their job.” I was amazed at how much better meetings went when I placed a positive thought in my head before going into them. I used that method in meetings in which employees were really struggling and encouraged them to stop and think of a positive outcome for the meeting. I highly recommend trying this technique, and I also recommend making sure to take deep breaths when you are in tense situations.