As an IT leader, you understand that change is essential. You know that transformation is an on-going movement, not a one-off project. But what makes a great IT leader in the current market? In this article, I discuss ways to prove your leadership value in transformation roles.
What are the top challenges IT Directors face today?
Today’s IT challenges are complex and nuanced: IT Directors must be able to understand and grapple with:
-
The increasing pace and rate of change
-
Complex systems integrations, processes, and applications
-
Ongoing pressure to run leaner departments, alongside a desire to innovate
-
Cybersecurity threats
-
Regulatory and audit-related issues taking time away from revenue-generating activities
-
Legacy systems control and the complexity of new adoption projects
-
Lack of control over 3rd party suppliers, particularly in cloud
(Source: Allan Boardman, International Vice President of ISACA)
The role of IT Director will look different in every organisation. So, what are the common denominators? Benchmark yourself against these industry-demanded traits and experiences.
Learn from failure
Failures inevitably happen in IT despite your best efforts to minimise them. As the saying goes, "Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it." You need to create a "safe to fail" environment.
“Often times we hear, ‘of course, we encourage people to take risks, but we don’t get enough of it.’ Why? It can be due to the consequences of what happens when something doesn’t work. If it is called out in a bad way, people will shy away from risk taking. Now, you don’t want people taking risks willy-nilly. Rather, it should be calculated risks in consciously chosen areas. The leader needs to help define the boundaries and act in the right way when a ‘failure’ happens. This takes vigilance over time."
Robert Hewes, senior partner at Camden Consulting Group for CIO Magazine
When you're deep in the IT trenches, your saviour will be thorough, objective reporting and analysis after the fact. You should also be able to own your mistakes - nobody wins when you're playing the blame game.
Be truly accountable
The buck stops with you as an IT leader. Accountability culture is touted by the Corporate Governance Institute as key for making sure directors make careful choices; reducing risk. As an IT Director, accountability looks like demonstrating strong oversight in areas like evaluation and CSG, as well as identifying key issues and prioritising under pressure.
Empower and lead your teams
"Empower" has evolved into a jargonistic buzzword; heavily overused. What it really means is clearly signposting the direction projects need to take, and giving your teams the resources and support they need to do their jobs. Leading change problems means understanding that lots of people really struggle with change. You need to lead a movement, not just deliver a series of projects.
Spot potential and nurture it
With the UK facing a data and digital skills deficit, you should be looking to home-grow the talent you need to bring your transformation initiatives to fruition. Are you leading the charge when it comes to progression planning and introducing training opportunities for your staff?
As I wrote in my recent piece on closing the data skills gap, “"What’s becoming clear to me is if we don’t invest in entry-level cohorts, existing talent will upskill or age out of the industry. Skilled employees will become more expensive and harder to source.”
For your transformation initiatives, this could manifest in a loss of pace, failure to deliver, or difficulty resourcing projects.
If you’re looking to hire tech talent, our 3 simple services make it quick, quality, and cost-effective.
Make complex information simple
Einstein's famous quote "if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough", is the yardstick you should measure your communications against.
Preserving meaning whilst ensuring brevity is no simple task, but considering these tips is a good start:
-
Stay on-message, all the time - repetition is key for achieving buy-in
-
Be a great listener - ask clarifying questions and dig into what's meant, not just what is said
-
Make it make sense - bring your conversations back to "have we reached a mutual understanding?"
-
You're responsible for failure to communicate effectively - push for clarity, always
As an IT director, your output should be the clarity your teams sorely need.
More like this
The Lookout is a quarterly report on the state of the UK technology market, bringing you timely salary, skills, and hiring insights so you can make an intelligent approach to the job market. Subscribe here.
Quick Links
Head In The Cloud: Security For A Hyper-connected Era
