The Savvy Manager: Our Company, Our Team and Ourselves

By Mike Bohlmann

April 15, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 2)

Being a manager in IT is a challenging and often thankless job,but there are steps that we can take to “make things better.” Making things better, though, involves keeping multiple things in mind—the company, our team and ourselves. To get things going in “The Savvy Manager,” let's look at these components and some of the issues we should have in our thoughts.

Business-IT Alignment

This topic has been getting a lot more coverage in the trade press in the last few years as companies recovered from the dot.com bust with the realization that IT is not a magic potion. We are getting more scrutiny over the work we do as IT workers, the projects we propose and the way we spend our time. Business-IT alignment is the concept of making IT strategy and operations match with the business or organizational strategy and operations. A business' strategy and operations are a complex mix of issues that include everything from customers to inventory management to company policies to the cleaning staff. While you may not have control or input on IT strategy for your whole organization, you have a role in at least a part of making it align with the business. Jerry Luftman, Raymond Papt and Tom Brier published an article several years ago that showed the results of their research into enablers and inhibitors of business-IT alignment, and you probably have a role to play in them that you may not initially realize:

•    Senior executive support for IT
•    IT involvement with business strategy
•    IT understanding of the industry
•    Partnership between IT and the rest of the business
•    Good IT project priorities
•    Demonstrated IT leadership
•    IT meeting its commitments

Up From the Basement

Whether you are a system administrator in a small IT group or the director of a large data center, you need to have some skills for managing and leading people. The days of the IT worker sitting in the basement where he or she can avoid contact with the rest of the company are long gone. As IT workers, we likely take part in groups and teams throughout the company that might be purely IT people or consist of people from different departments throughout  the business. Being able to manage relationships within an organization is an important skill to have, especially when the economy is struggling. This area is probably the least IT-specific, except when it comes to leading and managing other IT people. IT workers are a different sort of worker in that their work is very cerebral and knowledge-based. People working in the IT area are also almost always thirsty for new knowledge and skills and can get bored in jobs where they do not have opportunities to learn new things.

Personal Development

Related Search Term(s): IT management

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