Strategies and Trends for Information Technology Leaders
What is at the top of the list is for people is to feel like their work matters; that it counts for something. The companies who create meaning for the work keep their employees engaged and productive through the business downturns and budget cuts I recently heard part of an interview with Dan Ariely about…
Running an IT organization is very much about optimizing cost and risk: What is the lowest cost way to deliver each service without risking the required service level? What must be developed or managed internally and what should be outsourced? Once you get clear on that, how do you then think about the ROI for…
There is constant pressure to do the urgent things that come in but even without the urgent stuff, IT backlogs typically are huge and new requests may get placed so far down the list it’s more like saying “No” than actually doing anything about it. In this economy and job market, people don’t want to…
In past articles I have talked about building your IT-business alignment efforts, credibility and relevance by basing your IT priorities, budget and conversations on the things that the business cares most about. Critical to getting this done is to have conversations with your business stakeholders to understand what is important to them. You then need…
If you want to get your team to actually implement your IT strategy, key initiative or change agenda, watch out for the following: Lack of Clarity – Everyone is clear on the big picture, but really fuzzy about what specific actions to take, what projects to prioritize and what things to measure. They might be…
Being the smartest one in the room is not easy position to be in. In IT you face this situation regularly; especially when you are in a roomful of non-IT people and you need to make progress on a discussion about technology. You know the answer. You get there before everyone else. It is frustrating…
What do you do about those nice, loyal employees, who are not capable of stepping up as your business challenges grow? You can’t fire them for poor performance because they are not problem employees, but you also know they are not what you need to deliver the business outcomes you are on the hook to…
Last month,I wrote about being more relevant by basing your discussions with the business on things they already know and care about. If you need to educate people on what you are doing … you are not relevant. Recently, I’ve come across some data from Gartner which illustrates this issue loud and clear. It shows…
Over the years, I have written a lot on the topic of credibility (see sidebar). Over and above delivering great results, building your credibility is necessary to enhance both your effectiveness and survivability as a CIO. It helps you avoid stupid questions, re-work, and endlessly defending your honor (and your budget). After credibility, relevance is…
As I’ve been writing about this and working with IT organizations, I see that CIO’s fall into two camps regarding taking ownership of IT/business alignment: “Not my job.” Some CIO’s have given me pretty direct feedback that people like me should get out of the way, and stop giving IT a bad rap. And that…