THE UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO
I was talking to some business leaders last week about what it means to be an IT leader today. I certainly have seen the role of an IT leader in an organization evolve over the last 20+ years of my career. While technical leadership is still an important part of the job, today it is just your entry fee to sit at the executive table. Thinking like a business executive is more critical than ever in an IT leadership role. I’m not saying it wasn’t important before, but with technology change and evolution happening faster than ever before (and it has picked up the pace since the pandemic), the IT leader of the today really needs to bridge the gap between the business and the technology operations….sort of acting like a translator for the business. When they asked me how I see myself as an IT leader, I used that translator analogy. The business leaders are looking for ways to make money or save money for the company…and just get things done! Today, that often means they need to engage IT to accomplish those goals. They don’t want to hear all the reasons why they can’t do something…they just want it to happen. IT can’t just be the group of “NO”. IT still plays an important role in protecting the company, but they need to engage with the business and think like they do. IT leaders need to be able to communicate on terms the business leaders know and understand. You have to be able to talk about the strategic and financial considerations. You have to break down complex IT components into the context the business leaders will understand and appreciate…things like risk, cost, timelines, etc. After you have gathered all that insight and requirements from the business, you then have to turn around and be able to translate that to your IT teams. There is no better example of that than in a previous role where I was working with a company on this great new web app they wanted to help automate a very manual process they had. Sitting in our planning meetings with them, we are asking them questions not about technical requirements, but about their business requirements. I wanted to know the context of how their business operates and why this was important to them. I wanted to know how their process worked today, where the pain points where, and how they wanted to see things work. (Don’t assume you know everything about a business process even if you have been working there for a long time!) It helped show the value and the ROI of the app we were going to develop. Asking the questions while keeping in mind the technical tasks and hurdles is important too, so you don’t create unrealistic expectations about what’s possible….at least within the bounds of cost and resource limitations. From there I could summarize how things would work and function from a business perspective. Now comes the translation part… When you take the business requirements and needs back to your technology teams, you have to be able to talk them about how that should work in a technical framework. As an IT leader, it doesn’t mean you have to know all the intricate technical details or be able to program it yourself, but you have to understand the technology concepts and frameworks to make that happen. Your technical teams of developers, analysts, or administrators may not know or understand the business context of these requests. That’s where you as the IT leader you have to translate back and forth and bridge the divide! You have to collaborate with your IT team to find the best solution (not necessarily perfect!) to bring that idea to life. And where you have limitations or gaps that can’t be reasonably bridged by the current technology or resources, then as the IT leader you need to be able to articulate that back to the business in the terms they can understand and appreciate like cost, resources, time, etc. The modern IT leader translates and brings the business and technology together!
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About Shawn:My philosophy as an IT leader today is that I believe you must first and foremost be a business leader. It is my goal to be a strategic partner with the business to help it make money, save money, and be the absolute best in the industry at what we do. Having the technology competencies and experience is just your entry fee to sit at the table. Every day, I am bringing 20+ years of IT experience to the table in the areas such as:
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