A big problem in a lot of IT organisations is that the people who have been your greatest assets can become your biggest problems as you realign IT to be part of the overall business.
IT techies are driven and excited by big-brain work, not by trying to work out how their pet projects add value to the bottom-line. They’ve often got to where they are through sheer brainpower, not by playing power politics, and have never thought about the business plan let alone seen it. Do any of the following conversation snippets ring a bell;
- People skills? Why would I need them!
- Look, if they don’t understand my idea they’re obviously too stupid to bother with!
- It’s cutting edge, what more could they want!
If you’re like me, you’ve had many of these conversations and ‘enjoyed’ the frustration that comes with them. Now here’s the rub – unless you win these people over to a business-focussed way of thinking you are going to have to get replace them. No compromises or silly attempts at hiding them behind line managers; unless you replace these people they could take you down with them before you know it.
There are many ways to go about achieving this goal. One method I’ve used in the past was to bring key business leaders into my team meetings to present their latest plans. I regularly found that these presentations generated a lot of questions which gave me good opportunities to show how the work we were doing tied directly into the business plan. Another approach is to start taking your key people along to meetings you have with business teams so they’re exposed to your world more often.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to have your key IT staff develop soft skills and business focus. It will definitely help your group to be seen as real partners by the business.
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