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September 27, 1999

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As more systems become dated, first-line supervisors of maintenance people must increase feedback and explain how the project is critical to the success of the business and its customers. In most banks and insurance companies, more than 70% of the systems work is maintenance.

The second thing managers must do is provide strong leadership during periods of rapid and random change. Despite the seemingly never-ending change swirling around technology and its application to business, IT leaders must provide a sense of consistency and stability to ensure their staffs that the company, and more specifically the IT department, has not lost its focus.

IT leaders must communicate adequately with the staff. "Listen to your people," says Dave Zitur, VP of shared services at conglomerate Carlson Cos. in Minneapolis. "Communicate what you are doing so others can see that you are walking the talk."

Providing strong leadership also means showing confidence in the staff. IT managers often tell people on their staff that they are empowered. Yet, when a serious technical problem arises-a problem that someone else is capable of handling-the manager takes it upon himself to solve it. In that instance, empowerment exists in word only.

Furthermore, technology leaders must constantly demonstrate the values of the company. Individual contributors are very sensitive (they may be overly sensitive) to their leaders' moods and behaviors. No action goes unnoticed.

Third, IT leadership must provide for workers' personal development. People don't want to feel limited in terms of what they can do or how they can advance in their careers, especially when so much opportunity seems to be knocking at the door in the form of other job offers.

Managers should be open to allowing people in different IT jobs to attend leading-edge technology conferences and giving people a clearly defined career path that doesn't lock them into a certain type of job, computer language, or technology.

Consider job rotation. Many customers want to keep the maintenance programmers on their project to get good support; however, these programmers shouldn't be trapped in a job that will limit their personal development and continual contributions to the company.

New Technologies
Along these lines, the fourth strategy is that IT management must let people learn new technologies as they emerge and learn how they apply to business. "In the world of E-business, it becomes mandatory for IT professionals to understand both business strategy and business processes," says John Finegan, president and CEO of Management Technology Group Inc., a systems integration firm in Englewood, Colo. "The development of E-commerce software products requires that a business need be translated into accurate application specifications."

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