Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go. – Margaret Walker

Concern yourself with not what is right and what is wrong, but with what is important. — Unknown

“Do-so” is more important than “say-so.” – Pete Seeger

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds. – Will Rogers

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. – Truman Capote

Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right. – Henry Ford

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough – Mae West

Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. – Ross Perot

If you spend your life regretting things in the past, before you know it… you will have wasted your life on regret. — Unknown

A somebody was once a nobody who wanted to and did. – Anonymous

If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?. – Vince Lombardi

The question isn’t whether you can do it later, the question is whether you can do it now and be done with it – Fred Cuellar

I cannot predict the future, I cannot change the past, I have just this moment… — Unknown

This is only a part of the problem, and this writer has previously argued “that IT leaders need to be contributing to revenue generation or assisting to reduce costs by being involved in business led initiatives”. This requires both an understanding of the advantages of good Business Intelligence and a knowledge of the corporate direction.

The CIO needs to be a board member, but will not be invited to participate if all they can provide are tactical solutions. The CIO need to be future focused and think about how their intervention can both boost productivity and improve profitability. It is essential to think about business outcomes not the technology implication of any corporate initiative.

No-one can deny that IT has been contributing to productivity boosts through the systems implemented, yet this is not always the case as all too many corporations have a multitude of systems that cover similar working areas or procedures. Whilst much of the reason this has occurred is historical, especially where there have been corporate mergers as a fact of life. Where there are multiple systems covering the same business process it is possible this contributes to a productivity decline, not improvement.

The other aspect about improving profitability has much more to do with implementing the right analytical applications based on a business intelligence capability. All too many such applications have failed to give the required results because they are looking purely and simply at fulfilling operational and tactical reporting needs, not at the strategic requirements. It is essential today to focus of strategic outcomes more than ever before.

This strategic outcome is largely driven by analytical need. The board needs to be analysing every aspect of the corporation more than ever before. Information combined with analysis can lead to making better decisions. Additionally if you are able to measure your increasing efficiency this can lead to a competitive advantage. The truth is that corporations are faced with the constant challenge of reinventing themselves due to either corporate takeovers or adapting to the competitive market place. Having the right information at the fingertips of corporate leaders at the right time also provide the capability to react effectively.

Learning to delegate is a skill that every new manager must learn, and usually learn it fast. Yet all share one thing in common, they want to jump in and get the task completed, yet delegating correctly is actually better for the business unit, it develops the skills of the whole team and that is important for the success of the manager.

The art of delegation is largely about breaking each job into achievable tasks and entrusting that a group of competent individuals will be able to complete that assignment. Ultimately this depends on having a competent team involved in delivering the project at hand. In this context a project is defined as any block of work requiring more than a simple task to complete it. Projects can last anywhere between an hour and several months or years; typically they last several days and involve any business discipline, even those not typically associated with project work.

Delegation arguably requires a mutual level of understanding of all the things that need to be completed and when they should be completed. It can be postulated that delegation skills are rarely well understood, one of the problems being that an effective problem solver can be that they are ineffective at assigning responsibilities to members of a team that they now run. In part this is because they consider themselves as the only person capable of delivering results. Yet we all know that effective delegation helps reducing the process time and elicits collective brilliance from the team. This it can be seen the heart of the team functioning as a well oiled machine.

Letting go of the details can be a difficult thing for any person in a management position to do. It is all too easy to think that you are the only person that understands all of the details of the task at hand or perhaps it is the belief that no one else can do it as well as us. This, however, is the wrong approach. Asking assistance from others is not demonstrating a weakness, but instead it is a sign of confidence, strong management, and effective leadership. Yet many managers remember how effective they were at completing the task at hand and feel the need to jump right in, yet they should not – the task is one for their team to complete, not for themselves alone. In fact letting go of the details actually empowers the manager to take things to the next level; it is about leadership and gaining an understanding a bigger picture, which always empowers the manager.

As a manager it is important to establish a positive work environment where employees are not paralyzed by fear of failure, the effective manager must act a guide in moving projects forwards.

Further reading:

* Leadership and The Fine Art of Delegation
* Delegation: The Problem Solver Becoming The Manager
* The Effective Manager: Empowering Your Staff to Harness Their Strengths
* Delegating is Especially Difficult When Things Go Wrong
* Controlling The Success of The Delegated Task

Once you take on managerial responsibility it is necessary for someone else to be given the detailed elements and for you to move on to other responsibilities. Yet that in itself can be quite a challenge. In a recently published article (Leadership and The Fine Art of Delegation) I stated “The art of delegation is largely about breaking each and every job into workable components and entrusting that a group of competent individuals will be able to complete the work”

Letting go of the details can be a difficult thing for any boss to do. We often try to do everything because we think that we are the only person to understand the full scope of the problem. This largely is about having a team that is motivated and goal driven. Sure every team has its arguments and petty jealous challenges and the new manager is less likely to spot them than the seasoned one.

In “Delegation: The Problem Solver Becoming The Manager” – I observed that the problem solver has a serious challenge as a manager “because their normal mode of work is to identify solutions, then shift gear and fix the problems”. as a manager they have to trust others to solve the problem that they have identified, eventhough they can possibly solve the problem much faster by themselves than delegating the problem. Yet delving in rarely makes this individual an effective manager.

Actually this can be an opportunity to put into place the right frameworks to resolve problems, something that you wished were in place before becoming a manager. This is about putting in place effective procedures that lets everyone know what is happening at the same time. This framework is a part of the challenge of moving the whole business forwards. The effective manager should think about empowering their staff in order to harness their strengths so that they can become the new problem solvers.

From a management perspective in order to become a better manager this usually means increasing your skills as a leader, coach, teacher and most importantly, a motivator. Few problem solvers think about these aspects when they are solving problems, yet they are powerful tools in the hand of the problem solving manager. Ultimately the manager must takes on this responsibility on behalf of their team in order to improve their effectiveness. In addition they must know what their limits are, know when to say NO!

one of the key elements here is that we all have to learn how to communicate better. This is an ongoing challenge that we must regularly focus on. It is perhaps one of the reasons that drove me to join Toatmasters; the perennial challenge of improving how to communicate. I never considered myself a bad communicator yet I knew there were areas that I needed to improve in. In reality communications will be one of the biggest challenges of our lives.

In reality we have to let go of one set of detailed problems in order to understand a new set of problems. The details and the challenge do change – we enhance our own capabilities and we grow.

In this case moving the weekly status meeting from 4pm on Tuesday to 10am on Thursday allowed Alex to leave on-time every week and not miss large sections of his class. It also allowed others in the team to take part in the  the regular friendly football games that evening, boosting their fitness and energy levels.

Leadership is complex and naturally enough it is primarily focused on achieving corporate or business goals, yet often paying attention to the little things can make the important things run smoothly. These days most people are working extra hours and handling more tasks than ever before, but is this a reason for forgetting that people have personal lives and that time off recharges personal batteries.

Staff in the accounting and administration department for one company were forced to work compulsory overtime every weekend for one whole day in order to sort out the accounting mess that had arisen due to a business acquisition and procedural changes. This compulsory overtime lasted for a period of five months. By the end of the period every member of staff was complaining how drained they felt, some even stated that  working the extra day achieved nothing as their productivity was at an all-time low. Such actions may be necessary to solve a specific problem, the accounting consolidation, but there is no reason why the following year there also has to be a repeat performance, just to close the accounts at the year end.

In this case the right procedures needed to be in place to ensure that all the right steps were taken at the appropriate time. We know that there are more complex compliance and regulatory issues that must be managed for any business, but they need to be managed as a part of the normal everyday activities, whether that is by staff or through automated processes is an operation decision to be made. Key here is that doing the right thing at the right time often alleviates the need to clean up a mess later. Again a matter of training for those involved at the coal-face, but it is a question of leadership for the management team.

The key to achieving goals and visions is in managing them through small, yet achievable steps and celebrating each success along the way, as well as learning whatever lessons we can from both our failures and successes. Individual and personal goals, being achieved will help everyone move forward and that is important for the success of a team.

All goals are achievable provided everyone is motivated. Remembering back to our earlier school days obtaining a gold star was a matter of personal pride, particularly when it was on an achievement chart for everyone to see. We are all aware of the challenges facing our organisation. For those in a leading role it is important to both listen and take action when necessary. It is a series of small steps that can often make the difference, and as Neil Armstrong once said “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” What steps are you taking?

“If driven by IT, the decision is more focused on operational and architectural considerations than business requirements.”

This is a comment that seems to have been doing the rounds recently in one form or another. Lets examine more closely to see who should be responsible for project decision making.

Actually the information technology department must always take into consideration a variety of views when making a decision to purchase any software; including:

◊ Business needs

◊ Business processes

◊ Functionality offered

◊ The technology architecture

◊ Cost

◊ ROI

When a decision is made entirely by the business community then this can lead to inconsistencies in the corporate architecture, which can increase operational costs, particularly in solutions where data integration is required, for example the BI solution.

Having worked on a large number of projects over the years there is one one consistent part of any successful project – the views of the business. The author has much experience delivering projects, on one occasion he worked on two simultaneous projects to deliver the same type of solution run at two different corporations having a similar technology architecture. The results of the selection process led to the selection of two different products, all because of the business focus of the selection process.

Tough times do call for strategic decision making, but that does need to be a balanced decision considering all of the factors involved. Purchasing of solutions is never simple, but too many companies fail to perform a comprehensive business process review – the make a sweeping assumption that they must replace their ailing ERP solution. All too often it is the business process itself that is broken, not the system that supports it. Simply replacing the system without fixing the business process will only give short term gratification, within five years that corporation will be changing systems yet again; more dissatisfied than ever before with the level of service offered by their IT department. Yet the basic problem is not an IT one.

Deployments should always be executed in the best interests of the business. The way to ensure this occurs is having business boards control the spending of project budgets. It is through the partnership of business and technology management that there is the right level of sponsorship and intervention. It is not about inter-departmental turf wars, but synergy and achieving broader business goals.

Inter-systems integration can often one of the greatest challenges faced for any specific deployment. Business intelligence is always a crucial factor to consider. BI solutions must be ongoing within any corporation; every new system brings new data, which is required to continue developing the analytical capabilities. Of course any business analytics capability must grow even if there are no new systems being added.

The net result of all this change should always be a leaner and more focused organisation that is able to make intelligent, fact based decisions across the business.

For some in the industry that ability to be a specialist is the driving force behind the whole of their career – they wish to develop their skills and showcase an ability in a specific area. Yet for others that is not sufficient. So what knowledge and skills does a good CIO need?

Finance:

Generally there is nothing more important to a corporation than its finance solutions. It is a core capability and IT has a very important role to play. The astute IT leader needs to understand the impact of financial solutions and how they add value to the organisation.

Business Intelligence

A working knowledge of the contribution made by Business Intelligence to the corporate well being is a key skill. This is not purely about financial reporting, but is interlaced with marketing and operational elements and the contribution they make to corporate growth.

Managing Budgets

Managing projects is the starting point. Projects all have their own budgets that have to be controlled but this is only the starting point. The more complex the budgeting scenario the more prepared an individual can become for the step up the ladder.

Strategy

The more the IT Leader develops the more they are involved in strategic thinking. There are any number of new imperatives that impact the business. The majority change the organisation to some extent, but not all impact IT systems. It is essential to develop a strategic mind, which includes both business and technology futures.

Corporate Architecture

The CIO has to take a more holistic view and consider the single system within a wider context. An understanding of the key architectural assets: applications; data; storage; security; network. It is not necessary to have a detailed knowledge of each but a detailed knowledge of two specialities and a broad understanding of the others. This is still applicable as the architecture goes into the cloud.

Marketing

This demonstrates an understanding of the markets in which the corporation is active. Communications, positioning, and promotion are key parts of marketing and skills an IT leader should develop. Marketing is another client of the Business Intelligence solution which underpins finance, marketing and operational activity.

Communications

Any leader must have an ability to communicate well with the business community and senior executives. Business analysts and project managers typically develop this ability during their project work but many others in IT can be afraid to venture out of their shell.

Operations

Develop an understanding of the business operations. Parts of the business, like manufacturing, may not seem sexy, but IT systems have an impact in each area and should add value to each.

Organisational Change

All businesses change, it is a simple fact of life, growth, diversity, mergers, etc. all impact the way that a business is managed. The CIO needs to understand the way that an organisation is changing and to some extent anticipate this. Processes and systems do need to change in response to the ever changing business landscape.

Legal Understanding

IT is becoming increasingly impacted by legal change. SOX is merely the tip of the iceberg here. The IT Leader does need to consider the systems impact of new laws implemented in their jurisdiction and ensure their department is prepared. One current example here is e-discovery in the case of any legal action.

Organisational Development

In addition to contributing to change the CIO should be involved with ensuring that the people side to the organisation develops. This is not just a matter of IT people getting appropriate training, but in ensuring that the business community develops appropriate skills. This is normally managed in association with HR.

Conclusion

Armed with skills in each of these areas the young IT professional that is seeking can develop to become a future CIO. It is essential to understand that the ground is changing and the role of CIO is not the same today as it was perhaps ten years ago and the role is also changing right now. These are the skills that are necessary to develop as a future leader. Most importantly the CIO must add value to the organisation. Additionally it is important to build a network of business connections, that network is essential for your future growth.

The addition of new technologies, like cloud computing, and social media we have new ways to access and publish important data and statistics about our trade or industry sector. Our ability to make good decisions should largely be based on the data that can be obtained about the subject at hand, and on the analysis of results identified. This should be the basis for the most informed decisions made, yet many of the business managers who interpret the results all too often prefer to use their own gut-instinct than believe the report in front of them.

Is it natural? Yes, but that does not make it right. If a business is going to invest millions of dollars into its data and information systems over a long period of time ensuring automated processes are closely linked to business activity then ensuring that the results are taken seriously is an imperative. To assess a set of results and dismiss them is one matter, but to ignore them altogether is another.

The latter course is the dangerous path that a large number of managers find they are taking because they do not have time in their schedule to understand the results. This is a case of making time to ensure that the groundwork is laid before the critical decision must be made. For example are all those meetings necessary? If they are then can someone else attend? Or can the work be done another way? It is necessary to step back and understand the analysis before making that decision. Remember in most non-critical matters 80 percent of your return comes from 20 percent of your effort and often inordinate effort is spent attaining perfection, when it need not be. Non-critical matters can always be temporarily put on the back-burner, or delegated, when time is of the essence for a critical decision.

Business is in a state of continuous improvement. Look at the history of any corporation, it is unlikely to be run the same way today as it was twenty years ago. Yet that seems to be the way in which some decision are often made. For that improvement to be truly effective across the corporate culture then informed decision making needs to be a part of that picture. Some elements that require thought:

◊ Informed decision making requires more holistic thinking

◊ Sound science is a critical component of sound decision making

◊ The scientific results are a means to making informed decisions, not an end in themselves

◊Provided with reliable information and reliable tools to process it, people will make decisions that are good for themselves and their corporation.

Armed with some thinking in each of these areas it is possible to make better use of the information available throughout the decision making process.

My biggest concern here is not what Google is not doing now – that is what they should have always done. If any government wishes to censor the Internet they have to find a way to do it themselves and not expect co-operation from an international corporation.

The point here is that any company that is operating internationally has a duty, perhaps more than any single nation state, to function in association with international treaties. This type of issue will not be going away any time soon, it also applies to a variety of on-line services such as social networking sites. Twitter has found itself being blocked in China in relation to freedom of speech. In my view it is better to be blocked than to comply.

Now China is certainly not the only country to violate the basic freedoms or even make attacks on people’s rights of thought, conscience, opinion, speech, and expression. Switzerland with its ban on minarets attacks religious freedom. From a business perspective these can be complex questions, for Google in particular breaching their “Don’t be evil” motto has an impact on their business ethics. How each corporation acts is of-course entirely up to them, but it is important to make consistent policy and live by it.

This short walk down the corridor often speaks volumes more than the weekly project meeting. To me this signals a time when a one-to-one meeting is required, in order to get to the bottom of the problem.

With remote team members this type of reaction seeking or non-verbal communication is not evident. It is possible to hear fear when a person speaks, yet in a teleconference it is possible to hide – simply by remaining silent. When you are in a teleconference with your remote team members do you ever ask for personal feedback from every person present? Trouble is that it is all too easy to forget the silent ones even in a face-to-face meeting.

Generally speaking in any meeting there are two reasons to be silent. Firstly shyness, and secondly because that individual has something to hide.

Shyness is a symptom of managing comfort zones. We can all be shy when confronted with something new, and perhaps a little intimidated particularly when we understand very little about it. It can normally be managed by coaxing that person out of their existing comfort zone and expanding that comfort zone to include the new working environment.

Having something to hide is a different matter. These team members are the onces who are most likely to bring bad results on a project, irrespective of the circumstances. Projects are always limited by time and resources, whenever there are problems it is always vital to share. Managing projects via Agile methods does allow problem areas to be ring-fenced and focused on more thoroughly at a later stage. I am always more concerned about those who hide away because they have a problem than I am the shy person.

Despite sayings like “a problem shared is a problem halved” having entered the main-flow of society, people tend to be concerned that when a problem is identified then it is their personal challenge to solve it. They hide the problem in the hope that no-one finds out about the problem. Sadly this is the point when it starts to have a negative impact on everything that you do. Project working is not generally the place for heroics. That person who focuses on the problem and tends to lose sight of their deliverables.  Here we are back at the team member who rushes back the other way when when they see you, their manager, in the corridor. Something is wrong here and needs to be solved.

BUT how do you do this when the person is working remotely? Many project managers believe that having remote workers is too risky. Yet it is the things we do not wish to do that we are often forced to do.  There is a certain amount that can be achieved by regular visits to remote sites, yet at all times you remain a stranger at that remote location – so there is a psychology to managing remote visits. Remote project workers are a fact of life, as are constrained project budgets. The latter reduces out ability to complete regular remote-site visits, so it is essential to identify remoteness challenges of virtual teams in other ways.

It is vital all virtual team members are a part of developing and following the team plan – this must be lived and breathed. Knowing each remote worker is important – you probably need to spend a disproportionately high amount of time developing this relationship. You need to stay in touch, daily is best; set and follow an agenda for all meetings – ensure it is business focused. Leverage technology where appropriate – particularly collaboration tools.