In any business, the IT team can almost be considered the worker bees. Buzzing away underneath the surface, they are the ones that make your organisation function. But an IT department is a combination of the right people, skills, and adaptability. Technology changes so much and therefore you need a flexible and dynamic team. What does it really take for you to give your IT team the things they want?
Give Them More Autonomy
Autonomy is an essential part of giving your IT team the tools to thrive. If you have a team of developers that are implementing a developer-centric payment processing solution, it is essential to allow them the freedom to do what they want but make sure that you are communicating your needs clearly. It is a difficult ship to steer and this is why you need to ensure that if you want to instil accountability giving them autonomy is the first step but you still need to manage expectations especially as you will encounter complications that only they will be able to solve.
Apply the Right Pressure
Because IT systems invariably falter, if you are then tasked with leading an IT team but do not have an intricate understanding of the technology this can result in a lot of conflicts because if they are telling you it will take X amount of time to fix this issue that you don’t have that amount of time it’s important to meet them halfway but also not let them throw the toys out of the pram because they know how to deal with the equipment and you don’t.
There’s the needs of the business and then there’s the needs of the systems and you have to come to an understanding between the two. You may need to motivate your IT team more, especially if they are kicking back against every little demand you place upon them. This is why showing them the impacts on the bigger picture will give them a sense of motivation underpinned by a better understanding of how they need to achieve certain goals. Because an IT team can be left to their own devices we have to make them feel more involved and this over time will instigate a better duty of care towards the company.
Understand Where They Could Improve
If you are leading an IT team and you don’t understand a lot of the components, you can still give them what they want and empower them to do better work by highlighting areas for development. You can develop your workforce over time to point them in the right direction and this means extra training in different areas, not just in relation to the technical skills but also in relation to the skills they need to develop within the organisation. We can easily play into the hands of an IT team because we don’t necessarily understand what they need, but we still need to lead from the front and recognise that they have a major input into the needs of the business. We need to have a better understanding of them, but also they need to have a better understanding of us.
