How far we've come...and how far we still have to go.

A number of years ago I attended a one-day management seminar held near my office in the Bay Area; at the time I was CIO of an insurance company headquartered near San Franciso..  The featured speaker was a psychologist who worked at one of the country's well known "polytechnic" institutes.  His job focus was to assess the capabilities of the institute's students to someday move into a management role.  The reason for this interest was the very short "half-life" of technology knowledge - then, it was five years and it's likely less today.   The speaker's program was funded by companies interested in identifying employment candidates with management potential they could use as technical skills waned.  I remember vividly one thing the speaker said about the IT students he'd tested.  What he said was "To date in our program we have yet to find a student in the school of Information Technology who has any managerial interest or promise".  Well!  The seminar's audience was small but I don't think the speaker knew who I was or what I did.  At least I hope he didn't. At the time, however, the remark reinforced a tongue-in-cheek theory I'd had for awhile about the whole "geek in management" situation, i.e. when an IT manager was needed a company simply looked at who was available and put the least offensive one in charge!

I think we've come a long way over the years in our management skills. We are much more a part of most companies' management teams, work more closely with our HR divisions and generally take more seriously the overall importance of sound management.  Even given that, though, there's one area where I think we still have a way to go.  While we may have learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of management, I think we have a long way to go regarding our leadership vision and leadership skills.  And management and leadership are very different things. 

Comments (2) >>

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written by Brett McPhee, January 14, 2007

Not quite sure I fully agree with "I think we've come a long way over the years in our management skills" but do fully agree with "we are much more a part of most companies' management teams" and "generally take more seriously the overall importance of sound management". Working as a web and software developer for one of Australia's largest Commonwealth Government Agencies, I can certainly say I have been allowed, even invited, to be a member of some of the internal management teams. But there would be skepticism if I were to put my hand up to occupy a management role, even though I have done that for several years, prior to the geek coming through.

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written by Paul M. Williams, January 17, 2007

In any absolute sense you're right; we do have more work to do in getting many ITers thinking and acting in "management" terms, even those with the title. However, I believe relatively we've come a long way since I started in the '60s, although admittedly that's my judgment based on my experiences.

I have also seen an increasing ability to break-through to management acceptance at various levels, from IT manager to CIO. Sometimes the acceptance may feel almost "grudging" and incomplete, and sometimes not (more than one CIO is on a company's Executive Committee and one ex-boss of mine even became vice-chairman of the board of a several billion dollar, non-IT company). Perhaps it takes more work for us than for, say, a finance MBA with similar background and work ethics. And it means we have to be alert to, and push for, the opportunities. But it can be done. So I'd encourage you to "put your hand up" and see what happens. You might be surprised.

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