I received a request for help this week from an IT manager who is about to be considered for the top IT manager position in his area of the company as his manager is promoted to a more senior position. He asked for my input to be sure he is prepared for the senior level evaluation he may go through.
The question:
Hi Mike,
I need your urgent assistance. I am due for an interview for the position of Head of IT in my organization.
Could you kindly recommend some materials to prepare me for this interview. I already have some advantage as I happen to act in this position when my boss is not available. However, there is a colleague of mine who is also interested and as a result an internal advertisement has been placed to all interested staff. I don’t want to take anything for granted. I need your assistance urgently.
My immediate boss is taking a regional IT position. The panel is likely to be high level.
Regards.
My response:
Hello _________,
I think one of the best resources might be my ITLever Blog at www.itlever.com. If you go to the home page and do a search using the search function on the right-hand panel, you will find articles that can be helpful. I would search “business value” and you will find several articles. Business value is the key to an IT organization’s success, , , if your organization only focuses on technology and does not deliver business value, your clients (senior managers and department managers of the company) will not view IT as successful and certainly not as a partner.
I just did a search on the blog using “business value” and one of the first articles I posted in it is key: https://itlever.com/2010/05/25/business-value-is-key/
Two other posts that I think will give you good insight are:
https://itlever.com/2010/08/10/transition-from-technical-expert-to-business-manager/
https://itlever.com/2010/08/24/are-you-presenting-at-the-right-level/
There are about 100 articles posted on the ITLever Blog and many tools you may download. I would suggest looking through all the posts, , , you never know what might be helpful to you.
Also, a 20 Minute IT Manager session or two may be helpful as well.
I believe there are three key reasons why an IT organization fails, , , I call it the Triple Threat to IT Success. Take a look at my e-Learning session on this topic, , , we have a library of 162 of these at www.20minuteitmanager.com.
http://www.20minuteitmanager.com/sessions/072202TRIPLETHREAT/
A good reporting tool for you to use for your boss and also for senior management of the company is an IT Initiatives Portfolio. Check out this training session at: http://www.20minuteitmanager.com/sessions/062402INITPORT/
Another 20 Minute IT Manager session helps you understand the dynamics of IT people’s work behavior, might be a real eye-opener for you: http://www.20minuteitmanager.com/sessions/061202WORKBEHAV
Hope this helps,
Conclusion
I receive many questions like this one and hope that by sharing some of them from time to time they are helpful to you. Best of success.
ITLever™ 