ITLever™

Creating an environment where people know you are receptive to their ideas, needs, and inquiries is key toward building trust.

An “open door” environment (notice I didn’t say “policy”) can help you create the trust you need to be effective.

Your clients and users will be more open to discussing problems and working with you to develop solutions to those problems when you don’t “shoot the messenger”.

Employees will trust the fact that they can be open and honest about issues with their manager when they aren’t penalized for discussing tough subjects.

To have an open door process, you have to do more than just state that you have one. How you go about handling those who seek your counsel and advice will set the tone for whether your IT organization actually provides an open door “environment” or simply refers to a “policy”.

Creating the right environment to work in is by far more important than creating a policy.

Don’t get this tip confused with a legitimate “open door policy” where an employee has the ability to talk to your boss about an issue. This is important but not what I’m focusing on in this article.

You want to create an environment where people feel comfortable, even encouraged, in coming to talk with you about their issues. If you don’t create such an environment, the big loser will be you, , , so ask yourself the question, “Are people comfortable in discussing their problems with you?” If not, you need to make some changes that helps them get there.

Motivating employees is something I really like to do. It’s a conscious thought and a deliberate, proactive effort that you must go through when managing an IT Organization.

Employees want and need leadership. They want to be “pumped up” and feel energized in doing their work. One of the most gratifying things is being part of an organization that is all focused on the same objective and is “charging up the hill” to reach it’s destination.

Motivating employees begins with honesty, respect, and an understanding of what motivates an individual.

People are not motivated by deception, being taken advantage of, or being kept in the dark. Showing respect means sharing your company’s objectives and how your IT Organizations fits into the grand scheme of things.

When I was a young employee at IBM, I enjoyed the comradeship and the monthly branch meetings with recognition and agendas that focused our efforts. Much of these principles are what I take to a new IT organization as their IT manager.

My book, IT Staff Motivation and Development, provides insight into the process I use and many of the techniques I use to “pump up” the staff. The most important aspect is that you must genuinely care about your staff and do all that you can do to help them be successful. You must recognize that their individual successes lead to the organization’s success which leads to your success.

You will not be a successful IT manager unless your people are successful. What this means is that your job is to do everything you can to support your staff and help each person be successful. If they are, then you will become successful as a result.

Here are a few techniques I have used. Just remember, if you aren’t sincere it will have an opposite effect.

• Schedule monthly staff meetings to recognize achievement
• Hand out ice cream sandwiches in the afternoon
• Award an evening on the town for results
• Develop a training program for your staff (learning new things is always one of the top motivations for IT employees)
• Pizza lunches
• Motivational films
• Give your staff credit for accomplishments and take the “hit” as their manager for your organization’s failures
• Be a positive force and set the tone with positive energy in the company
• Reward desired behavior as well as successes
• Do some things to interject some fun in your staff’s day

Motivating employees happens because you decide to make it happen and you implement a strategy to do so; it doesn’t happen by accident. Take a look at yourself and think about what motivated you as an employee. You will find that many of these things still work with today’s employees.

Ultimately, it’s more about caring for others and respect for the individual than anything else. When you do, it shows them that you truly appreciate their efforts, , , and this goes a long, long way.

Measuring IT expense as a percentage of revenue is a key measurement many senior executives use to evaluate what it is costing the company for technology support.

The calculation is simple:   Take your IT organization’s total expense and divide it by the revenue of your company.

If you only support a division of your company, use the revenue for just that division to keep from skewing your number and to make it an appropriate measurement.

I have looked for industry standards but haven’t found any that I thought were reliable, , , and there is often a real problem with so called standards anyway.

Here’s why. You can take two almost identical companies in the same industry with roughly the same revenue base, similar number of clients, etc., and the cost to support their technology may be vastly different for valid reasons.

If one company is highly automated with a single primary business application while the second company has very little automation and multiple technologies due to recent acquisitions, the needs are totally different, , , even though they may be roughly the same size. The point is: their issues are totally different so they have different support requirements.

On the surface they can look similar in many respects such as revenue, # of clients, same industry and mission, etc.

Closer inspection shows that the two companies are so different that from a technology needs standpoint, they barely resemble one another.

The automated company may be spending half as much in an IT expense as a percent of revenue measurement as the other company and they could both be spending at an appropriate level. In fact, the company with little automation and many systems from their acquisition activities might need to even be spending more to support their technology situation.

What this means is that you have to be careful with “industry standards”. If you don’t look at the underlying issues, industry averages or “standards” can get you in trouble.

The real issue boils down to spending at a level that is appropriate for the business at any given time based upon the circumstances you have and what you are trying to do.

That’s why I place so much emphasis on conducting a thorough IT assessment. It is the key piece that tells you what you need to know in order to make a positive impact for your company in your IT Manager role by addressing the needs and issues of the business.

If you are interested in learning how to conduct an effective IT assessment, take a look at IT Due Diligence. It contains a complete process and tools that walk you through it.

I joined a small company one time that had two operating divisions that operated as completely separate entities other than a few corporate support functions. What was interesting about this was the fact that the main focus of the company (our core competency) was in the larger division making up over 90% of the company’s revenue.

The smaller division had significant challenges including a lack of management focus and needed lots of attention to turn it around. It was also located some 500 miles away from our corporate office.

The other challenge this division had was that it was a very capital intense organization due to costly equipment requirements to provide specific services that made it somewhat unique. It was truly a unique business and a desirable option for our company, , , but there were other challenges in the company that needed a very limited resource called cash.

As an executive team, we liked the fact that the smaller division provided unique services and we all thought that at some point this smaller division would become valuable complimentary services to our core business in the much larger division.

The challenge: Lots of potential opportunity but where and how do you focus your limited resources?

In my IT assessment, it was also clear that the technology needed to be updated, especially the business applications which had become obsolete as the small division grew.

We had limited resources, especially cash and capital to fuel the turnaround of our great little company with lots of potential, , , but also with a lot of existing challenges and need of attention from the management team.

We had limited management resources and both divisions of the company were under stress from poor management of the past.

I knew we could turn the small division around if we were able to focus dollars and experienced management attention to it. The problem was that both divisions needed immediate support in both capital and management attention, , , and we didn’t have enough of either to go around.

My recommendation was that we sell the small division and focus our full energy in establishing a firm foundation for what we believed to be our core business and what made up the bulk of our revenue, , , and what we believed was to be our long term business focus.

After much discussion and deliberation, that’s exactly what we did.

We could have made the decision to repair both divisions but it would have taken much longer and placed tremendous strain on our weak capital position and upon the management team.

It’s important to take a realistic view of what your organization, or company can do. I know for certain that several of our managers could have turned the small division around. The question is at what price do we have to pay to do it. It’s a matter of evaluating your risk.

It was a clear decision for me in looking at the IT support issues and why I made such a strong recommendation to focus our limited resources on what was going to be most important for the future of the company.

Early on it was not a popular recommendation and was a difficult decision, but over time it became clear it was best for our company’s future.

There are many situations where “hitting 2 birds with 1 stone” can make a big difference in IT.

Here are just a few for you to think about:

1. When hiring, it’s nice to be able to hire someone who meets multiple needs in your organization. Finding someone who addresses several skill needs of the organization is a plus and well worth the extra effort to find.
2. When programming requests are prioritized, it improves productivity when you can knock off several request changes in the same project when the requests affect the same program.
3. Technology initiatives that can address multiple needs of the company are great ways to enhance IT reputation. Doing things that provides value and improves client service are big winners for the client and for IT.

Key points to consider:

• Always look for leverage opportunities
• Small incremental expense or effort can have big return
• Involve your staff in identifying “two bird” possibilities
• Measure the improved gains
• Create awareness of successes

Final thought:

Anything you do that leverages your IT Organization’s productivity is a benefit for all concerned. Take a proactive approach in seeking out situations that allow you to address multiple issues with one focused effort.

Better said, excellent client service is a culture, not a project. You may initiate specific projects or install a process to improve the levels of client service you provide, but organizations that live and breathe doing the things that improves client relations truly stand out from the crowd.

I’ve said many times that it all starts with the IT Manager. When you “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” and demonstrate you understand what’s important in helping your technology clients, it carries throughout your IT Organization.

Not only that, it spreads to other organizations in the company and even to external clients if you have them.

What’s nice is that great client service does spread out to those you touch. The flip side is that poor client service does the same thing and with significantly more adverse impact.

What’s the old saying? “Make a client angry and he or she tells at least 20 other people!”

Well, it certainly holds true in the IT world.

You never achieve great relations with your client unless you are making proactive efforts to help them achieve their objectives. That’s actually what client service is all about: helping others do their job as productively and painlessly as possible.

OK, so how do we begin?

First, determine what it takes to be considered a “world class” client service organization in your company.

To do this, you have to go ask those who you support.  Organizations that rely on technology support are interested in the following key areas:

• Focus on their priorities
• Anticipate their needs
• Be responsive to their requests
• Communicate and keep them “out of the dark”
• Provide high systems “uptime” and availability
• Be cost effective
• Fix their problem and fix it right the first time

I’m sure none of this is a surprise. Take these “wants” and formulate your own questions to determine if you are providing support services that address these needs.

The answers will lead you to issues that define where you need to focus energy to improve client service. For example, if your clients are telling you that you aren’t working on their priorities, find out what the priorities are and refocus your organization’s efforts.

Likewise, implement processes that help you become a more responsive support organization if you hear things like, “We never know the status of our projects.” or one of my favorites, “It’s like sending a request to a ‘black hole’.”

It’s really not hard, but it takes a conscientious effort to understand what your customer needs and how well you are doing in meeting those needs. Once you know, it’s a matter of doing things that address specific needs.

Create a targeted “client service project initiative” and watch the relationships improve. Don’t try to do this alone. It helps when you have other department managers involved in your crusade and they like the fact you are doing this to help them.

The result can be a big “win-win” for everyone involved.

I joined a small company that was on the verge of  significant growth. Our mission was clear and as the new CIO it became my responsibility to see that our IT organization was positioned and ready for the growth to come.

The challenge we had was that the IT organization had a very negative reputation at the time within the company (our “internal” client). However, the 43 Turnkey clients we supported (our “external” clients) loved us. Our Turnkey clients licensed the software we developed and maintained for our internal business operations.

Revenue contribution for the company was 96% from our internal clients and 4% from the external Turnkey clients. We no longer sold new business in the Turnkey side and our growth was expected to be in the area of internal operations growth, not selling new Turnkey systems.

I’m certainly not a rocket scientist, but I understood the company’s need in this environment within a week of being with the company. It was clear as a bell that my real IT support business was with our internal clients, not the Turnkey business (the 96% of the revenue versus the 4%).

The problem was caused because although our company had changed direction from Turnkey to Internal business growth, the IT organization had not yet made the transition in their focus. They liked our Turnkey clients and thought they were so much easier to work with than the internal business managers. Well, that may be the case but it doesn’t change the fact that the real business is our internal client business, , , where the vast majority of the revenue was produced.

I had to change this culture because the IT organization’s focus was not in sync with our business need.

After spending time to assess the situation, quantify the business needs and issues we had, and to develop our IT strategy it was time to decide what we wanted to do with our Turnkey business. We liked the additional revenue and didn’t want to lose it but we also had a mission to take care of, , , and we were not supporting the main part of our business very well, the 96% internal client.

I scheduled a Turnkey User Group meeting at Disney World and planned for the task at hand. Disney World was chosen so we would attract most of our Turnkey clients, , , and it worked.

At the meeting, I congratulated the Users on their successes and how much we had appreciated our past relationship. When I got to the point where I explained we were going to change direction and move away from supporting the Turnkey business, you could hear a pin drop. There were tears, there was anger, and even disbelief. It was a difficult message to deliver and probably harder to receive.

It was if I had just unplugged the electricity that feeds their business.

It helped in that we delivered a well thought out transition plan to minimize disruption in their business and gave them a year to make the transition plus an option to continue using the software they had if they wanted to support it themselves.

The President of the User Group was very helpful because I reached out to him prior to the meeting and asked for his insight and help when planning the announcement. He understood the change in direction our company was taking and why so he helped me develop a set of options that gave our Turnkey clients time and a way to minimize any business disruption. He is still a close friend and continued to use the same basic system he had for many years.

The morale of the story is:

• You have to step up and do the right thing.
• Things may appear bleak at first, but they usually have a way of working out for the best.
• When you put people in a corner, be sure to provide a path out of it.

I’ll never forget how anxious I was as I prepared to make my presentation at the Disney World dinner, , , knowing I was about to pull the rug out from everyone’s feet. We did not want to hurt any of our clients, but we also needed to get on with our company strategy and prepare for the major growth we expected.

Our company grew from $30 million in revenue to just over $700 million in just over 5 years. Had we not stepped up to some of our tough issues, we would not have achieved the level of success we had.

Have you ever gotten into a “rut” where nothing seems to be going well?

If you do, the key thing is to keep thinking positive and to persevere. Today may be one of your worst days, , , but then there is always tomorrow. That’s right, the sun may shine on you tomorrow like never before, , , but it won’t unless you allow it to.

I always believe that my best days are ahead of me, , , whether it’s my golf game, revenue sales in my company, or maybe the very best IT Manager Institute class I will teach.

That’s right, today or even this whole week may be the pits, but tomorrow could be the day that turns it all around. Tomorrow could be your best day in a long time.

I’m a firm believer that positive energy creates opportunity for us. If you are positive about things, even in dire circumstances, good results can happen. If you are negative, it is very easy for bad things to happen, , , just look around and you will see this play out.

So, a word for the wise is that when adversity strikes, , , and it will, , , stay positive and work through it. The landscape on the other end of the firestorm could be the most beautiful place you have ever been.

Many managers limit their opportunity by failing to identify their replacement. Not only should you identify valid candidates, you need to take steps to develop their expertise and so that when the opportunity comes, they can step up and do a credible job in filling your position.

After all, they may be reporting to you.

It’s in your best interest to position a replacement for several reasons:

• You have an obligation to do what’s best for your company
• Developing a strong team shows maturity and capability on your part
• Positions you for promotion

This last bullet is key, it positions you for promotion!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had conversations with other senior managers about a young manager’s potential to be promoted but we have to pass because it would cause too much challenge and disruption when they don’t have anyone who can fill their spot. We move on to other candidates that are better prepared to leave their organization.

Finding your replacement should start as soon as you take the new job. This doesn’t mean they have to be in place right away. It does mean that you should start determining if anyone can grow to take on the job at some point and how you would begin developing their capabilities.

If you have no candidates, you should be finding one when you have a chance to hire additional people into your staff.

Senior managers want organizations that run pretty much on their own. Pulling out an excellent manager to give him or her more opportunity gets blocked when your team can’t run well after you leave it.

Finding your replacement is a “management-101” type of priority.

One reason why many managers fail to position a replacement manager is because they think it will make them vulnerable and possibly position them to lose their job. I can tell you from experience that the opposite is true, , , it positions you to take on more responsibility.

Mature managers position their organizations to be able to run without them. Managers who are less mature or insecure build teams that become very dependent upon them, , , not a good thing to do.

Senior managers recognize the difference and that’s why some people advance and others don’t. Position yourself for advancement and promotion by getting someone positioned to replace you when the opportunity comes calling. If you aren’t prepared, you will just have to wave “bye” to the opportunity.