The number of IT professionals taking on to
consulting after multiple changes are increasing. A lot of them were considered
high potential when they worked within corporate IT functions. Some of them
were also CIOs who chucked their cushy jobs to explore entrepreneurship. I
started tracking down some of them to find what made them take such a step. The
answers were surprising and not so surprising when analysed rigorously.
Now consider that in recent times the
lament gaining popularity is the inability to find good talent; with global
competition and willingness to relocate, good professionals are always in
demand. And the good ones always find it easy to bag the next opportunity. That
being the case, why is it that CIOs are struggling to hire and retain good
talent ?
Every manager or leader has one key
benchmark when interviewing people; it is they themselves. We hire people based
on our own competencies. Most (fortunately not all) managers want to hire staff
with equal to or lower skills than themselves especially for senior positions.
Maybe it is their perception of threat to their own positions; maybe it is a
low risk model when you know that the person will not be disruptive by
challenging the managers’ decisions. This manager wants to know everything and
be part of every meeting thereby becoming the bottleneck to progress. S/he
feels insecure when new solutions are presented by others which impact his
domain.
A great way to maintain status quo or
keeping the lights on; in this case the CIO will perennially be challenged and
discuss BITA (Business IT Alignment). The team at best delivers mediocrity and
is relegated as a support function with limited participation in activities outside
of their function. Organization culture too contributes to this state
compounded by the CIO not reporting to the CEO. I have seen good CIOs get out
of such companies as soon as they could.
Now, when you look at high performance
teams, the leader acknowledges the need for diversity and challenging status
quo. S/he has always hired different skillsets and encouraged open innovation. One
of my observations was that these leaders define the direction and then get out
of the way leaving the teams to soar to new heights. They do not micro-manage,
they facilitate and encourage the team. Making mistakes is acceptable,
repeating them is not. Attrition is normally low.
I believe that to create a winning team and
not an also ran, the CIO needs to balance command and control with empowerment.
Everyone does not need close supervision; neither can everyone be left to do
their own thing. Delegation is good; however delegation does not imply
abdication of responsibility. Incorrectly delegated work can lead to challenges
and success denied; the CIO should own up to equal share of success and
failure. After all you cannot be the father of success and know no failures.
An old adage, “People join organizations,
people leave their bosses” holds true today more than ever. It is not an Oscar
award speech but many leaders acknowledge their teams as the reason for their
success when felicitations come the way of winning teams. The team too holds no
grudges against the leader who is held high in trust and respect. The new age
CIO is making these choices, are you one of them ?
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