Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

We have been examining the challenges of managing IT departments and workers. I have been dealing mostly in these last couple of posts with the design factor versus the functionality for the customer. 

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There is a great chasm between the two that needs to be bridged. Now let’s look at it a little from the workers perspective. Here are some of their concerns about management in an IT department:  

A technologically brilliant boss with no management skills.

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The non-technical manager with no idea how to run an IT department.  

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The boss who micromanages.

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The boss who calls 3-hour crisis meetings at 4:30 on a Friday -- and then leaves before they're finished.

These are voiced from the IT workers themselves. Are they legitimate from a manager’s point-of-view? 

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My immediate response is this: Why isn’t the customer even thought of in this discussion? In any business that still needs to be the factor that motivates all actions. This is the major problem in IT departments everywhere in the world. 

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Having said that let’s look at a couple of these concerns. 

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I do think all of us can relate to the frustrations of the boss who micromanages being a concern. There is nothing more stifling than that to anyone. 

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Now in reference to the non-technical manager with no idea how to run an IT department. That is high on IT workers lists of bad boss traits. But I think that this is a mistake. Whether they like it or not, IT is too important to totally leave in the hands of the workers. Like I’ve said in the last couple of posts: Their main thrust is design; that’s what is the most important to them. 

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As managers we must coach them to see things differently. This doesn’t mean that you, the manager, can’t be skilled in design, just that you must see the other side from the outlook of the end-user, your customer. But neither does it mean that you have to be a design guru either. 

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What we need to be is relentlessly focused on is the simplicity that the end result will bring to our customers. There are a lot of brilliant designers that simply resent this.  

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Now having said this, I do understand, in reference to the time it takes to adjust and change things as feedback is given, has to be understood by the team leader or manager. I am not saying that we should be ignorant of the general process, just that we must understand what it is we’re trying to accomplish for our customers, and from there let the creativity flow.