Do Your Team Members Have The Soft Skills That They Need?

As an IT manager you are counting on your team to get tasks accomplished in part so that you’ll look good to the rest of the company. In order for your team to be successful, they are all going to have to be able to work together. This is going to require a different set … Read more

The Two Things That It Takes To Be A Great IT Manager

With a little luck, we all enjoy being an IT manager. Unlike back in the days when we were simply rank-and-file workers in the IT department, now that we are managers we get to control things. We are in charge of a team of IT professionals and it’s our responsibility to use our IT manager … Read more

Hello IT Manager: You’re In Politics Now!

Can’t an IT manager just rise above all of the politics? I mean really, with all of the technology leadership decisions that need to be made along with the business processes that need to be streamlined, can’t we all just skip the politics and get down to business? It turns out that we can’t and … Read more

The Answer Is 9, But Do You Know What The Question Is?

What is it going to take for you to get promoted? What set of skills as an IT Leader do you need to develop in order to have any chance at moving up to the next level? If you don’t know what you need to know, then how is that promotion going to happen? It … Read more

Is Your Body Secretly Sabotaging Your IT Job Interviews?

Times are tough all over and a lot of IT Leaders are out pounding the pavement looking for their next position. For some of you it may have been a long time since you last had to do an interview – you are much more used to being on the other side of the table … Read more

3 Reasons Innovation Doesn’t Happen In IT

Welcome to the world of overused buzz words! The star of the show these days is “innovation” – everyone wants it, everyone is talking about it, nobody really knows how to get it. IT Leaders find themselves in a situation where if they aren’t careful, they just might make one of three different mistakes that … Read more

How IT Leaders Build A Mentor Network For Their Career

I’ve got a quick question for you: what is the next step in your career? What do you want to get promoted to? In fact, as long as we are talking about that, what comes after THAT promotion? If you want to become a real IT Leader, then the career ladder generally goes: IT worker, … Read more

What Do IT Managers Really Do?

So what do IT Leaders actually do? Generally I’d agree with you if you answered something like “create IT solutions“; however, I’ve been giving this some thought and I think that we’re missing the mark if that’s our answer. If you think about it, what we really spend our time doing is managing people and … Read more

IT Managers & The Secret Of The Color Wheel

So I’m just a little bit off the beaten path with this discussion, but I’ve recently had to sit through so many bad presentations that I’m feeling an overwhelming need to try to make the world a better place for Powerpoint slides to live in. We all live and die by Powerpoint. I can’t begin … Read more

How IT Managers Can Get Better At Creating Powerpoint Slides

Yeah, yeah I know that everyone says that they hate Powerpoint – “death by Powerpoint” and all of that. However, the reality of modern IT Manger life is that we end up using Powerpoint to communicate a lot of information about our departments and the current status of our projects. Until you rise high enough … Read more