How to Strengthen the Strategic Soft Skills for Information Technology Professionals
In today’s world of constantly evolving information technologies, most companies are willing to invest more heavily in their Information Technology (IT) function. And well they should! IT has repeatedly demonstrated that it can have a wondrous effect on a company’s productivity, ability to serve customers, and cost efficiency. A successful IT organization can deliver significant competitive advantages.
Still, many IT professionals, especially those moving into management positions, tend to struggle to interact effectively with others when they are trying to meet their objectives. And it’s not because of their analytical nature; it’s because of their lack of Strategic Soft Skills! The result is that businesses realize far less value than they should from their IT investments.
Increasingly, IT professionals are expected to function as “business partners,” who work with managers and users to cost-effectively solve mission-critical business problems. Yet, there is substantial feedback which suggests that a majority of IT professionals are challenged to effectively engage their colleagues.
On the other hand, IT pros have frustrations of their own. Managers and users rarely grasp just how much goes into devising, delivering, or customizing IT solutions. Further, IT works in an arena that tends to trumpet breakthroughs well ahead of their practical arrival, constantly cultivating premature expectations among user groups. Without question, these high expectations cause many business people, who often lack adequate IT knowledge, to be less patient with their IT colleagues.
Essential Strategic Soft Skills for IT Professionals
Equilibrate Objectives and Relationships
There needs to be a balance between achieving objectives and taking care of relationships. Many IT professionals pursue their project objectives (e.g., convert the company’s local area network to a new operating system by a specific deadline) with little thought to building or maintaining their working relationships. To achieve a balance that will help them interact more effectively with the rest of the company, IT pros must learn to more consistently use Strategic Soft Skills to make positive use of their personal power and influence.
Become More User-Friendly With Their Personal Power and Influence
Power is the available personal energy to act on any situation. Personal power is composed of physical, mental, and emotional energy to accomplish tasks, complete work, change the environment, or cause other people to change their behavior.
Influence is applied personal energy, used to act on any situation. It is energy in use, energy that is visible and can be felt by others.
Influence is a Strategic Soft Skill. We can assess it, measure it and, most importantly, choose it. Best of all, we can learn to choose it wisely.
IT professionals need to be self-aware of how they are using their own personal power and influence and explore the impact their behavior is having on other people.
Formulate the Requisite Skill Set
IT professionals need to be able to choose from different styles of communication and interaction, and become adept at applying the style most appropriate to each influence situation.
By using the various styles in relevant and challenging situations, they will improve their ability to first diagnose the situation, then craft a strategy, and finally use a diagnostic tool to strategically apply the most effective style to achieve their influence objective.
Wired to Enhance IT Competitive Advantage
At any given moment, your company and its competitors have access to essentially the same Information Technology. So, the technology itself – no matter how wondrous – often provides no discernible competitive advantage. True IT competitive advantage comes from leveraging available technologies faster and more fully than do your competitors. That, in essence, is why your company must move first to close the Strategic Soft Skills gap in IT.
