Is IT a Gatekeeper or a Bridge?

In today’s rapidly moving world, savvy businesses rely on every business unit to ‘play the game’. Each business unit must understand its function as part of the whole much like an arm, a lung, or a brain plays its role to help the body function.

IT is no different, and must not only understand the business goals, but actively pursue bringing value to the business. To do so, technology leaders must 1) align themselves with business units, 2) listen and don’t be defensive, 3)innovate, 4) and offer customers choices not obstacles.

Align:

Technology leaders find themselves working with and for more tech savvy CXO’s and business unit leaders. The landscape has shifted and executives expect delivery of results not excuses. By aligning yourself with your business units’ initiatives you have the best chance of understanding the drivers that make your company successful. This will give you a chance to bring technology to bear in order to help solve the problems and avoid becoming an obstacle contributing to why a business unit can’t achieve its goals.

Listen:

Know you culture. IT must learn not only to listen, but to whom it must listen. Don’t get defensive when confronted with problems and don’t accuse them of whining. You must learn to be direct but professional and encourage your customers on how to approach you professionally. Even if someone seems to be attacking your personally, you must maintain a level of control. Remember who your customers are, and what the business priorities are. But most importantly ensure your customers understand the priorities you have and where their priorities fall in relation to your overall strategic goals.

Innovate:

Innovation is not only coming up with good ideas yourself, but understanding good ideas flow in and throughout the people in your company everyday. Ensure you are seeking out advice from not only business unit leaders, but people on the front line as well. In seeking mind share, individuals will begin seeing that you care about their needs and aren’t just making decisions in your ‘ivory tower’.

Choice:

Give your customers choices not obstacles. IT has been stereotyped as the constant nay-sayer. It is important that your customers understand why somethings can and cannot be done. Give them choices, and put the decisions in their hands. You may find they begin helping you achieve your goals if they align with their own. Once they begin walking in your shoes, they may just take a step back.

It is also important to understand that you should not place artificial obstacles in your customers’ or business unit leaders’ path as the daily business will present enough of these. It is not enough to have a reason why something cannot be done – have alternative solutions to the problem and you will find this wins you a great deal of political capital.

In summary, gone are the days where IT could hide behind the mystique of technology. Executives and customers alike are more technology savvy than ever and can see through your ruse. You must seek to align yourself with your company’s business units by building relationship and listening to their needs as well as understanding their challenges. Last, continually look for ways to innovate, and don’t allow yourself or your team to become stagnant.

If you are following these goals, you will most likely find frustration in bumping against glass ceilings. To be successful you must persevere adversity by staying focused on the goals. Success does not come from being the almighty gatekeeper but in seeking to build bridges to cross the canyons of adversity as a team.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.