Getting credit where credit is due

A CIO colleague of mine complains that recognition at work is polarized: he is either invisible or being yelled at-sometimes both at the same time. When things go well nobody seems to know he even exists. But when things go wrong the hammer falls hard and IT heads start to roll.

What makes IT so different from its corporate siblings like marketing, sales, and operations?

The answer is simple. Most business managers view IT as another utility service. People have come to rely on their computers to work just like electricity. Similar to turning on a light switch, employees expect to get their email every time they log in. But unlike other utilities, IT costs are not stable. Business managers eager to cut corners simply do not see the value in continuously paying large amounts of money for faster servers, added bandwidth, and software licenses or upgrades-let alone those pesky engineers who demand them.

Another reason is that business managers do not understand the effort required to keep the IT engine humming. They simply do not see the heroic behind-the-scenes efforts that keep servers up, networks protected, and applications running. Ironically, the smoother the IT operation runs, the less inclined the company is to dedicate additional resources to your team.

If business managers, however, fail to appreciate the superhuman exertions of the IT manager, part of the blame must fall on the communication between the two. Like Clark Kent, IT managers tend to be inwardly focused and find it difficult-wasteful even-to hang around and explain themselves to people outside their department.

Most IT managers are problem solvers whose training does not stress communication and people skills. Besides alienating their business colleagues, they also reinforce the stereotype-let's be frank-of the IT department as a bunch of bespectacled geeks milling about in the basement.

Time is also another important factor. In a typical business environment, employees demand their problems fixed right away, and as a result IT managers spend their time fighting fires. In their zeal to be recognized, IT personnel generally jump through hoops to ensure every request is handled immediately, spending most of their time in re-active mode dealing with emergencies.

As a consequence, IT resources are exhausted and are left with very little time or energy to spend on strategic issues that may increase the value of the business-and reduce the number of fires.

What can you do as an IT manager to change the way your department is run so that you can get the resources you need? What can you do to make other business unit managers recognize your accomplishments? Follow these simple rules and you'll get there.

Prioritize

Find a balance between the number of fires you fight and the time and resources you spend on strategic initiatives. The key is to recognize that there will always be more fires than you have resources to extinguish them. As a rule of thumb, dedicate not more than one-fifth of your resources to strategic initiatives and make sure that nothing other than a total meltdown distracts them from delivering.

Deal only with critical fires. Assess whether a fire is Critical (work stops if it is not fixed now), Important (use a procedural workaround that would prevent work stopping in the short term), or Nice-To-Have (work becomes easier if it is fixed now). Your goal is to ensure that no grave issues linger.

Finally, create a triage council that has empowered representatives from every department who are able to prioritize the company's needs. Explain to them what it takes and let them decide on what gets done first and what gets dropped. Because the decision is made by the departments themselves, the pain experienced by the organization appears to be acceptable and not too disruptive.

Don't worry. That there is pain in the organization serves you well: the company may consider dedicating more resources to your department while providing your team a path for recognition when the pain is finally removed.

Deliver

Of course, if your team does not deliver, nothing counts. But when you deliver, live by this axiom: Change is the only constant, where the rate of change is constantly increasing. In other words, deliver the smallest amount of value in the quickest time possible.

If by the time you deliver, your system has become obsolete, the business units will not use them and you end up being the cost drain that everyone dreads. But if the systems get used you become a hero. One way to ensure success is to work closely with a business 'customer' from a particular department who has the ultimate sign-off at delivery. Once your business customer takes ownership of the project, she will become your biggest champion in helping end-users adopt the new system in a timely manner.

Advertise

Don't be the proverbial duck, calm on the surface but paddling madly under the water. Let other executives or managers know what your team has done, and more importantly let them know your value in terms they understand.

You can easily keep the stakeholders in the loop by reporting the good and the bad honestly, frequently, and regularly. Although delivering bad news is hard, surprising your stakeholders with it is even worse.

Make sure that you have a standard way of reporting progress that is easy to understand. I find a single sheet is more than sufficient to convey progress on all your projects. Use these processes to manage expectations, but not too much. If you constantly beat expectations, then you are viewed as someone who overestimates; on the other hand, if you are constantly late and over budget, then, well, you know…

If you skipped to this part or if you forget everything I said, just remember that when you talk to your typical CEO, all they hear is 'blah, blah, blah, blah, $1,000,000'. Everyone knows that the return on investment is the only thing that matters to them. A CEO does not care whether you have the best servers or the fastest development team.

Heck, the CEO may not be even interested in how many bugs you fixed. He or she just wants to know how the investments in your team have contributed to the bottom line. To avoid being the first to be cut, focus on your strategic vision, involve the end-users, jointly triage the urgency of the fires, and keep the executive team in step with your needs-and learn to use TLAs (three letter acronyms) that other executives would understand.