Three IT Management Traps CIOs should Avoid

Whenever work becomes stressful, CIOs often fall into the habit of quick management fixes that only harden the practices that often end up doing more harm than good.

The continuous uncertainty in the enterprise landscape has made IT leadership much more challenging. Today, they are under constant pressure to devise better technology strategies that can deliver maximum business value on a budget. In addition to that, they are also expected to establish and motivate a highly productive team capable of tackling a wide range of technical challenges when executing their vision for IT.

The overwhelming nature of work as a result of tough working conditions can even break the best IT leaders. Unfortunately, this can result in them succumbing to habits and management philosophies that seem to be addressing pressing issues on the surface but do more harm than good.

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Here are the three common approaches to addressing IT management issues that CIOs are often falling prey to while leading their teams:

Not including stakeholders inputs

Some IT leaders act as gatekeepers – these types of leaders are less enthusiastic about welcoming other enterprises intruders as they believe they are protecting the integrity and value of IT. However, this type of behavior, especially in today’s uncertain times, can become a trap for both the career of IT leaders and their teams. Additionally, gatekeepers seek to control and limit access to IT resources and believe that it’s not IT’s responsibility to learn more about the business. By not taking the inputs of their counterparts, they make it difficult for businesses to understand how technology works and the role it plays in achieving the business goals.

Instead of ignoring management view points and acting as gatekeepers, IT leaders should find ways to assist their business partners. They should take the time to understand the top priorities as well as ongoing and upcoming projects. This way, they can make IT a constructive part in achieving them.

Micromanagement

For an IT team to successfully achieve their goals, they should be presented with specific outcomes, clear guiding principles, and the freedom to take risks. Even though IT is about executing the details, obsessing over every little aspect can lead to micromanagement. It can destroy individual trust and initiative makings it difficult to foster team creativity and innovation.

To ensure that micromanagement doesn’t take strong root, IT leaders should clearly establish guiding principles and set clear expectations for collaborating and assisting each other and business partners. Even though it can become difficult to ignore the constant stream of new management ideas that claim to transform business and IT, they should keep things simple. A focus on basics and consistent, high-quality execution of basic principles can help create a more open and transparent culture.

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Obsessed with analysis

Today’s IT leaders have information at their fingertips and have abundant access to valuable insights. But, the sheer volume of data can lead to indecision, stress, dissatisfaction and paralysis. It can result in low performance, slow or poor results, decision fatigue, and self-doubt. Therefore, to effectively counter this problem of overanalyzing, IT leaders should take steps to identify the red flags and become intentional about limiting the amount of information they consume. Recognizing analysis paralysis can help CIOs drastically improve the performance and efficiency of the IT department.

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