Leading an enterprise in today’s uncertain times has become more difficult than ever. Hence, IT leaders should reevaluate themselves and strive to adopt some traits, to become resilient and to successfully navigate the uncertainty in the enterprise landscape.
IT leaders have been and still are the center of today’s digital transformation initiatives. They have been navigating the uncertainty not only in the enterprise IT landscape but enterprises across all industries.
The enterprises that flourished in such unprecedented times were only able to do thanks to the IT leaders who refused to give up. IT leaders of such enterprises portray qualities that set them apart from the ones who are struggling to embrace the dynamic IT environment.
The rapid digital transformation, made even more critical in the current times, needs every ounce of leadership mettle for IT bosses. However, if IT leaders are committed to the task of leading their enterprise out of the current and even ensuing downturn, challenges and dismal economic performances, there are certain attributes that are critical must-haves.
IT leaders, who are successful, have a keen eye for recognizing and acting on the emerging business technology trends. Not only that, when there’s a problem, they are capable of making decisions rapidly to make the required adjustments to their approach. They need to be agile while responding to a new way of thinking and working and should make decisions that will position them as well as their enterprise for success.
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Having a strong vision of IT objectives and its contribution has been regarded as a core IT leadership attribute. IT leaders must have the ability to integrate the vision of a better, faster, and a connected future for the company.
It doesn’t end here. They also need to then provide the right tools, resources, guidance, mentoring, and feedback to help their teams implement that vision. Since each department of a business gets affected by digital transformation, they must effectively communicate with staff across the enterprise.
IT leaders must empathize with their employees, peers and above all, their customers. Having empathy for their customers enables them to take the necessary time to thoroughly understand their customer needs and desire and allow them to develop solutions to effectively address the problems.
Also, nurturing respect and empathy helps to develop an atmosphere of trust and open-mindedness, which is essential for embracing new outlooks and scraping unnecessary prejudices. They need to also put their money where their mouth is, and actually demonstrate their understanding and empathizing with the circumstances that the teams, the other teams and the customers are living with.
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Being firm enables an IT leader to be prepared to pursue the vision even when there are countless distractions and diminished resources. However, this can only happen if all the leaders in the enterprise put aside their differences and focus on the necessary collaboration between technology and business leaders. Hence, IT leaders should strengthen their partnership with their counterparts, only then they can successfully prepare for a crisis.
Being a transformational IT leader requires one to be authentic, and that can only come from building trust with employees, management, stakeholders and customers. Even though authenticity cannot be cultivated in a day, it is still worth the effort to build trust with colleagues. A clearly authentic behavior helps an IT leader to share their thoughts and emotions with a trustworthy behavior and transparent communication.
The uncertainty in the air is scary. However, by striving and adapting to the above values, IT leaders can achieve the sustainability, growth and success that their enterprise needs in today’s uncertain world and beyond.
Vishal Muktewar is a Senior Correspondent at On Dot Media. He reports news that focuses on the latest trends and innovations happening in the B2B industry. An IT engineer by profession, Vishal has worked at Insights Success before joining Ondot. His love for stories has driven him to take up a career in enterprise journalism. He effectively uses his knowledge of technology and flair for writing, for crafting features, articles and interactions for technology enterprise media platforms.
