Wanted: A Mentoring Leader
Victoria, Canada - April 20, 2006
As an ICT industry analyst---whose reason for existence is to objectively conduct breakthrough research and generate insights that are not common knowledge---the one specific aspect of ICT that has always transcended my professional responsibility and have touched me right in the heart is how I come to understand the term “leadership” without any heavy duty research and analysis.
Leadership is one of those characteristics that can have an impact miles-wide and miles-deep in any organization. Having the wrong person on the helm can be outright disastrous and expensive. However, having the right person on the other hand is nirvana. After all, how IT is effectively and efficiently deployed in organizations comes down to the quality of its leaders.
As trusted advisor in providing IT insights and advisories in many countries, leadership is a topic broached on several occasion be it over a meal or cup of coffee. Conclusively, the quest for quality IT leaders knows no boundaries.
The topic of leadership is a favorite among many business owners and entrepreneurs, CXOs, IT staff and end-users, vendors and service providers. Discreetly, the question “Do you know any good IT leaders?” comes up [to obviously hire these people into their organization]. Normally, I do not answer the question directly but instead throw back another question to ask “What are you willing to do to help develop leadership in this individual?” As to be expected, dead silence.
Without sounding imposing, this is a legitimate question considering that good leaders do not come by very easily nor are they easily spotted. More so now than ever, good leaders are becoming a rarity. I am convinced that this is due to the deteriorating lack of good mentorship programs (formally or informally) in organizations today. Whether leaders are born or developed, I am convinced leaders need to be mentored.
Reflecting on my own personal experience, I remember my time as a ‘young and wide-eyed’ IT professional when my manager would consciously set aside time to ensure I was well guided. Although highly technically savvy with several successful transformational projects under his belt, my mentor taught me leadership without imposing techno-talk and the technology that went along with it. My mentor has taught me few simple key learnings that become my looking glass today:
- Acknowledge your shortcomings and limitations;
- Recognize who to turn to for outside help;
- Learn how to play in the sandbox fairly with end-users and vendors;
- Raise your sensitivity antennae higher than ever for those that are touched by technology in one way or another;
- Guide clients without them knowing they are being led; and,
- Solve business problems without the techno jargon.
It was then that I realized that not only was he a competent manager, but he was a leader, and more importantly he was a mentor – a dying breed in today’s very fast-paced business environment. IT managers these days are busy delivering on the promise of what technology has to offer and striving to maximize the returns of their IT investments. Technology has become much more complex and the need to align IT to the business value chain more so. In spite of this, development of people should not take a backseat.
Based on our continuing research at XMG, organizations that have deployed best practice human capital management practices and more importantly, informal leadership programs, consistently have better track record of filling the top executive positions from within. Our analysis further reveals a looming leadership gap. Generation X executives (1963-1981) will dominate the IT industry by 2015 and many of these future executives are the ones lacking good mentorship or are undervaluing the concept due to their lack of exposure to this essential management development practice.
Under my mentor’s leadership, he clearly demonstrated what sets apart a competent manager from a leader. Here are some examples:
- Rather than emphasizing planning, organizing, controlling, budgeting and problem solving, importance was placed on setting direction; aligning, motivating and aspiring people; and collaborating with all stakeholders.
- Rather than instituting predictability and orderly (after all this is what IT operations is all about), relevance was placed on “out of the box” thinking, innovation and transformation.
- Rather than being order takers from clients for their IT requirements, develop the knowledge about a wide range of business subjects and proactively apply this knowledge.
- Rather than asking how and when, probe on what and why.
…and the list goes on.
It has been many years since we have been in touch. Since then I have always wondered about what my mentor was as a person and the unique traits he held that made him part of the very select few that took time out of their hectic schedule to mentor. Unlike the typical research I do that is highly mathematical and data intensive, boiling down the analysis is very difficult and requires reaching deep into the heart. However, it would appear that some of his observable traits were as follows:
- Puts the welfare of the team ahead of personal interests
- Exhibits uncompromising integrity in the face of adversity
- Progressively takes on high-risk/high-reward projects with confidence in his staff
- Commands the trust and respect of immediate supervisors, peers and employees
- Relentlessly assumes the role of ‘caretaker’ of future CEOs
Our projected shortage of qualified IT leaders will continually impede the growth of highly business-oriented and effective IT organizations. Given that people continue to be an organization’s greatest assets (and yet to consistently be the most under-managed asset in the corporate world), purposefully consider and cultivate the leader by circling back to this question and ask yourself “What are you willing to do to help develop the leadership in this individual?”
Article written by Lauro Vives
for the Xpertise section of Entrepreneur Magazine |
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