The Technology Doesn't Matter

CHAPTER 5Managing Down/Managing the IT Department

I've talked about what IT and business leaders need to do personally to make sure they are as effective as possible in supporting technology–business alignment. I've talked about their relationship with each other, including the leader's need to “manage up” and the ways business leaders can be more supportive of their IT leader. The next area to focus on is the broader IT department, the organization under the IT leader. Managing up is important for any leader's career growth but should never be done at the expense of the team beneath them. Managing down encompasses the full scope of leadership and must be the number-one focus of every IT leader. But rather than addressing the vast universe of topics, attitudes, and behaviors involved in good leadership, this chapter focuses on those that apply more directly to leading and managing a team of technology professionals, including guidance for how business leaders can better understand, relate to, and provide leadership to the IT department.

But first, another story …

In 2016, I was working with Mark to implement the IT strategy we had developed the previous year. We had an aggressive implementation schedule of initiatives. That summer, we were completely upgrading the technology infrastructure for all the dealerships. The project included installing a new unified communications system, standardizing on a single ERP system, implementing a new network architecture, and migrating ...