Management For Smarties
By Jennifer Lonoff Schiff
You've no doubt heard of great college football coaches who couldn't cut it in the NFL, or terrific salespeople who got promoted to sales manager only to find that they were much better at sales. It's the same in IT.
"The IT field is littered with great technologists who are not suited to be managers or failed at some level of management," says R. Gaines Baty, president of R. Gaines Baty Associates, a Dallas-based retained executive search firm specializing in CIO and IT management searches.
Being a good IT manager poses particular challenges to new and experienced managers alike as "there is probably nothing in the business world that changes more frequently and can obsolete itself faster than technology," states Paul Benz, the CIO at Gevity HR, an organization that conducts research into the link between good management practices and business performance.
"Involvement" Versus "Tight Controls"
A recent survey on effective employee management strategies conducted by Cornell University and sponsored by Gevity Institute looked at two common management styles. One was described as management through involvement, or allowing reports to essentially manage themselves. The other was described as management through tight control. Companies with the former management style, whose managers used a consensus-building approach, showed significant growth in revenue and profit. Additionally, the companies that used self-management strategies had much lower employee turnover than those that didn't. (article continues)
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