Management Skills for an IT Environment

You Will Learn How To

Apply a proven management model for leading technical staff to excellence
Identify key success criteria for leadership in an IT environment
Leverage emotion to optimise communication and performance
Motivate and empower technical professionals to achieve results
Delegate proactively to focus the strengths of IT teams and build accountability
Reinforce performance with a shared vision and effective coaching

Course Benefits

Your success as a manager in the IT environment depends on applying people-oriented skills to lead and motivate technical experts. Throughout this course, you practise the key skills and behaviours to get the best from technical people. You learn to lead with vision, motivate and empower with passion, facilitate effective communication and delegate with clarity to individuals and teams.

Who Should Attend

IT managers wishing to expand and improve their skills and those new to managing technical experts. This course is aimed at those managing technical professionals in an IT environment. For a fundamental management skills course, please refer to Course 290, "Management Skills".

In an immersive environment, you participate in an IT-focused, multimedia case study, as well as individual and group activities to apply management tools, techniques and strategies. Activities include:

Identifying and personalising your management approach
Mapping team and stakeholder interdependencies and potential conflicts
Developing motivational strategies for technical and non-technical individuals
Delegation role play within a simulated IT case study application
Designing a team-building event
Observing and enhancing your emotional intelligence
Managing performance to promote and leverage the strengths of your staff
Assessing the impact of disruptive behaviour in the workplace
Creating your managerial vision to determine your next steps

Course Content

The Challenge of IT Management

Setting the context for successful IT management

Defining relevant success factors based on customer requirements
Adopting best practices for an IT environment

Performing stakeholder analysis

Drawing the stakeholder map
Identifying interdependencies and expectations

Developing Management Excellence

A new management identity

Transitioning from a technical expert to a manager
Balancing leadership and administration
Managing technical specialists

Personalising your management style

Applying the Mintzberg action-based model
Aligning your management approach to the model
The top 10 management roles

Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Action

Incorporating EI into your management approach

Recognising three key skills to understand yourself
Interpreting behaviours and interacting more constructively with others

Engaging and controlling your emotions

Changing your behaviour to suit the situation
Leading by example

Motivating Technical Workers

Exploring key motivators

What technical people want from work
Increasing staff retention
Avoiding motivational pitfalls

Tailoring the approach to your team

The impact of generational differences
Assessing strengths to increase levels of engagement
Putting theory into practice

Delegating for Empowerment

Cultivating commitment and accountability

Inspiring collaborative partnerships
Working with the strengths of your staff

Following a proven step-by-step process for delegation

Planning your delegation and defining the task
Assigning the task to individuals or teams
Determining tracking and follow-up
Achieving accountability through collaboration

Facilitating Success for IT Teams

Organising and developing effective teamwork

Negotiating shared expectations
Setting ground rules within your team
Cutting across organisational units, time zones and geographic boundaries
Overcoming the hidden overhead of separation

Leveraging team synergy

Creating a "team" state of mind
Facilitating team-building activities

Enhancing team communication

Applying a three-level model for team building
Harnessing the power of dynamic and diverse teams

Reinforcing and Redirecting Performance through Coaching

Managing day-to-day performance

Selecting suitable performance measures that work in a technical environment
The benefits of a continuous appraisal approach
Strengthening performance by integrating coaching and appraisal techniques

Minimising disruptions in the workplace

Recognising and addressing ineffective performance that falls short of expectations
Employing constructive feedback as a means of focusing positive behaviours