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What makes you promotable to IT manager? And after you become one, what does it take to succeed?To be considered at all for the position, you must first meet the basic requirements for being a good employee. You must be good at your job, committed, prompt, proactive, high-achieving, independent. You must have excellent technical abilities.
And you must have basic managerial expertise such as team building, delegation, conflict resolution, budgeting, and goal setting.
But mastering a few additional IT management skills will make you stand out from your competition:
Broad Technical Knowledge
IT employees are valued for being excellent in a particular specialty. IT managers, however, are rewarded for being well versed in a wide range of technologies.
Adaptability
Our tech world moves fast, and to succeed as an IT manager you need to adapt and keep up, constantly expanding your knowledge.
Business Skills
Promotions in IT departments go to those who understand the role of IT in the company's business strategy. A good IT manager must not only have general business skills, but must know all aspects of the company and industry.
Relationship Building
IT plays a role in almost every business discipline – marketing, production, finance, human resources, you name it. As an IT manager, you will come in contact, and often collaborate, with employees and managers from all these departments. To succeed, you must be great at building relationships within the company and with customers and vendors.
Communication with Non-Technical Colleagues
An IT manager must be able to explain technical concepts to business groups in language they can understand, without talking down to them. At the same time, you should be able to translate their needs into technical requirements.
Customer Focus
IT managers have customers within and outside the company. To be an effective IT manager, you should stop thinking in a tech-centric way and start putting customers first.
Reliability
Face it, IT work often requires coming in to the office after hours or on weekends to bring up some servers or fix a problem. A good IT manager pitches in to help with such tasks.
Most candidates in the running for an IT manager's job have the requisite technical skills. Honing the above skills in addition will help you get started on the road to success as an IT manager.[/font]
