TR EB New Managers

How to succeed as a
new IT manager
Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

2 HOW TO SUCCEED AS A NEW IT MANAGER
Contents
03 10 tips to help new IT leaders to hit the ground running
07 Eight ways to build tech leadership skills
10 New IT managers: Learn these five people skills
12 Five things every new manager needs to do
14 New managers: Take stock before you take action
17 How to manage a departmental budget: A guide for beginners
20 10 tips for leading your team to peak performance
23 Four self-development tips for new tech leaders
25 Looking to build a career as a tech leader? Here’s why empathy
might help

10 tips to help new IT leaders to hit the

ground running
By Scott Matteson
IT leadership requires the ability to work with a broad array of people from diverse backgrounds, identify
company needs and how best to deliver on them, and ensure that team roles and responsibilities are identified
and assigned appropriately. Managing people can be just as tricky as managing technological environments,
and getting up to speed in a new situation can be overwhelming.
I’ve had over a dozen bosses in the course of my career and the majority of them arrived after me, so I’ve
gained some firsthand insights into their successes and shortcomings. Whether you’re promoted to a
leadership role at an existing company or you’re starting a brand new leadership job at a new organization,
these 10 tips can help you to make the most out of the experience right out of the starting gate.
1. Get to know your staff

First and foremost, you need to meet and become acquainted with the people who will work for you. Share
your background, such as where you previously worked (if elsewhere), the last position you held, the areas
of IT you’re familiar with, and some projects you’ve worked on. Discuss your career goals and priorities both
from a general standpoint and those that relate to your new role. This will help your staff understand who you
are and the kind of leader they can expect you to be. Just be careful not to talk about yourself too much; you
don’t want to come across as self-absorbed. Don’t make blanket promises either, since you need time to find
out what sort of resources are available to you in the form of budgets, training opportunities, etc.
On the flip side, talk with your staff about their backgrounds and roles at the company and find out what
makes them tick. What are their interests and goals? What do they like about the department and company
and what do they want to do more of? What are they doing right now? What should they be doing instead?
Do they have any concerns or ideas for improvement? Where do their strengths lie?
It might also be helpful to read your new reports’ old performance reviews and take a look at some of the work
they’ve done. Get your boss’s feedback on your staff as well (if applicable) to obtain a third-party perspective.
Develop one-on-ones to meet with each of your staff members on an individual basis and keep the lines of
communication open—for instance, every two to three weeks. These one-on-ones will allow them to share
their views on their workload and initiatives as well as departmental/company direction, and it will give you a
chance to provide personal guidance.
2. Get to know the environment

If you’re in charge of a group that maintains systems, conduct a walkthrough of the data center, identify the
systems your team is responsible for as well as their respective functions, and become acquainted with the

operational processes behind them. Read all available documentation and policies and talk to appropriate staff
to learn where all the pieces of the puzzle fit in. Are there dependencies on other groups? If so, who owns
what and how do things get done?
If you’re in charge of a development team, find out what platforms, applications, and processes are used to
write and reform code and the associated details, such as release schedules, deadlines, and the code review
techniques.
In short, find out how things work and what happens when they don’t. This is an opportunity to identify any
weaknesses or areas for improvement (missing documentation, unfair workloads, shoddy services, etc.),
which you can build into your strategy.
3. Get to know the other managers and department

heads
Meet with the other leaders in the organization with whom you will interact in the scope of your job duties.
Identify key user areas that are the most dependent on your group and the resources or services you provide.
Find out how they use IT, what their expectations, goals, and strategies are, and what they regard as priorities.
Examples include departments related to yours (system engineering, system operations, development, net-
working, security, etc.) and upper management, HR, finance/accounting, procurement, and legal.
Not to sound too much like a Game of Thrones character, but this step can be important in establishing allies,
identifying potential adversaries (such as a needy development manager who thinks their objectives should
be the number one priority of your team), and otherwise determining where the company strengths and
weaknesses may lie so you can chart the territory.
4. Get to know your customers

Most IT leaders have a set of customers they support: internal users, external users, company employees,
or the public. Identify who your customers are and what their needs are in terms of priority. This may involve
something like system uptime, working applications, rapid performance, predictable quality code releases, or
the effect of whatever products or services you’re providing. If possible, identify their current satisfaction levels
and areas that need work, both on an immediate basis and as part of a long-term strategy.
5. Get to know the vendors and suppliers

Identify the external contacts you will be working with: the vendors and suppliers who provide you with
equipment, services, and support. Review the current contracts, find out when they will expire, and assess the
criticality of each relationship.

It’s important not to make changes at this step; merely gather the data to identify who you need to build
relationships with then get in touch with them, explain your role, and gain an understanding of how they can
help your organization—or whether a change might be in order down the road once you’ve gained further
insights into the big picture.
6. Identify budgets and resources

Talk to the finance/accounting departments and your boss to look at what budgets you have for your role—
hardware, software, services, support, staffing, bonuses—everything you’ll need to keep your department
running. Don’t leave out things that involve providing incentives or improving morale, such as a slush fund for
team luncheons (some companies mark employee anniversaries or project milestones in this manner) and look
for problem areas that might need improvement. Is one area overfunded and seizing dollars from another area
that needs bolstering?
Take a look at what resources are available as well, such as company purchasing cards, training opportunities,
and spare equipment. You should note even something as simple as available storage space to keep servers
until they are ready for deployment.
7. Determine where your predecessor left off

(if applicable)
Chances are quite high that your new role won’t simply involve starting fresh with a new set of projects and
goals you’ve put together. Rather, you will need to find out where your predecessor put the bookmark in the
book of their ongoing activities and commitments before departing.
Look to see what projects remain open and what the commitments and delivery dates entail. Examine what
was forecasted over the horizon for the next quarter or next year, whether rolling out new systems or services,
hiring new staff, or obtaining training in a new field.
Although it’s not entirely incumbent upon you to honor commitments made by your predecessor, since they
were made by a separate individual, I recommend doing so if the commitments were sound. If they promised
a company outing but the budget won’t permit, it’s okay to say no, but if an employee was expecting a bonus
for quality work and the funds are available, I highly advise you to follow through on that.
8. Determine how to leverage your staff’s skills and fill

in the weaknesses
Once you’ve developed relationships with your staff, fellow departments, management, and vendors and
figured out the concrete details of your budgets and ongoing priorities or endeavors, you can fully assess your
staff to see how and where they fit in. Identify where their skill sets lie and what areas need improvement, so
you can factor this into your strategy.

Does a Linux administrator need more Windows experience to help support the team? Does the on-call
rotation need to expand, with more people brought in to support after hours commitments? Can the person
who’s an expert on configuration management provide further documentation or training so that more people
can step up and take on their responsibilities, reducing your risk of a knowledge deficit if they resign? Does
one person in particular have a good relationship with the head of another department? Perhaps they can be
the emissary to work with that department head so the two groups collaborate more effectively.
9. Plan your strategy

Here is where the figurative blueprints are actually drawn up, and your group’s future strategy is mapped out.
Projects, goals, initiatives, and procedures go on a figurative or literal board, and the work is parceled out
depending on skill set and availability. Factor in company policies as well as compliance and regulatory rules.
You’ll likely continue things largely as they are at the onset, though perhaps with a few tweaks. Identify these
initial changes and communicate the direction to your staff, fellow department heads, customers, and ven-
dors/suppliers (depending on the level of change).
Don’t introduce too much change right away—at least not the tough kind that involves a learning curve or a
shift in duties. Changing policies to stop staff grievances or stressors (drive-by visits without a help desk ticket,
interruptions at lunch, late-night phone calls to random IT staff, etc.) will be the most welcome first elements of
change. Work in the other change aspects down the road, depending on their level of complexity—switching
vendors, for instance, or moving specific team duties to another group.
10. Solicit feedback and adjust course as needed

Get input from your staff, colleagues, and customers to chart your progress and see how well your goals and
objectives are being met in conjunction with their own. Feedback can be direct or anonymous, such as in the
form of online surveys. Make adjustments as needed to update your departmental direction, whether in the
form of switching priorities, hiring more staff, or investing in additional technology.
Keep in mind not all feedback should translate into action items. Average out the responses. For instance,
if 90% of the customers are happy, look at the 10% who are not and determine whether their demands are
reasonable (e.g., they want immediate help desk service when there’s a queue of nine people in front of
them or they attempt to bypass the ticketing system). In these cases, improved communication and more
comprehensive policies may be a good solution to the problem to help reinforce realistic expectations.

Eight ways to build tech leadership

skills
By Alison DeNisco Rayome
New tech employees rely on their expertise to complete projects and build up a resume. However, after a few
years, when they want to move up the corporate ladder, many find that they can’t address large groups or
think strategically and are at a leadership disadvantage.
“Soft skills are the most common things tech workers lack,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president and CEO of
CompTIA. “Coming up in tech, individuals often work on their own or in very small teams on short task-
oriented projects. They don’t always get the experience of leadership, cross-discipline teamwork, building
consensus, listening for understanding, and developing written communications.”
Tech workers need soft skills to advance and be more effective in the workplace. Yet many organizations
don’t offer clear paths for employee advancement, leading them to seek outside programs for professional
development.
“The development of people is the No. 1 gap in organizations,” said Bob Hewes, senior partner at Camden
Consulting. “This does not happen naturally.”
Leadership education is a big business, with a plethora of master’s programs, certifications, and workshops
on the market. Some programs, like French university École 42, go far beyond traditional approaches: The
school has no teachers, curriculum, books, or even tuition fees. Rather, students are grouped into teams and
immersed in practical projects.
Other programs, like Toastmasters, are less industry-specific and focus more on public speaking and
feedback as a path to leadership success.
Knowledge of leadership skills and practical experience are both important for employee development, Hewes
said. “This is not a science—it’s really still an art. A technical degree will not give you this angle. You need a
combination of real-world experience and a program.”
Meeting industry challenges

A research team from Brown University spent the past three years studying what tech workers need to
amplify their leadership skills. Last year, the school launched its new Executive Master in Science & Technology
Leadership program, with a curriculum based on its findings, according to program director Sandra Smith.
“Our research suggests that people in the early years of their career have strong technical skills, which gets
them up the first rank,” Smith said. “But once they want to move up another level, they are lacking skills
beyond those technical ones to make them succeed.”

The 16-month program for mid-level tech professionals includes online work, 4 one-week face-to-face
sessions, and a one-week trip to Seoul, South Korea, to meet industry leaders from companies that include
Samsung.
Its focus is on developing effective leadership skills from an integrated liberal arts perspective, Smith said.
Participants also have the opportunity to apply their new skills on a practical project: In their application to the
program, students must describe a problem they want to solve at their company or in their industry and apply
their learning to do so by their degree completion.
Courses will hone leadership skills many tech experts lack, Smith said, including communication skills,
strategic thinking, working across international boundaries, and maintaining an innovative culture.
“Innovation is one of the biggest changes in the industry—in the past, sometimes projects would be a year
long. Now the expectation is you will release hundreds of prototypes into the market to get real-life testing and
results.” Continually rethinking paradigms is key for a leader, she said.
Tips for tech workers

Experts offer the following tips to gain leadership skills and rise up the tech ladder:
1. Make the choice

“If you’re an engineer, it has to be a conscious decision that you want to be on this track, and want to be a
leader and a manager of people and projects,” Hewes said. Often, people fall into a leadership position without
making a strong decision to pursue one. “Leading and managing is tough, and when you hit the troughs, if
you’ve made a choice you can get through it,” Hewes said. “If you’re just a smart person they happened to
promote, it will be a struggle in those down cycles.”
2. Observe your leaders

Every organization has a particular culture and definition of leadership and management, even if it is not
explicitly stated, Hewes said. He recommends observing your leaders, noting their strong characteristics, and
trying to incorporate those traits into your position.
3. Talk to your manager

Ensure that you’re on the career advancement path of your choice at your current company, or at least make
your aspirations known, Hewes said. This might happen during a yearly review, or another time. You can ask
for informal feedback and identify some specific competencies you plan to tackle in the next year.

4. Join a professional organization to observe and connect with

leaders in your field
Anne Krook, owner and principal of the consulting firm Practical Workplace Advice, recommends this
especially for young women looking for role models. “It gives you a chance to see senior women who you
might want to emulate.”
5. Seek out feedback from your manager and peers

“Everybody has strengths and challenges—get a good balanced view of where your strong points are and
what you should focus on,” Hewes said.
6. Avoid the “delegation trap”

Once you are given more responsibility, don’t put the pressure to do all the work on yourself, Hewes said.
“People in tech tend to be really smart, so one of the obstacles is letting go and letting others do the work. If
you never let it go, you can’t scale what you need to attack.”
7. Don’t define yourself as “apolitical” in the workplace

“Anytime you have two or more people together, you need to understand how people work,” Hewes said.
“You need to be able to influence people, and not just say ‘Here’s the answer.’”
8. Don’t expect any leadership program to be a cure-all

“You can’t rely on any one program to give you soft skills,” Krook said. “It can provide you with guidance and a
framework for thinking about how to get more skills. But it’s not a discrete subject matter class.”
No matter what leadership track you chose, remember that your workplace is a learning environment in itself.
“Your work environment is a great learning lab—you can observe leaders and learn from them,” Hewes said.
“It turns every meeting, interaction, and project into a learning opportunity.”
Three big takeaways

• Many tech employees with technical expertise find they do not have the communication and
management skills needed to move up in their company.
• Becoming a leader is, ideally, a choice you make; when it’s forced upon you, it can be difficult to
learn to manage others and weather the tough times.
• Experts recommend tech workers interested in advancing their careers observe leaders at their
company and seek out opportunities to talk to managers about an action plan.

New IT managers: Learn these five

people skills
By Mary Shacklett
Often thrust into management, many IT pros find that they must learn the subtleties of not only running
projects and budgets, but also the intricacies of managing people. If this is your situation, you may discover
that one of the most difficult things to do is to keep calm, collected, and neutral with those you interact with—
even when patience wears thin or certain team members frustrate you.
If you don’t master both coolness and neutrality with those you interact with and manage, you could risk being
the “bad manager” that many employees complain about. Here are five ways to avoid this.
1. Be approachable and accessible

Strong project teams are created when team members know that their manager is fair, approachable, and
accessible—by anyone on the team, not by just a few. Early in my career I had a manager like this. I had just
been hired into my first IT job—without any background in IT. The project I was on was critical and I was new
to everything I was doing. My manager was a seasoned vet, but he seemed to understand my natural anxiety,
and I really believed that his door was always open as I was learning the project ropes.
To be like this with everyone is easier said than done because there are always some individuals and
personalities that are more natural for you to get along with than others. The sooner you recognize which
personalities are more difficult for you to get along with, the sooner you can make adjustments so you get to
know these individuals and to develop an open rapport with them. Experienced managers do this by walking
around and being sure to spend casual time with project members they don’t know as well personally.
2. Always be fair—but don’t strive to be liked

It’s natural to want to be liked. But if you are a manager faced by tough choices in a project, or if you must
have a difficult conversation with an individual on your staff, this isn’t always possible. Instead, you should
strive to be fair. The first time I heard this was when I got my first management assignment. My boss at the
time said, “You are not being paid to be a nice guy.”
I remember that my first reaction to the advice was not exactly favorable. However, as I got into the dynamics
of managing projects, I began to understand the importance of being “tough but fair” when it was necessary,
like when I had team members who were not giving the project their best efforts or who were trying to under-
mine the morale of others on the project. These were the times when I closed the office door and confronted
the individuals directly, reminding them of what was expected and what the consequences could be if change
didn’t come quickly.

3. Carefully consider your decisions

As a manager, you’ll be called upon to make many decisions throughout a project, and they won’t always be
right the first time. Once I suggested scheduling a major regression test for a software system on an upcoming
weekend. My operations staff came back to me and suggested that we wait for a later holiday weekend to
ensure that we had adequate time for troubleshooting if we needed it. It was a better idea than my original
one.
Since then, I have always been open to staff suggestions that can make the decisions better. In other
cases, such as when you make a decision that is right but that might not be popular with everyone, over-
communicate through emails, memos, meetings, conversations, or whatever it takes until you are sure
everyone understands the basis for the decision. You might have staff members who wanted to see things
handled differently, but even if they disagree, they will at least understand the rationale behind the decision.
4. Accept that you can’t know it all

Managers who come from very technical backgrounds have a hard time adjusting to project management
roles where they must manage areas of expertise that they themselves do not know to a detailed degree. It
doesn’t get easier when you are managing in a technical discipline like IT, because initially your staff expects
that as a manager, you know every detail about what they are doing. The best approach is not to pretend that
you know it all, because you don’t—and your staff will realize you don’t as soon as you try to instruct them
in areas that they know and you don’t. Instead, tell your staff where your expertise is and what you expect
of them, and then let them run with the ball. Your job is to manage and facilitate the project so your staff can
execute it.
5. Don’t try to do everything yourself

New managers coming from technical disciplines sometimes have to resist the impulse to jump in and start
doing project tasks that their staff should be handling. When you do this, you take away from your full-time job
of managing the project.
A great example I experienced firsthand in my IT career involved a two-man project, where the system guru
was supposed to design a system and the junior programmer he was directing was supposed to code it.
The guru/manager couldn’t resist tweaking the code and in some cases even rewriting it, although the code
was solid enough as the junior person had originally written it. The next time project assignments came
around, the last thing the junior person wanted was to be assigned to the guru again. Why? Because taking
over tasks undercuts the confidence levels of your staff members and makes them feel that they are being
micromanaged.

Five things every new manager needs

to do
By Mary Shacklett
The previous article discussed the importance of developing people skills for those taking on a management
role. However, there are other goals and best practices that can help new managers get off on the right foot.
Here are some additional guidelines for those who have recently made the leap into management.
1. Be true to your style and yourself

Most employees prefer participatory and inclusive managers. If you are by nature participatory and inclusive,
don’t feel that you have to change yourself into someone who is authoritarian now that you’re a manager.
Conversely, if your natural style is more authoritarian, be the person that you are, but also work at tempering
this personality trait so that staff members still feel they can approach you freely.
2. Accept that your friendships with others will change

The work buddy you routinely used to go to lunch with might not perceive you in the same way if you are
suddenly made their boss. Furthermore, as a newly minted manager, you can’t afford to be perceived by other
members of your staff as favoring some staff members over others. There is some truth in the old saying that
“It’s lonely at the top.” The net of this is that you will not be as free to fraternize with co-workers as you were
when you were simply one of them.
3. Remember: You are now the company!

It might have been okay in the past to get together with co-workers and complain about a company policy,
but once you become a manager, it’s not. At this point, you are management! Your path now is to work toward
changing a policy or a work practice through positive suggestions and demonstrating to your peers and
superiors how these changes can help the organization.
4. Get to know your vendors

Nearly every job that IT undertakes is influenced by vendor products, services, tools, and consulting. Because
vendors play such pivotal roles in IT, one of the first desk jobs for a new manager is to get know the vendors,
the products and services they supply your department, and how your peer managers and your superiors use
these vendor offerings. Once you get a handle on this, you can determine whether your group is getting the
most out of those products and services—and decide what to do about it.

5. Don’t forget to focus on your relationships with

end users
If you are a new manager in a business-facing area, like business systems analysis or training, you should
spend at least one-quarter of your time getting to know your management counterparts and their superiors in
end-user areas. Part of your job is to develop and to build healthy relationships with end users. This in turn will
pave the way for your staff to do its work with less friction or resistance. Relationship-building isn’t a task that
shows up in project timelines, but it can affect those timelines if the job isn’t done well.
Challenges and rewards

IT projects are fraught with risks and uncertainties. This once prompted a management peer of mine who
headed up manufacturing to say, “Managing production on the floor is hard enough, but I’m glad I don’t have
your job!”
Despite the risks and constant change, however, IT management careers are exciting and challenging—
because you don’t always know what will happen on any given day with a system, your team, end users, or
vendors. This is why having a solid set of management guidelines and best practices can help you find your
way in your early days as a manager. You’ll also find over time that you will develop your own best practices as
you gain experience. These will serve you well—and they will add value to your staff and your company.

New managers: Take stock before you

take action
By Ramon Padilla jr.
There is a popular notion in politics that a new leader in office has 90 days do demonstrate that they can
create change. This same notion is becoming more prevalent in management literature as well—and I believe
that this is dangerous. My thinking is that a new leader has 90 days to instill confidence in management
and peers. The new leader must show that they’re quickly getting a grasp on operations and that things will
continue to run smoothly. Unless specifically hired to fix a broken situation, most people do not want to have
someone come in and turn the operation upside down.
Some managers are proponents of “making the job their own,” placing their stamp on the operation, and the
way to do this is to instantly create change—whether it’s through reorganization, refocusing, or vastly changing
operations. Again, unless the situation calls for this coming in the door, this can be a recipe for disaster and
one that can get you branded as a bull in a china shop.
There are plenty of ways to make the job your own and place your own stamp on the operations without
charging into a new management/leadership situation with reckless abandon. In fact, even in situations
that are in immediate need of change, people have expectations that a new manager/leader will perform a
thorough reconnaissance of the situation before doing anything hasty.
Over the years, my experience has been that in 90 days, a new manager/leader will in fact have a good handle
on what needs to change and has a plan for handling that. Moreover, the good manager has identified the low
hanging-fruit and may have already implemented some small but effective changes. The important thing is to
communicate the change plan within 90 days and make it clear that you have a basic understanding of the
landscape and know where things need to go.
So if the clock does start ticking on day one of your first 90 days in a management position, what do you do to
make sure you are deemed successful in 90 days? The following are four broad areas of knowledge that you
need to gather information on to achieve your 90-day goal of success.
1. Get to know your staff

As a manager/leader, you get your work done through others. You need to evaluate their capabilities as
quickly as possible—starting with your direct reports (more likely managers and supervisors) and working your
way down to your line staff. I typically start this process with interviews: managers and supervisors first, and
then line staff. I ask each person about themselves, their peers, and direct reports. I also ask them about the
person I am replacing and what they thought of them. After that, I turn to their HR files. I like to let a person
make an impression before my perception is colored by something in their personnel file or performance
evaluation. If my notes and thoughts don’t agree with what I read, I flag this person for extra attention to
understand the discrepancy.

Besides interviews, I get to know my staff by asking others in the organization about the staff in general. Do
they have contact with them, how much, how often, in what form? Again this information goes into my mental
or paper file about my staff.
Finally, I learn my staff by interacting frequently with them. In fact, I probably will spend more time with my
ENTIRE staff during the first 90 days than I will over the course of the following months and years. I believe
in an immersion process that recognizes that you can’t get to know someone without interacting with them.
Mind you, this process is relative and applies differently depending on how many people make up your chain
of command. This process works up to about 50 people. Any number greater than that and you will have
to employ sampling techniques. You still need to work your way down your entire chain, but you may not
necessarily get to spend quality time with every person. Also, if you do have to sample, make it known to your
staff that you will not get to all of them. You don’t want anyone to feel slighted or worried because you didn’t
speak to them.
2. Learn your operations

It’s important to quickly determine what you are held accountable for and what bombs might explode when
something goes wrong in an area. You can gather this information from your staff, from your peers, and from
your supervisor. While you may have some idea what these operational issues may be, particularly if you’re
moving into a similar position with a different company, don’t assume that things work the same way in both
places. They don’t! No matter how you go about this, it’s important that you figure these things out before
something goes wrong rather than after the fact.
3. Learn your boundaries and limitations

This can be tough and is a delicate operation. The intelligence you gather in this area comes from watching,
listening, and delicately testing the extent of your power and reach. Keep in mind that the information you
gather here will change as the organization and your direct supervisor gain trust in you. If you find yourself
decreasing in this area—no matter where you are in your career—watch out. It could very well be that people
are not happy with you.
4. Learn the environment

This is a broad area. The intelligence I gather at this stage falls under the politics and culture of the
organization, relationships (which ones to foster, which ones are broken, etc.), my boss, my peers, important
people inside or outside of the organization I need to please, how my unit is viewed and how it’s are perceived
to be performing, what people’s needs and wants are, and probably a dozen other things I’m failing to
remember at this moment.
The techniques I am employing are simple, though: Observation, listening, reading, and surveying. During
the first 90 days I am meeting with all my peers, department heads, customers, influential outsiders, and

others to gather as much information as I can in the areas described above. I am also reading reports about
the organization and my unit, and I am preparing and distributing a survey to all employees regarding my
operation. The survey is anonymous and often yields a great deal of information. It usually is a blend of a high-
level needs assessment and customer satisfaction survey.
I do all of the above so I can navigate my way through the organization, understand what’s needed and
wanted, understand my role and the boundaries placed on me, identify low-hanging fruit (opportunities),
determine who I can and should be partnering with, and come up with a plan for moving forward.
Finding the balance

Does this sound like a lot? It is—but it’s necessary and it’s worth it. Although you need to be vocal to get the
information you need, your main job is to be a sponge. Say just enough to get people talking and ask why
often. In the end, people will recognize what it is you’re doing and understand the amount of energy you’re
putting into understanding them and the organization. This kind of credibility goes much further than trying to
make a big splash with major changes right off the bat.
Yes, you need to accomplish certain things in 90 days as a new manager. But creating a major change is not
necessarily one of them.

How to manage a departmental

budget: A guide for beginners
By Mary Shacklett
Most individuals get promoted into their first managerial positions because they are exceptional performers,
knowledgeable in their areas of expertise, and have demonstrated an ability to lead. This doesn’t necessarily
mean they know how to develop or operate a departmental budget. Consequently, the need might arise to
learn budgeting on the fly.
Managing a departmental budget is similar to managing a household budget, although corporate budgeting
can involve many more stakeholders and is considerably more complex. The good news is that there are best
practices that new managers can learn from. Here are seven helpful budget tips.
Use your existing budget as a baseline

Unless you are starting a new department or function, there’s probably an existing budget for the department
you’re taking over. Review this budget carefully and get all your questions answered. You may or may not
agree with that budget, but it should function as a baseline and a starting point for the new budget you
develop.
Talk with members of your department about

budget projections
Most new managers get promoted into a department where they had been a staff member, but they may
not be knowledgeable about every area of the department. For instance, you might be taking over the
management of an engineering CAD group, but your job has always been to work with outside clients and
develop applications, so you know nothing about budgeting for hardware and software. You should plan to
sit down with the members of your department who are on the computer operations side. They can tell you
about resource usage, what they are projecting for hardware, software, and maintenance for the coming year,
and what the history of hardware and software performance has been.
Get an understanding from corporate on budget

expectations
As a corporate-wide practice, most organizations have a pre-budget-cycle meeting of the C-level officials to
determine what the overall budget increase allowance is going to be for the coming budget year. Often, they
will come up with a figure and then tell department managers in advance of budgeting what to plan for. The
message from corporate usually goes something like this: “Plan your budget to be within five percent of what
it was last year.” Understanding corporate expectations in advance can go a long way toward helping you

lay out your budget—because you already know what types of budget increases they are expecting you to
present for approval.
Operationalize your budget and know what you can

sacrifice
In laying out your budget, you should refer to your goals and objectives for the coming budget year so that you
can position the budget where it can be adjusted if corporate earnings targets aren’t met and you’re called
upon to freeze or reduce budget. If this happens, you should know exactly what you are going to cut. The
best way to give yourself flexibility is to make as many of your budgetary items operational or discretionary as
you can.
An operational budget item is one that you pay every month and that you aren’t committed to a long contract
for. If you need to reduce, eliminate, or defer the item, you usually can. A discretionary item is an expense
allocation committed to a specific project or activity. If things get tight, you can defer or eliminate the expense
and the project. In contrast, when you purchase something large and expense it over time as a capital
expense (like a hardware or software license), you are locked in and you have no flexibility.
Ask for assistance if you need it

If you need help with amortizing or depreciating a budget item or other budget-related financial ratios and
ways of structuring expense, the finance department often has budget analysts who are knowledgeable and
who can help. Take advantage of it. Finance can also assist you when you have to make a decision about
whether to expense an item through your operating budget or capitalize an item in a fixed assets budget.
They can do this by producing a spreadsheet that calculates the figure for you, then compares how much per
month you would pay with either method and how long the payments would run.
Use all your financing options

You can work creatively with your budget. If you can’t get authorization for an additional staffer and the
position is an entry-level one, look toward local colleges and universities that might have students who are
being trained in the field and who would like a shot at an internship. (If you decide to go this route, be sure
you’re complying with fair labor practices.)
If you want to onboard new software or hardware and can’t cost-justify it, vendors can come to the rescue
with financing options that will work. If you can find a way (like going to the cloud instead of buying an on-
premise system) to operationalize your costs, where you can expand or reduce them as circumstances
require, this gets you away from capital expense lock-in.

Implement proofs of concept for new projects if you

can’t get them funded
You don’t have to necessarily stand still if your budget is frozen or reduced. Many vendors, especially if they
are trying to establish market presence, will conduct free proof-of-concept projects, like a test drive of a new
project management system, to get their foot in the door the next time budget becomes available. One of
the best ways for them to do this is to demonstrate the value of their products in a small proof of concept—
not only to you, but to others in the business who will benefit. If the POC is successful, you might get other
support for funding the project in addition to your own. A POC also enables both you and your company to
observe a vendor at close range. In other words, do you think the vendor is a company you can work with and
that it will be sensitive to your business needs?
The place to start

The longer you work with budgets, the more tricks you’ll learn for managing them. The best way to get started
is to follow some established best practices. They will give you a foundation to build on as you add your own
approaches and techniques once you gain experience.

10 tips for leading your team to peak

performance
By Jason Hiner
If you want to succeed as a leader, you can only do it by setting up your team members to succeed. Here are
a few fundamental leadership tips for managing your team to peak performance. Keep in mind that these tips
are aimed at leaders who manage knowledge workers and project managers in IT. The equation can be a little
different if you are managing people in a strict production environment, although many of the principles may
still apply.
1: Focus on results and productivity and not the

timeclock
When you manage salaried knowledge workers, you should almost never have rigid clock-in/clock-out
times unless there is a coverage issue in relation to serving customers (e.g., maintaining adequate help desk
coverage during call hours). Instead, set clear goals that you know should take your employees about 40
hours/week to accomplish. Require that they show up on time for important meetings and are available during
the team’s general working hours. Provide them with the tools to access their work remotely, when needed.
Then let them manage their own time. This sends the message that you trust your employees. If you’ve got
people you don’t trust, that’s another issue. Manage them up until you do trust them or manage them out to
their next opportunity.
2: Align people with the stuff they are good at

Make sure you have the right people in the right seats. This is especially true if you take over the management
of a team that is already in place. Take stock of all the talents you have on the team and reshuffle the deck if it
means that your team has a better chance of success. Don’t keep someone in a job role just because they’ve
been doing it for long time if you truly think their talents are better suited and could make a bigger contribution
in another role. Employees might be reluctant to move in a case like this, so you may need to work hard to
convince them that the change is in their best interest, as well as the best interest of the company.
3: Align people with the projects they are

passionate about
Another part of getting people in the right seats is finding what your employees are genuinely passionate
about and seeing if there are ways to align them with job roles that let them channel some of that passion.
Occasionally, that can mean putting someone in an area where they don’t have much experience. But if their
previous work history makes you think they can succeed in that role, it’s usually worth it because their passion
will fuel a strong desire to learn and grow. Once they’re up to speed, that passion can become a strong driver
of innovation and growth.

4: Put your best performers on your biggest

opportunities
When you have a big opportunity that could propel your organization forward, you need to step back and
think about who is the best person to lead the charge. In addition to finding someone who has the talent for
the work involved or who has a passion for the subject matter, you need to look at who has a track record of
success. Big opportunities come around only once in a while, and they can be lost. So even if it means taking
someone off something important, you should always put your best performers on your biggest opportunities.
5: Find the balance between aggressive and

realistic goals
Create a culture of performance by setting aggressive goals and holding your employees accountable for
regularly reporting on their progress. However, the goals can’t be so aggressive that your employees quickly
fall behind and feel like they can never realistically achieve them. Otherwise, they will quit stretching to reach
the goals. That means that you have to regularly reevaluate the goals (at least on a quarterly basis) to decide
whether they need to be scaled down or scaled up.
6: Trust your people—and let them know it

Knowledge workers typically have jobs that require creative solutions and decision making. They need to stay
sharp mentally to achieve top performance. The onus is on management to create an atmosphere that fosters
and encourages that kind of creativity. One of the best things you can do is let your employees know that you
trust them and that you have faith in their ability to do the job, solve the problem, and/or meet the deadline. If
you don’t trust them, again, you need to manage them up or manage them out.
7: Avoid blame (a.k.a. throwing people under the bus)

In any business (or organizational enterprise), there are going to be times when you fail, and there will be things
that simply don’t pan out the way you had hoped. Do a post-mortem (even if it’s informal) to figure out what
went wrong and learn from it. If there were egregious errors made by individuals, deal with them privately. If
necessary, let the person know your expectations for how this should be handled in the future.
Don’t publicly blame individuals—either directly or indirectly—in meetings or team e-mails. If you do, you risk
creating an atmosphere in which people are so afraid to make mistakes that they don’t spend enough time
doing the proactive and creative work necessary to avoid future problems—or more important, to drive new
innovations.

8: Foster innovation by killing projects the right way

Another important part of fostering innovation is knowing how to kill projects effectively and gracefully. There
are times when failed initiatives will expose the weaknesses of certain employees, but there are plenty of times
when you have good employees working on projects that simply don’t pan out. Figuring out the difference
between those two scenarios is part of becoming a good manager. If it’s a good person on a bad project, the
person who was running the project isn’t any less talented because the project didn’t materialize.
So make sure you use the project as a learning experience and reassign the person to something new
without excessive hand-wringing. Otherwise, you will make your employees overly risk-averse, and they will
be reluctant to jump into the next big project or to make bold moves when managing the project. That type of
atmosphere can quickly stifle progress.
9: Don’t provide all the answers—make your

employees think
You are the manager. You are the leader. That does not mean that you have a monopoly on all of the good
ideas. If your employees are hesitant to make decisions without asking your opinion first, you haven’t properly
empowered them.
If your employees aren’t making enough of their own decisions, you should change your tactics. When they
present you with information and ask what to do about a situation, push the ball back into their court and ask
them, “What do you think?” They might be surprised at first, but after you do that several times, they’ll start
thinking it through before they come to you so that they’re fully prepared to discuss the matter and make a
recommendation. That’s a good thing, because they’re usually closer to the customer and more familiar with
the details of the work. You need their opinions. And you need them to make some of their own decisions.
10: Build consensus by letting people know “why”

One of your key responsibilities in management is communicating about new initiatives and strategy changes.
The worst thing you can do is surprise your staff members with a fully formed idea about a new way to do
something that will drastically alter their day-to-day work. When you spring it on them, people will naturally be
defensive and skeptical. Whenever possible, give people an informal heads-up that a change is coming and let
them know some of the reasoning involved. They will be glad you kept them in the loop.
If they don’t agree with the reasoning, they can express their dissent. They might bring up a caveat or a
gotcha that should be considered before the final plan is solidified. An even better course of action is to have a
brainstorming session with your team when you are still formulating a new idea or strategy change, so you can
gather their ideas and feedback. You may sometimes have to spring something on your team, but make sure
that you limit those occasions. Even then, take the time to let them know the reasoning behind the decision.

Four self-development tips for new

tech leaders
By Mary Shacklett
Setting goals, managing your time, being motivated, and being able to focus are all self-management
skills that great IT managers cultivate. Despite this, skills classes for managers tend to focus around time
management and organization. Here are some other self-management skills, and ways you can work on
developing them.
1. Keep your focus on projects

Maintaining a focus on projects, the mainstay of IT, seems obvious for IT managers but it isn’t easy. How
many times do you get pulled away from projects to sit in on all-day administrative steering committees or to
participate in other non-IT functions?
This is a difficult quandary to manage through, because it is critical for you to represent your group in company
meetings, but you also have to keep your fingers on the pulse of projects.
The solution
When you anticipate having full days of outside meetings, come in early and take an extra hour to touch base
with your project leads. You don’t want make a practice of having too many overcommitted days like this, but
taking that extra hour in the morning has saved many IT managers the headache of having to straighten out
major issues that arose in their absence—issues they could have prevented if they’d stayed in touch.
2. Be a team player
It’s easy to become so preoccupied with budgeting and staffing that you maroon yourself in your office and
don’t show yourself to be an interactive team player to your staff. IT managers can ill afford to do this when
projects depend upon strong collaboration and teamwork—and then they themselves fail to demonstrate
those qualities.
The solution
Get out from behind your desk for at least one hour per working day to mingle with staff and assess project
work. If there is a project problem that requires collaboration and you can help, play a key collaborative role in
the meeting. Also take the time to circulate among offices and cubicles to interact with staff and get to know
them. The more you establish open communications and personal comfort levels with your staff, the more they
will feel at ease and work together as a team.

3. Strive for a balanced life

Great managers are in demand for many other types of company functions. This is why it’s important to make
the supreme effort to keep your personal and professional lives in balance as much as possible. It can be
tough to do.
“I was literally going down the tubes,” Phyllis Stewart Pires, who was heading up the global gender, diversity,
and work-life office of a major tech company, told New York Magazine. “I was missing family events. My
friends were calling me out on being AWOL. My husband was calling me out on not doing my share. It was
almost like I was obsessed with this idea that people were counting on me to really make a difference in their
workplace. I couldn’t let them down.”
The solution
Set aside time for your family and friends in the same way that work will make its own demands on your time.
Eevaluate whether your work and personal life are staying in balance on a monthly basis.
Regular evaluation is important because it can be easy to lose this balance if you don’t continuously work
at keeping it. Some years ago, I was in a management job that required me to spend 80% of my work time
traveling. I found that work was overshadowing my family time. I made a conscious decision to change jobs so
that I could achieve a better work-life balance.
4. Don’t lose sight of your own self-development

needs
As a manager, you likely spend a lot of time assessing skills shortfalls in projects and in staff—but you should
also keep an eye on your own skill development.
One key administrative skill that is developmental for many managers is capturing the time and cost of
projects. In other cases, it can be beneficial to gain a better understanding of the end business so you can
better align IT projects and results with business needs. If you come from a more technical discipline, you may
want to work on improving your communication skills. Whatever development areas you need to shore up,
identify them and then make a plan to acquire the skills that you need.
Managers are hired to manage people and projects. But those who excel as managers will tell you that to do
either of these well, you first have to successfully manage yourself—and to take your own steps to get there.

Looking to build a career as a

tech leader? Here’s why empathy
might help
By Patrick Gray
From an IT leader’s perspective, at first blush, empathy might sound like a virtue deserving of one of my five-
year-old daughter’s favorite quips, borrowed from a recent movie: “A bunch of hippie-dippy baloney.” However,
empathy can make you a more effective leader and broadly accelerate your career growth. Like many soft
skills, part of the reason empathy gets a bad rap is the overly complicated interpretations of how one practices
empathy. For our purposes, it’s simply the ability to see the world from someone else’s perspective.
Sitting on both sides of the table

Consider the last time you were having a challenging discussion or presentation. You likely had an objective,
whether it was delivering bad news, convincing a hostile audience to adopt a different point of view, or being
tasked with being on the receiving end of similar content. Perhaps you marshalled your best talking points,
developed slides to argue your position, and went into the discussion prepared for battle. How did it go? If
you were the highest-ranking person in the room, perhaps it seemed to go swimmingly—with staff diligently
nodding affirmation to your every whim. But did you truly convince them of the merits of your case? Among
peers, were there passionate arguments but ultimately several “immovable objects” pushing each other with
no measurable progress?
Now, consider approaching the situation a bit differently. Rather than thinking about what content to present,
try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes. What might they be concerned about? What are they expecting
to hear? What might persuade them to adopt a new position on their terms, rather than being metaphorically
beaten into submission?
When you plan interactions based on meeting the other person where they currently are, rather than
attempting to talk them into accepting your point of view, you’ll likely take a different and more effective
approach.
Empathetic technology
For a more concrete example, consider the current state of technology design and implementation. Terms like
user experience and design thinking are now common vernacular, and while there are differences and nuances
among the various techniques for systems design, they all start with empathy and understanding of the end
user as their core.
In the old days of system design, we’d consider the data we needed to present or acquire from the user, with
technical requirements first and foremost. If the end user were lucky, some analyst or developer might spend

a few minutes trying to organize screens and interfaces to at least make them logical. This left us with overly
complex technology that frustrated users. While “frustration” is generally not a core business metric, these
systems resulted in lower productivity, longer adoption times, and in the worst case, successful technologies
that no one adopted at all, since they were too difficult to use.
Empathy even extends to a basic understanding of how a technology will be used. I’ve worked with several oil
and gas companies and have been in the room when technology for field workers was being discussed. Eyes
often roll when a vendor begins regaling the room with tales of the wonders of iPads for every field worker, a
solution that sounds great until you consider that many of these workers are wearing oily and greasy gloves
and working in a dangerous environment.
The most basic level of empathy for these workers would quickly reveal that tablet-style computers are not the
right tool for them. In this situation, emerging technologies like augmented reality or voice recognition could
be beneficial—or at a more basic level, considering whether the men and women working in these condi-
tions need to interact with technology at all and whether the benefits outweigh the inherent risks of their work
environment.
Similarly, the new school of systems design isn’t about making people feel good and love their accounting
software; rather, a system that’s designed with the end user at its core often requires less training, quickly
gains adoption, and makes users more productive, all metrics with real and obvious financial benefits.
Leading with empathy

As leaders, it can be difficult to find a unifying theme for how we help guide and develop our people. One
could likely fill a warehouse with books dedicated to the topic, and it can be difficult to determine whether you
should “lean in,” “be a servant leader,” be a “360-degree leader,” “start with why,” or “go from good to great.”
When I think of my own career, the leaders with the most impact seemed to understand the challenges I was
facing at the time and provided just the right level of guidance. In some cases, that might have been no-
nonsense, highly prescriptive tactics, while in others, it might have been a gentle nudge in the right direction.
In all cases, the best leaders I worked with seemed to understand my situation and showed me the path to a
better place, exemplifying the very nature of empathy.
As you guide and develop your own teams, try experimenting with a bit of empathy. That first-year analyst
likely has different concerns and perspectives from the manager nearing retirement. Rather than filing them
into a contrived model like a millennial, boomer, etc., take a moment to put yourself in their shoes. What con-
cerns would you have? What career challenges are you facing? How do you feel going into this conversation
with the boss?
As you complete this mental exercise, you’ll quickly identify how to approach the conversation. Someone who
is new to your company and team might be wondering how to fit in and whether leadership actually cares
about their success. A high performer might want to know that their efforts are recognized and that someone

is looking for opportunities where they can excel. Someone who is just punching the clock might need a gentle
reminder of what’s expected and acknowledgment that they won’t be pushed out of a role where they’re
comfortable.
While empathy might not have a cute, book title-worthy tagline, you don’t need a 300-page tome to readily
understand and see the benefits of applying it to your work and leadership practices.

CREDITS
TechRepublic is a digital publication and online Global Editor in Chief
community that empowers the people of business Jason Hiner
and technology. It provides analysis, tips, best
Editor in Chief, UK
practices, and case studies aimed at helping leaders Steve Ranger
make better decisions about technology.
Managing Editor
Copyright ©2018 by CBS Interactive Inc. All rights Bill Detwiler
reserved. TechRepublic and its logo are trademarks Editor, Australia

of CBS Interactive Inc. Chris Duckett
All other product names or services identified Senior Features Editors

Jody Gilbert
throughout this article are trademarks or registered
Mary Weilage
trademarks of their respective companies.
Senior Editor
Published by TechRepublic, February 2018 Conner Forrest
Senior Writers
Dan Patterson
Teena Maddox
Chief Reporter
Nick Heath
Staff Writer
Alison DeNisco Rayome
Associate Editor
Amy Talbott
Multimedia Producer
Derek Poore
Cover image: iStock/FS-Stock

TR EB New Managers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

TR EB New Managers

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

TR EB New Managers

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

How to succeed as a

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

10 tips to help new IT leaders to hit the

1. Get to know your staff

2. Get to know the environment

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Get to know the other managers and department

4. Get to know your customers

5. Get to know the vendors and suppliers

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

6. Identify budgets and resources

7. Determine where your predecessor left off

8. Determine how to leverage your staff’s skills and fill

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

9. Plan your strategy

10. Solicit feedback and adjust course as needed

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Eight ways to build tech leadership

Meeting industry challenges

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Tips for tech workers

1. Make the choice

2. Observe your leaders

3. Talk to your manager

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

4. Join a professional organization to observe and connect with

5. Seek out feedback from your manager and peers

6. Avoid the “delegation trap”

7. Don’t define yourself as “apolitical” in the workplace

8. Don’t expect any leadership program to be a cure-all

Three big takeaways

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

New IT managers: Learn these five

1. Be approachable and accessible

2. Always be fair—but don’t strive to be liked

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

3. Carefully consider your decisions

4. Accept that you can’t know it all

5. Don’t try to do everything yourself

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Five things every new manager needs

1. Be true to your style and yourself

2. Accept that your friendships with others will change

3. Remember: You are now the company!

4. Get to know your vendors

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

5. Don’t forget to focus on your relationships with

Challenges and rewards

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

New managers: Take stock before you

1. Get to know your staff

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Learn your operations

3. Learn your boundaries and limitations

4. Learn the environment

Copyright ©2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved.

Finding the balance