IT Leadership Manual: Roadmap to Becoming a Trusted Business Partner

Foreword

So you want to be a successful IT leader, eh? Well, you made a good start by picking up this book, because a lot of great IT technical people really suck at leadership skills. Moving from being an IT expert to a successful leader is really quite elusive and requires a hybrid blend of “hard skills” and “soft skills.” There are plenty of textbooks on the technology that will take you to the glass ceiling of a career as a subject-matter expert, but there are not many books that focus on the “soft skills” specific to an IT role. So if you want to break through that glass ceiling, read on.

Leaders are not necessarily born but are molded and developed based on life's experiences. This book is designed to help guide each of us in our transitional journey to becoming effective leaders. We are all different in our personalities as well as our backgrounds. There is no one size that fits all. We each need to develop a style that works for of us. This book is designed to help us with that journey.

During the past 30 years, the focus in business was generally on improving operations, improving efficiencies, and building hierarchical organizations. This trend probably started back at the end of the industrial era and continued well into the ’70s and ’80s. Once we reached the ’90s, things began to change; the focus became more and more on people and process where the way that people were led and motivated significantly changed. This phenomenon has continued to expand throughout the ...