HR coach wanted: Helping IT managers become strategic business partners

• Published in: Employment Relations Today Vol. 30; no. 1; pp. 19 - 26
• Main Author: Palmer, Mark T.
• Format: Journal Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.03.2003; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Cost control; Design; Guidelines; Human resources; Information technology; Leadership; Management training; Managers; Professionals; Software; Strategic planning; United States > US
• ISSN: 0745-7790; 1520-6459
• DOI: 10.1002/ert.10071

When the air was let out of the dot-com balloon, high expectations for information technologies (IT) and Web-based e-businesses were replaced by concerns for share value, return on investment, and cost efficiencies. This change has generally returned the perceptions held of IT leaders from visionaries to service providers. Today, chief information officers (CIOs) and IT managers have to concentrate on hiring, retaining, and motivating highly trained technicians and engineers in an environment that is less concerned with innovation and more concerned with survival. This poses a challenge for IT managers that many are not equipped to meet. Corporate HR leaders are in the best position to assist and coach CIOs and IT managers in handling the newest professional development issues arising out of this situation. A list of specific coaching recommendations that have been helping IT leaders to begin to regain a place at the business strategy and decision-making table is presented. They are: 1. Learn the core business, 2. work the network, 3. change the culture, 4. become an expert communicator, 5. become poltically sensitive, and 6. create a professional agenda.