Closing the Technology Leadership Gap
by Janice Giannini
As a trusted business consultant and advisor, Janice has been helping clients achieve their stretch goals and create a new normal since 2005. She engages with senior executives and teams, particularly in complex businesses where misalignment is blocking their desired success, to develop and execute practical business strategies and plans. Clients have found her especially helpful when they recognize they must integrate an eagle’s eye and worm’s eye view in order to identify and remove obstacles. Janice has consistently taken on those challenges that others chose to run from. This typically involves those challenging times when failure is not an option and integrating business, technology and people changes must be accomplished simultaneously. As a result, many of her clients are complex organizations who won't settle for anything less than developing widespread professional competence.
To talk about closing the Leadership Gap in Technology, initially, invites 2 significant questions:
- Do you think there is a leadership gap?
- How would you describe the critical elements of that gap in tangible terms?
Taking these one at a time, why do executives think there is a gap? Browse the headlines of CIO Magazine for example (or other professional journals for that matter) or some company/ organization web sites and you will see a multitude of articles, research findings and data on the leadership gap in business today. This is based in part on 2 specific assessments:
- current employees' abilities and the
- expected exodus over the next 5 years of many baby-boomers in the senior ranks today
Understanding the gap in tangible terms is needed in order to close this gap. There are many characteristics that as a whole describe leadership. When describing the gap, the following consistently surface:
- Managing change effectively
- Translating vision into realistic strategies
- Translating strategies into feasible work plans
- Recognizing and acting upon the need for continuous self development
- Recognizing the need for employee/team development
- Actively encouraging employee development during their careers
- Inspiring commitment throughout the company
- Motivating self and others to do what is necessary to get the job done
In addition, as you look at your business through the lens of the future, there are 2 overarching questions that are necessary to developing a plan:
- what are the critical skills needed for today's success and
- What are the critical skills needed for success in the future?
As you consider these last two questions specifically as it relates to technology, what balance between strong business leadership and technology and people leadership do you require?
Armed with this knowledge, if surveys and research indicates that the current leadership sees there is indeed a gap, then what do you do or what stops you from addressing it?
I invite you to think about closing this leadership gap in technology from multiple vantage points: namely
- What is it costing you today, to continue to live with this gap? As you reflect upon this cost, consider the:
- Direct financial impact as well as
- Cost of being slower to market
- Cost of missed product / service schedules
- Cost of missed opportunities
- Cost of internal dissatisfied customers
- Cost of external dissatisfied customers
- What would you need to do to close it? Understanding the skills needed to be successful today and in the future enables you to answer this question more completely.
- What stops you from making the investment? Considering that the investment typically pays significant returns in the short term as well as long term through:
- improved relationship building across the business
- improved business metrics
- increased customer satisfaction
- faster speed to market
As you consider what it is costing you to continue to live with the gap, a significant perspective is risk. Living with the gap is ultimately a risk discussion.
- How high a risk are you willing to encumber your business?
- What is the risk profile your business can absorb?
- How do you lower the risk?
- Why would you live with higher risk than you need to?
What is stopping you from closing the gap? Technology leadership today faces challenges that are ever greater than in years past. Five of those significant needs are to:
- proactively and effectively use technology to grow the business
- translate visions into realistic strategies given the global product/service delivery capabilities
- harness and optimize the performance of global cross culture teams
- leverage multi- functional team relationships at all levels to stay on track consistently
- proactively create an environment that is conducive to innovation and growth
In closing, as you look at the risk-reward balance for your business, I invite you to take out a blank sheet of paper and answer the following questions. Warning: you may need to answer the questions above if you have not already done so.
How much stronger will your business be if you have strong leadership throughout the business versus only at the top?
How would that increased strength contribute to your business' competitiveness?
If I told you your competition was addressing it, what would you do?
Closing this gap is an enabling strategy for overall business success. It typically takes multiple years to fully realize the positive results and opportunities that are untapped today. Given the horizon that many businesses face - when do you need to start?