Six Hot IT Leadership Trends – and Six Going Cold

Pink News Editor | August 23, 2022 Leadership

In his recent CIO article, 6 hot IT leadership trends — and 6 going cold, writer Paul Heltzel says, “Until recently, if you asked tech leaders what management trends were on the rise, they’d frequently point to aligning digital transformation with business outcomes. That has changed. Partly driven by the pandemic’s lasting effects, forward-looking tech leaders are leaning into team-first leadership models that help attract, diversify, and retain top talent.”

Please note this is a summary of the article, and we will intermingle Paul’s written words with quotes from his interviewees. Click here to see the attribution and the complete points being made. 

Six Hot Trends – and Six Going Cold

  1. Hot – Leading with purpose: CIOs and technology executives need to build a tech culture and workforce that is engaged and focused on how technology contributes to the overall organization’s mission and purpose.

    Cold – Authoritarian leadership: Using formal authority to get things done is out. There’s increasing importance for a leader to have the ability to influence without authority. This means leaning into persuasion, passion, and a sense of purpose to convince others to join you.
     
  2. Hot – Diversity through upskilling: Upskilling – especially for soft skills – is crucial in today’s ever-evolving tech landscape. IT leadership must anticipate change and prepare teams ahead of time to prevent immense disruption and frustration, as well as loss of a competitive advantage.

    Cold – Overemphasizing process over results: Leadership must have a road map – however imperfect. They need a long-term view of where they need to continue to provide vital, anticipatory services in support of where their business is going.
     
  3. Hot – Focusing on employee experience: In a digital-first world, how employees interact with technology and their satisfaction with that experience directly relates to the success and value they deliver to the organization. The failure to achieve that shift of mindset will largely stagnate a company’s growth.

    Cold – Expecting employees to always be on: Connected collaboration tools and mobile devices are keeping workers tied in unhealthy ways to the office, inviting burnout, and hurting the bottom line. IT leaders should actively work on setting clear boundaries while consciously building a culture that respects them.
     
  4. Hot – Embracing curiosity: You can improve the quality of your leadership, move faster, and see increased business value by leading more like a coach than a manager. The leader as coach recognizes the need for leaders to build a true learning organization around them.

    Cold – Traditional office policies: IT workers need flexibility to succeed, and leaders who embrace this flexibility are also more likely to find success. Productive time must be interspersed with creative time so that IT employees can innovate organically and prepare the company for disruptions.
     
  5. Hot – Having your employees’ backs: The bottom line is employees need to know employers have their backs and will work with them to help chart their futures. With the competitive labor market, companies offering a flexible, inclusive workplace with the ability for employees to upskill improve their odds of attracting talent to build and sustain a culture of innovation.

    Cold – Focusing on the back office: If you’re a CIO and you’re only focused on back-office operations, you’re keeping your company safe and keeping it running, but you’re not necessarily aligning your team to a common purpose for the organization or leaning into the full potential or value of what technology can impact.
     
  6. Hot – Disrupting the status quo: A successful disrupter is a holistic transformation agent, a leader whose vision of the future and tech-forward plans impacts the entire organization. Being a holistic transformation agent requires leaders to inspire everyone to be active participants in building the future of their company.

    Cold – Micromanaging: IT leadership will need to continue its transformation of how we work and collaborate remotely and become more flexible than ever before. Remote work that took off during the pandemic shook up the typical office environment in positive ways that provided more creativity and freedom for IT workers. And those tech pros want those gains to continue in the future.

Learn More

Leaders and aspiring leaders who want to enhance their leadership skills will find many progressive IT leaders who will highlight their hot trends and successes at Pink23 – the 26th International IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition – that’s taking place at the incomparable Bellagio in Las Vegas from February 26-March 1, 2023. Pink23’s cutting-edge program will include an entire track of leader-centric sessions that cover the latest knowledge and best practices, including several case studies. Click here for more details and to register. Take advantage of our Last Early Bird offer (expires October 28th) that provides up to $900 in savings.

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