Developments in Practice XIX: Building Better IT Leaders - From the Bottom Up

IT organizations face many new challenges. While strong IT leaders are needed, few IT leadership teams as yet are well-equipped for the job. Very practical reasons imply that all IT staff should now be expected to act as leaders, regardless of their official job title: a new top line focus; the growing impact of IT decisions on organizations; and the complexity of the work to be done. These requirements are driving the need to push leadership skills and competencies further down in the IT organization. This paper explores how organizations are addressing these new requirements for leadership in IT. It examines the qualities that make a good IT leader and what companies are doing to build better leaders at all levels of their organizations. It concludes by outlining a value proposition for investing in IT leadership development.