Questions for IT managers or consultants

N2IT

When you became a manager/consultant how did you begin training yourself to think at a high level?

I find one challenging part of my position is going from low level (granular) to high level (executive management). Obviously I have to be grounded with my technicians and understand the day to day, but I also have to consistently focus on the high level deliverables and report back on the status of our engagement.

I am assuming that over time and with additional experience this will become easier to manage and more second nature.

I love the challenge of being a manager and being able to leverage resources as I see fit for the engagement.

More than anything I just wanted to hear how other managers transitioned into their first role.

Thanks for any input.

bertieb

I had the luxury of being driven/guided by my manager who I've known personally for over 15 years now and also gave me my first IT role right out of University - he knows my strengths and weaknesses better than most so was able to give me 'enough' to deal with and then push me in at the deep end - but knowing I'd swim rather than sink. I am utterly grateful for that. I started by being given seperate smaller projects and a bunch of resources to complete it with. Gradually, these got bigger and I ended up where I am.

I'm a consultant though and not an out and out manager. I have several people offshore that I manage and use for various projects/issues and the like but I'd say I'm more technical focussed. Working at my current company helped the most. As it's global and the teams I work with day to day are based across the world, you really have to think about the bigger picture to get the job done properly and there are always lots of opportunities to work on world-wide projects.

Your focus and responsibilities change completely when in a management role, and its not always second nature even to the most gifted of people. I wasn't a natural born leader when I first started in IT, however the day to day experience has increased my confidence and skills significantly. Seeing as you already love the challenge I think you'll be fine, and remember theres no such thing as bad experience! well, you know what I mean....