Good IT leadership includes good management

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Leadership is not the same thing as management. But truth be told, without great management skills, IT professionals don't become great leaders, advises longtime IT leader Larry Tieman.

Good IT management extends well beyond people to projects, contracts and financials, Tieman writes in a post at InformationWeek. He recounts the story of a vice president who once worked for him: He showed great leadership qualities, including motivational skills, communications kills and organizational skills.

"But beneath the surface lurked major trouble," Tieman recalls. As long as everyone was working together smoothly, the VP managed the team well, but if there was contention or if someone wasn't working up to par, he didn't take action. "He focused only on big, complex projects, ignoring staff and partners involved with the smaller stuff. Over time, his organization and business peers began to lose confidence in his ability to manage across multiple, conflicting priorities, even as he remained popular."

In the end, it doesn't matter if the flaws are called leadership failures or management failures. The point is that fundamental duties were neglected. Tieman relates several other cases of IT leaders becoming so wrapped up in the visions of big, high-risk projects that they neglected core project management and people management tasks.

"Strong competencies in people, project, financial, executive, and contract management provide the foundation for all other leadership skills. Directors and VPs who aspire to become CIOs--as well as current CIOs and other senior executives--must continually develop these competencies," he writes.

Fonte: FierceCIO