A plan for filling an IT leadership vacuum

Dear Bob …

I have two IT staff members who may have the potential to become superior IT managers. The obstacles to their achieving their fullest potential (as I see it) are low expectations by the organization of their ability to excel, lack of clear business goals that involve IT, cultural differences (both come from a culture that makes them somewhat shy), and a manager who has the personality trait of an egomaniac with an inferiority complex.

[ Also on InfoWorld: Bob proposes a solution for employees working without direction in “Be your own boss, even if you have a boss” | Get sage advice on IT careers and management from Bob Lewis in InfoWorld’s Advice Line newsletter. ]

I would like to encourage them to stretch beyond their present reach. As such, I have plans to eliminate their manager’s role and ask them to collaborate in managing the IT function for our business.

One would be responsible for application integration and support. The other would be responsible for network and systems support. Together they would be responsible for overall progress and goals of the IT department, supporting lines of business with specific systems for each industry and integration of such applications with our ERP and e-business suites.

Please tell me your thoughts about such an arrangement. Thanks.

– Reorganizer

Dear Reorganizer …

Here’s how it looks based on what you told me (and understand that a lot of what matters is in the nuances, not the obvious stuff):

• Terminate their current manager without any further delay, unless he or she has special knowledge and expertise not shared by anyone else or documented in a way that would allow someone else to handle things. Every day the manager remains on the job is another day of damage, so the ROI for termination would go far beyond the compensation savings.
• After the termination, consider involving your two staff members in the decision as to whether to replace the manager. Present the co-leadership option as an interim situation. If they think it can be successful in the long term, you’ll hold off starting a search while you all find out if it works. If they have concerns or just don’t want the responsibility and headaches (not everyone enjoys preparing and administering a budget, for example), then ask them to co-lead while you conduct the search, and start it immediately.

• You didn’t mention whether they’re the entire staff or if there’s a larger organization behind them. It sounds like the latter — and if they’re handling everything you listed, they’re impressive! The co-leadership approach is more likely to succeed if it’s just the two of them. Otherwise, with all the best of intentions, the organizations are too likely to devolve into rival silos, although the same cultural influence that encourages shyness might reduce this risk.

Keep in mind that in IT, applications, and operations are natural enemies under the best of circumstances. The role of applications is to change things; the role of operations is to keep them the same, so they have opposite motivations.

All of this makes co-leadership both a terrific solution to a structural problem, and less likely to be successful than the more usual single-leader alternative. However, there will be times you find that their co-leadership really means you provide the leadership.

– Bob

This story, “A plan for filling an IT leadership vacuum,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bob Lewis’s Advice Line blog on InfoWorld.com.