Hello and welcome to this week's Practical IT Manager Tips Newsletter

This week's article
Creating management credibility in today's environment

Establishing credibility is paramount for success as an IT manager. Without credibility, one does not accomplish very much. People won't follow your lead, other managers lack trust in your ability to help them, and senior management loses interest in the potential you once had.

So, how do you establish credibility with your clients, staff, and senior management?

Read the article below to learn my views.

NEW
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COMING

Watch future newsletters for major announcements.

MDE NEWS

Cutter Consortium commissions two Executive Updates
MDE recently agreed to write two articles for Cutter Consortium (www.cutter.com). The first article titled IT Assessment: the first step toward IT success is scheduled for release in October. The second article, An IT Due Diligence Overview is scheduled for release in November or December. Cutter Consortium helps companies leverage IT for competitive advantage and business success through its comprehensive range of consulting, training and content, provided by the leading expert practitioners in business and IT.

Public Sector Digest commissions series of articles
MDE recently accepted assignment to write a series of articles for Public Sector Digest (PSD). The first article titled, Developing Your IT Staff: The Key to a Strong Team and Quality Results appeared in their September  issue. PSD works with the public sector across Canada in providing a source of information and insight to help public officials, managers, and senior staff. PSD's web site is at www.publicsectordigest.com .

MDE to help launch the Help Desk Institute's OTIS program
On October 12th at 1:00pm central US time I will be conducting an online chat session to help promote the launch of Help Desk Institute's (HDI) new program called OTIS. The topic - Motivate and develop your staff for improved performance
Anyone can participate so mark your calendars. Information is available at http://64.29.221.218/ss?click&thinkotis&412fa287
Membership to OTIS is free.

Mike Sisco to address the PEIR Group
Plans are underway to make two presentations to the PEIR Group's IT management forum in November. The PEiR Group is a new trade association made up of independent reprographers and reprographic vendors throughout the US.

A Mike Sisco product endorsement:     

SellXL documents are excellent

Steve Bistritz has taken some of his award winning Selling at the Executive Level training seminar concepts and put them into three ebooks. Steve has been teaching sales forces how to sell at the executive level for many years and travels all over the world to deliver his insight to companies and individuals.

His three publications include:
   -  Fundamentals of Selling at the Executive Level
   -  Selling at the Executive Level: a White Paper
   -  Guide to Internet Resources

I have read all three publications and found them to be extremely helpful. Steve has lots of knowledge in the world of selling and delivers his insights in a positive and informative manner.

Steve has trained sales people and sales managers in startup companies as well as large global sales organizations such as IBM and Siebel Systems.

The SellXL materials are excellent informative pieces to help you sell at the Executive level. Even within our IT world, we need to know how to sell to executives, which is exactly why I'm making my newsletter subscribers aware of these products.

For more information, see www.sellxl.com .

Still a few seats open in the fall IT Manager Institute

The price for the Institute will never be this low again.  We have reduced the price in half as a special one-time incentive for our 4th Institute which coincides with our company becoming four years old. It's a significant milestone.

Take advantage of this offer to develop your skills for greater success and position your career for future growth.

You won't believe how much you will receive during this week of training !!!

Go to www.mde.net/training and www.mde.net/institute to learn more about the benefits of the IT Manager Institute. This is a unique program loaded with many, many extras.

Register now to attend the 4th IT Manager Institute - October 18-22, 2004

Hurry, , , while there are still a few seats available.


www.mde.net/institute   or    www.mde.net/training

Creating management credibility in today's environment

Let's get right to the point.  To establish credibility you have to create successes.

There is nothing like having a track record of successes to validate one's credibility. It is ultimately what we are going to be judged on.

Look around and think about this for a moment. Of all the managers you have worked with or currently work with, who are the ones that have credibility in your mind?

It's the people who have had successes and can get things done - right?

Of course it is. And I can assure you that whether you ask a client, senior management, or an employee you will get the same answer in almost all cases. You might find a case or two where someone votes for the manager with the winning personality, but more often it's going to be based on who can get things done and do it in a positive way.

Credibility is not established by "hitting home runs". It is something that is earned over time. We have all seen the "flash in the pan" manager that comes in, does something wonderful, and then just can't seem to get things done. That's called the "honeymoon period". These people impress others quickly but soon fade from the scene of credible managers.

It's one thing to have a single success; it's something different and far more important to have "sustained successes".

Credibility emanates from consistency and doing the little things well. Again, you don't have to hit a home run to establish your credibility. Start with small successes and work your way up to the "big hit" opportunities. What's more important is the consistency of your success and that you succeed more often than you fail.

Failing is a matter of life. If you don't have a failure here or there, then you aren't trying to do very much. For example, I can guarantee zero errors in a programming support environment. But to do that, I have to either eliminate new changes from being worked on or put such a strenuous quality review process in place that our productivity will be unacceptable. We have to strike balance.

The key is to sustain a track record of successes. That doesn't mean zero failures. That said, it's important to avoid "disastrous" and "dumb" mistakes

The cornerstone of success
Managing projects successfully is a critical part of any IT manager's success. When your team exhibits the ability to deliver projects on time and on budget, you join the minority of the IT managers who achieve this. Every study suggests that over 70% of all technology projects either fail to be delivered on time or exceed budget.

Believe me, deliver projects on time and within budget and your credibility will grow quickly.

What this means is that you need to implement a project management culture within your organization and for your clients. Quantifying the deliverables and scope up front, gaining agreement, and building realistic plans are critical, not optional.

Don't miss this point. Predictable delivery of your projects is essential if you want to be credible. It's so important that I wrote an entire book titled
IT Project Management: a practical approach . In my 5-day IT Manager Institute, I spend an entire half day on the topic of project management and the importance it has on your success and career. Project management is only one aspect of managing technology resources effectively, but it is a key part and the "cornerstone" for your success.

You need credibility in several areas
To be successful, establishing credibility takes many forms. You need to be credible with clients, senior management, and your employees to achieve real success. Managers who can win over senior management for a time but are not credible with clients and/or employees ultimately lose favor from their senior management supporters.

First, create credibility with your customer. At the end of the day, this is the key piece of what you have to have to be credible. Clients have to trust you and know that they can depend upon your IT organization to support their efforts.

Second, create credibility with your employees. It won't be you the manager who delivers the products and services that the client uses to conduct business. It's going to be your employees. When they succeed, you will succeed. It can't work for a sustained amount of time the other way around.

Third, create credibility with senior management. When clients and employees believe in you and trust you, senior management will follow. Another thing that builds credibility with senior management is when you look at the technology support world in more of a business perspective. Prioritizing and focusing your technology team's initiatives on issues that make a tangible difference for the company will endear you to your CEO, CFO, and other senior executives. Typically, they want to see cost savings, new revenue opportunities, or productivity improvements from technology initiatives.

Little things make big differences
The manner in which you go about managing people, issues, and processes on a day to day basis creates a persona about you as a manager. Little things go a long way in helping others trust you and
trust is an essential foundation in establishing a credible reputation among your colleagues.

    -  People trust people who do what they say they will do.
    -  Senior managers admire people who can turn difficult situations into positive ones.
    -  Clients respect people who are straightforward and manage their expectations well.
    -  Following up on commitments gains allies in all areas of your business.
    -  Giving your staff credit for successes and taking responsibility for failures builds tremendous staff loyalty.
    -  Empowering your employees and providing them the tools to be successful creates great trust.

It's really not all that difficult to establish a level of credibility within your business environment. Start by taking small steps that lead to bigger strides. Build on the small successes and be consistent in how you go about managing people and issues and especially how you treat others in the workplace. You will find that a consistent approach that treats others with respect will have very positive impact.

Remember, the key is to deliver what you say you will deliver and when you say it will be done. Ultimately, this is the acid test of whether you create trust and what makes a person credible. If people cannot depend on you to do what you say you will do, no matter how good your intentions, you will not have credibility with them. Telling someone you can't do something or that it takes longer than they want it to happen may not be what they want to hear, but they will gain respect for you when you actually deliver what you say you will.

Establishing and maintaining credibility has a lot to do with managing expectations. In my next newsletter article, I'll discuss this topic and give you some tips on how to manage the expectations of others. You don't want to miss it.

Best of success in establishing and maintaining the best of credibility in your business and personal environment.

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