IT Leadership

Introduction

IT leadership is multifaceted, requiring many different skills and mindsets. The previous chapters covered those necessary components, particularly the intangible “soft skills” that comprise the majority of leadership. This chapter focuses on another crucial aspect: goal setting.

The Importance of Goal Setting

Setting individual and departmental goals is a critical aspect of keeping your team and organization successful and aligned. Goals should be challenging but realistic, allowing your team members to push themselves to grow while also feeling capable of achieving them.

Understanding the Importance of Buy-in

Goal setting is an essential aspect of IT leadership because it involves delegating responsibilities that cultivate teamwork and produce positive outcomes. It also involves delegating responsibilities that create a cohesive team dynamic, forming a collective of individuals who support each other’s successes and failures.

However, setting goals for an IT department is no simple task. It requires a thorough understanding of your team’s capabilities, the organization’s needs, and the resources available. It would be best to consider multiple factors when setting goals to ensure they are realistic and achievable.

This chapter will provide a comprehensive guide to setting goals for your IT team and understanding the factors to consider to align your team’s goals with those of the organization.

The Role of IT Leadership

IT leaders have many responsibilities and are often the linchpin that holds a successful organization together. The IT leader must be well-versed in many skills, including project management, budgeting, reporting, and strategic planning. They are responsible for providing the appropriate tools and resources to execute strategies and achieve the goals of the organization.

However, perhaps the most significant aspect of their role is understanding that goals are necessary at all levels of the organization. Each team member should have their goals, which will support the department and, in turn, the organization as a whole.

IT leaders must also be proficient in conflict resolution and understand when goals are achievable and when they are not. They are responsible for communicating the goals set by the organization and translating them into actionable items for the team. They are also responsible for communicating any challenges or roadblocks that may prevent the team from achieving its goals and providing alternatives when possible.

Key Considerations: Setting Goals

There are a few key considerations to remember when setting goals for an IT team:

Communication

Alignment with Organizational Goals

Resources

Timelines

Priority

These key considerations will ensure that your team’s goals are realistic, achievable, and aligned with the organization’s goals.

Communication

Effective communication with your team is crucial when setting and delegating goals. This means not only conveying the goals themselves and the responsibilities involved but also how they align with the organization’s goals.

Communicating the organization’s goals and how the team fits into the broader picture allows your team to understand the context of their work and the impact it has on the organization. This is motivating for most individuals as it makes their work feel more meaningful, and they can see how their efforts contribute to the company’s success.

Communication with your team about goals (or any work-related topic) should also be two-way rather than top-down. Allow your team members to ask questions, voice concerns, and suggest goals or areas of focus. You might be surprised at the ideas your team generates and the initiatives they show interest in taking on.

Alignment with Organizational Goals

IT leaders must ensure that the department’s goals align with the organization’s goals. In other words, the goals of each team within an organization should reinforce and support the broader company’s objectives.

The leadership team’s goals directly impact an organization’s ability to achieve its overall objectives. Therefore, IT leadership must understand the context of the company’s goals and ensure that the department’s goals directly support them.

Resources

Understanding the resources available to your team is essential for setting realistic goals. Your team’s goals should be challenging but achievable, which means considering the resources required to accomplish them.

Think about the costs, time, and skills needed to accomplish the goals you set for your team. Be sure to consider whether your team has the capacity to take on these goals, or if it requires hiring more talent or outsourcing tasks to external vendors. If you require additional resources, communicate this to the higher-ups in a clear and concise manner, backed by data and thorough explanations.

Timelines

Setting timelines for goals is essential to keep your team on track and accountable. These timelines should be realistic and account for the resources available.

When setting timelines, consider any ongoing projects and responsibilities to accurately assess your team’s capacity. Setting unrealistic timelines for goals can be discouraging for your team and set them up for failure. Being mindful of your team’s capacity and other obligations allows you to set timelines that will challenge your team without overwhelming them.

Priority

Setting clear priorities for your team’s goals is crucial for several reasons. It allows your team to focus on what’s most important and urgent first, while also keeping these goals at the forefront of their work.

Communicating the priority of certain goals also allows you to manage your team’s expectations and be transparent about what you define as essential. This creates a common understanding within the team and fosters an environment of respect and accountability.

Setting Goals for Your IT Team

Individual Goals

Individual goals allow you to hold each team member accountable for their specific duties and allow you to set expectations and timelines for when they should be completed.

These goals should support the department and ultimately the organization, but they should also be challenging for the individual and push them to grow and learn. Setting individual goals takes into consideration the employee’s current responsibilities and skills and any projects they’re working on with other team members.

As the leader, you should communicate the importance of these goals and provide support and guidance along the way. Helping individuals set goals that align with the department’s goals prevents feelings of isolation or disconnection from the broader objectives.

Departmental Goals

Departmental goals are goals that your entire IT team should be working towards and align with the organization’s goals. These goals should be challenging but realistic, achievable, and supported by the resources available to your team.

Departmental goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-sensitive (SMART). Setting SMART goals allows you to better communicate your department’s goals with other departments and upper management.

Example: A SMART Goal For An IT Team

Let’s say the broader organization has a goal of improving its customer satisfaction rating by 10% by the end of the year. This is a broad goal that the IT department can support in several ways.

A SMART goal for the IT team might be to “Increase the response time of customer support requests by 25% within the next two quarters.”

This goal is specific in its target (response time), measurable (we can track the response time and average response time), achievable (depends on many factors but is possible), relevant (directly related to the organization’s goal), and time-sensitive (it has a specific timeline and will be completed in two quarters).

This is just one example of a SMART goal that an IT team might set to support the organization’s goals. The specifics of these goals will depend on your team’s capabilities, resources, and areas of improvement.

Conclusion

Effective IT leadership requires many different skills and mindsets. Setting goals is an essential aspect of keeping your team and organization successful and aligned, but it is multifaceted and challenging. It requires a thorough understanding of your team’s capabilities, the organization’s needs, and the resources available.

This chapter has outlined the importance of goal setting for IT leaders and provided a comprehensive guide to setting goals for your IT team. It covered the key considerations of communication, alignment with organizational goals, resources, timelines, and priority.

IT leaders must effectively communicate goals to create alignment within the team and the organization. They must also ensure that department goals support the broader organizational goals and that all goals are realistic and achievable given the resources available.