The performance, image, exposure model is commonly used to help individuals manage their careers. The same model can also be applied to the IT organization as a whole and can prove quite useful in managing IT’s role in the enterprise.

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I was reminded the other day when reading a career column on mentoring about the P.I.E. model to career success. In a nutshell, the model asserts that your career success is based on your performance, your image, and your exposure. I wish I could tell you who came up with the idea (I was first exposed to it in Grad school) but my research proved inconclusive. Despite my inability to give credit where credit is due, there is a ton of information available on the topic. I do believe in the model and its assertions and it’s valuable when thinking about your career.

However, during my research I found nothing that talked about the model and its relation to an organizational unit. This surprised me a bit because I think there is a natural extension of the model into management and leadership. Let’s assume that you are head of your IT department and are looking at ways to put together a scorecard on how well your unit is doing as part of the organization. Here’s what using the P.I.E methodology in this case what it might look like:

Performance indicators

There is no lack of research on performance metrics for IT. From service level agreements to measures of uptime, throughput, cost benefit, ROI and more, the list of how and what to measure is extensive. The important thing here is to choose those measures that are meaningful to your organization and make sure they’re quantifiable. Don’t choose too many but make sure the ones you choose get at the core of what your unit does and how it relates to your organization’s strategic plan.

Why is this important? Clearly, if your unit doesn’t perform well it won’t be held in high regard in the organization. People will complain about the work performed and this will eventually make both the unit and management of the unit suffer. Years ago, organizations were forced to put up with bad IT performance. These days, it’s too easy to find an alternative to service provided by IT and the organization is savvy enough to know there are alternatives. In fact, there are vendors telling your senior management daily they can do it better, Read more…

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I was reminded the other day when reading a career column on mentoring about the P.I.E. model to career success. In a nutshell, the model asserts that your career success is based on your performance, your image, and your exposure. I wish I could tell you who came up with the idea (I was first exposed to it in Grad school) but my research proved inconclusive. Despite my inability to give credit where credit is due, there is a ton of information available on the topic. I do believe in the model and its assertions and it’s valuable when thinking about your career.

However, during my research I found nothing that talked about the model and its relation to an organizational unit. This surprised me a bit because I think there is a natural extension of the model into management and leadership. Let’s assume that you are head of your IT department and are looking at ways to put together a scorecard on how well your unit is doing as part of the organization. Here’s what using the P.I.E methodology in this case what it might look like:

Performance indicators

There is no lack of research on performance metrics for IT. From service level agreements to measures of uptime, throughput, cost benefit, ROI and more, the list of how and what to measure is extensive. The important thing here is to choose those measures that are meaningful to your organization and make sure they’re quantifiable. Don’t choose too many but make sure the ones you choose get at the core of what your unit does and how it relates to your organization’s strategic plan.

Why is this important? Clearly, if your unit doesn’t perform well it won’t be held in high regard in the organization. People will complain about the work performed and this will eventually make both the unit and management of the unit suffer. Years ago, organizations were forced to put up with bad IT performance. These days, it’s too easy to find an alternative to service provided by IT and the organization is savvy enough to know there are alternatives. In fact, there are vendors telling your senior management daily they can do it better, cheaper, and faster than you can. Thus, it is critical to perform well.

Image indicators

It’s easy to imagine a person and understand what image means, from what they wear to how they speak and their mannerisms and actions as well as a multitude of other factors.

Image for a unit takes a little more thinking about. When it comes to image for a unit I think of branding and perception. Image is about how your unit is perceived as it performs its work. Image is a reflection of staff and management. Is staff that interacts with others in the organization courteous, professional, and positive? I used to tell my staff that three minutes spent in an elevator with the CEO can enhance or destroy months of hard work if one’s behavior is unprofessional.

What about ease of use? Is your IT organization easy to work with or a bureaucratic nightmare? Would people do without rather than have to deal with your unit? Is your unit perceived as an enabler or a discourager? When people think of your IT organization, do they think it is a class act or a circus? Are you viewed as a unit that is constantly improving its product or is falling behind? Keep in mind that performance has a somewhat inverse relation with performance. Poor performance can have a horrendous effect on image, yet perfect performance can have little to no effect. If you are viewed simply as a utility – you have an image problem.

Exposure indicators

Again, this is an issue more easily thought about for an individual than a unit but not impossible. Exposure for a unit equals funding, a seat at the senior management table, and that synergy with business units that IT always seems to be striving for but not always achieving. These are achieved by making the IT unit known. IT has a reputation for Read more…

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In these days of accelerated mergers and acquisitions, it’s important for banks to remember the people who keep the institutions running — IT workers. Technology staff are usually on the front lines of any M&A activity and are vital to ensuring that there are no interruptions in operations and service. Unfortunately, however, they also are often at the front of the line when it comes to receiving pink slips.

Bank IT staff warrant special care when an organization undergoes a merger, argues Bradford Newman, chair of the Silicon Valley Employment Law Department and leader of the International Employee Mobility and Trade Secrets practice with the New York law firm Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker. “They are the people who know where the bodies are buried,” he quips. “IT folks are often the unsung heroes of [M&A] integration efforts. You may have some outsourcing activity in IT, but there will always be a core IT function within the financial institution to integrate the acquired institution’s systems.”

Retaining top tech talent at both the acquired institution and the acquirer is of utmost importance, Newman adds. “These are the people who understand the systems, the technologies, the security Read more…

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Like everything else in the professional realm, there are right and wrong ways to quit your job.
There are few more active job-hunting months of the year than January, when new years resolutes, brimming with hope that the new year will bring fresh career challenges, set off to find new employment. Should their search be met with success, what this also means is that the first few months of the year yield the greatest number of employee resignations.

For most workers — stimulated to find a new job because of displeasure with their current one — this is the greatest day of their year, and therein lies a notable temptation to go running up and down the cubicle aisles yelling “I quit! Finally! Woo hoo!”

But no matter how satisfying this may feel in the short term, no matter how much employees might hate their job or boss or can’t wait to start their next dream job, and even if they are leaving two steps ahead of the axe, workplace experts sternly warn against celebrating at the office.

In short: You never know when you’ll need a former colleague for a reference and in the sometimes small world of IT, you never know when this individual will become your co-worker again.

Like everything else in the professional realm, there are right ways and wrong ways to quit your job, and though the wrong ways may seem obvious to some, they are still practiced by many.

Below, career coaches, recruiters and workplace experts navigate the sometimes blurry line between burned bridges and leaving on a classy note.

Make Sure You’re Making the Right Choice

So many employees leave their jobs each year for what seems like a dream job, get to the new place of employment and find that it falls well below their expectations and beg to come back to their old jobs that recruiters have a term for these people: Boomerang Read more…

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MAKE A GRACIOUS EXIT

You’ve just landed the biggest break of your career and can’t wait to move on. Hang on. There are few things that you need to do before you bid goodbye. Do it all in style and make sure you leave in good spirits!

You’ve got a job, which you think is better in terms of career prospects and money. Since change is the only constancy in life, you move on. Nothing wrong in it but the exit must be graceful and you shouldn’t burn your bridges, as some of the contacts made here will last a lifetime. Former colleagues help in networking and are valuable resources for job hunting and act as good referees.

Here are some tips to make the exit gracious. Read more…

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5-MUST HAVE LEADERSHIP TRAITS

 Leadership should be borne out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. Leadership also has a lot to do with you.

Accept all realistic challenges and deliver them on time to be a good leader.

“Leadership should be borne out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.” 
- Marian Anderson. Read more…

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