IT Management Mentoring
The majority of IT managers grow into that position through a technical track; starting in support or systems development they progressively acquire the diverse skills and expertise needed to become responsible for the administration of IT systems, and rise through the ranks of IT management - team leadership, network management, systems management, operations management etc. to become "IT Manager". At no point does this career path really expose them to the problems of business management, hence the single most common criticism of IT managers by business management is that IT doesn't understand (business requirements / business needs / business operations ..... [delete as appropriate!]).
A minority of IT managers are appointed from outside IT, from sales, marketing, operations or finance management, specifically to counter the phenomenon characterised above. These managers may understand business, but unfortunately they don't understand IT, they are usually ignorant of the technical demands, problems and constraints which govern the delivery of service to the business by IT staff, and as such are commonly found to be ineffective and impotent when given the poison chalice of the IT management role. So cliched and systemic is this failure that within the ranks of "professional" IT leaders the appointment of a non-IT professional to the C-level executive IT position of CIO is universally understood to mean "Career Is Over" - very few director level business executives succeed in making a "comeback" once they have been challenged with the IT hotseat.
SBA can solve this problem through mentoring. By progressively developing, coaching and guiding the IT Manager to acquire the missing elements from their knowledge portfolio SBA consultants can raise the 'average' IT manager into the hybrid business technology leader needed to bridge the gap between the technologists and the business community. An SBA consultant can become the "spiritual guide" for your IT manager, on call "on demand" for consultation by telephone or videoconference, while coaching and developing them by regularly meeting them to review, understand and manage the portfolio of problems, demands and needs they are trying to cope with.
