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  • Programs
    • The Technology Leadership Experience
    • Leading Change
    • The Cyber Leadership Experience
  • Workshops
    • Achieving IT Service Excellence
    • IT Consulting Skills: Becoming the Trusted Advisor
    • Marketing a Technology Organization
    • Engaging & Retaining IT Talent
    • Leading in a Technology Organization
    • Leading Change Across IT & the Enterprise
    • Internal Negotiating Skills
    • IT Influence & Diplomacy
  • Coaching
  • IT Skill Builder
  • Resources
    • Tech Whisperers Podcast >
      • Episodes
      • Tech4Good
    • Blog
    • Articles
    • Research + Reports
    • Books >
      • Unleashing The Power Of IT
      • Confessions of a Successful CIO
  • About Us
    • Meet The Team
    • Client Impact and Results
    • Announcements
  • Contact

The Benefits of IT Mentoring

10/25/2019

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Talk to any CIO or IT executive who’s ever mentored an up-and-coming leader and you’ll quickly discover that they’re getting as much out of the experience as their mentees are. Not only does IT mentoring gives the executive a satisfying way to pay it forward, it’s also a great way to engage star talent, learn about new tech, and relate to younger workers.

In a recent article for The Enterprisers Project, Dan Roberts explored how both mentor and mentee can make the relationship work best and deliver a win-win all around. As part of his research process for the article, Dan spoke with two people who  know first hand what makes a mentoring relationship effective.  Dollar Bank CIO Bill Fortwanger and Andy Bonelli, a senior IT manager at PPG, were paired up as mentor and mentee in a recent TechLX  cohort in Pittsburgh. They’ve seen just how powerful the relationship can be for both sides of the equation.

Andy has also served as a mentor himself in PPG’s internal program, and many mentees go on to pay it forward as mentors themselves. In fact, research shows that 89% of those mentored go
 on to mentor others, contributing to a culture of learning and mentoring.
 
How Mentoring Makes an Impact

When CIOs and other IT executives volunteer to become mentors in the TechLX program, we ask them to share their thoughts on the value of mentoring as a professional development tool and what they hope to gain from the relationship. Here’s just a sampling of what these leaders have told us: 

  • Mentoring at a minimum provides two significant opportunities:
    • An opportunity to significantly expand an individual’s professional network.
    • Personal and candid/constructive feedback based on a mentor’s prior experience that can be shared in an open and confidential manner without any concern of judgment and/or retribution.
 
  • Serving as a mentor enables IT executives to:
    • Invest in the IT leader community.
    • Gain insights into what holds back junior IT leaders.
    • Learn what younger employees expect in their workplace.
 
  • The process is valuable for both parties. It’s very valuable for the mentee, as they can learn approaches, best practices and pitfalls from someone who has succeeded in technology leadership. It’s valuable for the mentor as well. I have found that when mentoring someone, I always learn valuable skills from them, and learn more about leadership, culture, and myself throughout the process.
 
  • I can count on one hand those crucial people who either inspired or informed me in my career. For me, I had to seek them out or encounter them by chance. Just one conversation, key phase, tool, or insight can make a difference. Mentoring is valuable because of its personal and intentional commitment to growth — one professional with another. 
 
  • There is nothing richer than having someone to share perspectives with. It produces rich outcomes from diverse perspectives. There is value seeing it from different points of view. Perspective is invaluable.
 
  • I am at the end of my career and have a vast bank of global experiences, mistakes, successes, etc. to share. This education has cost several million dollars in salary, travel expenses, educational expenses, both formal and informal, and I would like others to benefit from it. 

To learn more about getting the benefits of an IT mentoring relationship, be sure to check out Dan’s article, ​IT mentors: How to make the most of this win-win relationship.

Interested in being a mentor for one of our upcoming TechLX cohorts, or just want to learn more about this powerful technology leadership experience? Email us, give us a call at 603-782-7473, or visit the TechLX website for more details.

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“Transforming into what?” The Human Perspective of IT Transformation

10/21/2019

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IT leaders are being asked to transform their organizations. And the answer to the question “But transform into what?” has everything to do with making soft skills the new core competencies.

In part two of Dan Roberts’ latest CIO Whisperers column, Claus Jensen, CTO of CVS Health, Sue Kozik, CIO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Steve LeMoine, CIO of Cree, discuss how they’re tackling IT transformation from a human perspective. 

By sponsoring training in areas like consultative approaches, negotiating prowess, influence and diplomacy, marketing IT’s value, and providing strategic leadership, these leaders are putting the emphasis on core skills. Why? Because those are the skills that will fuel IT performance and elevate IT as a strategic partner and innovation driver in the business.

Read on to learn why re-engineering your culture requires developing new core skills.

Strengthen your talent brand, future-proof your business


Today’s high-performing IT organizations have a laser-like focus on building the core skills required to support the business and continually move up the IT Maturity Curve. 
  
> Develop the IT skills that deliver game-changing value. 

Get in touch with us for additional resources to help you move up the IT Maturity Curve and achieve your leadership and talent development goals.
 
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The IT Skills Essential for High-Level Success

10/11/2019

5 Comments

 
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Communication, influence, innovative thinking, customer focus: They used to be called “soft skills,” a term that makes many CIOs cringe. But today, these are by no means “soft.” They’re some of IT's most-needed core competencies. 

For a new two-part CIO Whisperers column, Dan Roberts spoke with Claus Jensen, CTO of CVS Health, Sue Kozik, CIO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Steve LeMoine, CIO of Cree, about the need for today’s IT employees to be “leaders, collaborators, visionaries,” as Jensen puts it.

In part one, Dan explores why the technical skills that earned you a seat at the table won’t earn you a voice at the table. 

Read on to learn why IT must master a new set of core skills for high-level success. 
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