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I recently listened to a Tech Therapy podcast from the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “How to Be a Leader, Even If You’re Not the Boss.” As some you may know, I recently took part in a three day Library Management Skills Institute I: The Manager. While the ARL workshop wasn’t focused only on leadership, there were some leadership components so this has recently been on my mind. In the pod cast, Ann Kovalchick, the deputy chief information officer at Tulane University, gives her thoughts on leadership in IT.

So, why is there a lack of good leadership in IT? Actually, as Kovalchick points out (And I agree with) this is not a problem in just IT, but everywhere in Higher Education (and, I’m sure elsewhere). Ann says, that one reason for the leadership is elusive is that “good leadership requires a good degree of self knowledge.” The reason self awareness is necessary is that this way you can compensate via training or making sure you surround yourself with people that you can count on to give you good advice in a reason you are weak in. I think this is a good point. A larger point I would bring in that was also touched on in this podcast was that failure needs to be acceptable. Obviously, you can’t fail all the time, but an occosional failure that turns into a learning opportunity is a wonderful personal, and organizational, growth opportunity.

Kovalchick said “”leadership, I think, is really a process of thinking about your vision, and that vision may be grand in terms of the scope of the whole organizational change or may be just some application you have to implement but you have to have the image of a whole and then you build and assemble the pieces .” I think this is a good way to think about leadership… Perhaps it is only part of true leadership, but I whole-heartedly agree that leaders have to have into account of th whole and put together the parts.

One reason that Kovalchick thought there was a particular lack of leadership in IT is that demonstrating leadership in IT is boring, but to be a leader you need to be consistent so that people can get a sense of predictability. A lot of IT people like to do new in exciting stuff, so leadership can be a bit boring – at least on a technology side. A leader doesn’t necessarily do the work, but is responsible for clearing the way for the people that work for them (and others in the organization) to do their stuff.

Two other things that Kovalchick though a good leader needs to have is a good sense of empathy and the ability to communicate in meetings. Many of us complain about meetings, but they are important because meetings are were decisions are made and visions, values and goals are set. It is also were you articulate the goal or value of the work that needs to be done. It is important to realize though that while formal meetings are important ,so are impromptu meetings. A lot of decisions can be, and are, made in parking lots, by the water cooler, or in line waiting for a hot drink at the coffee kiosk.

The podcast concluded with Kovalchick pointing out three things that people who are or want to be leaders should do:

1. Really work on knowing yourself .. .what has been successful and what has not?
2. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity
3. Ask yourself when you are about to leave a position or project “have you left behind something that will sustain itself when you leave a position (i.e. can it live on without you?)

All in all, a podcast well worth the 10 and half minutes it took to listen to it.