March 2023

Develop a Charter

Yesterday we talked about building a strategy. If you are a tech exec, you need to be able to develop and understand what’s in your strategy, even if you have a team building it for you. Key to any project, including your strategy build, is the Charter.

The Charter is made up of the following:

Objectives: purpose of the project and identification of background work already completed that could contribute to it.
Critical Success Factors: document the rules of engagement and the make-or-break conditions for a successful outcome of the strategy.
Scope: clarify and limit activities and coverage of the strategy. Scoping should focus on outlining deliverables and process and leveraging available data and capabilities to refine approach.
Governance: define the approach to running the planning process, including people and team structure. Determine with whom and how collaboration takes place in order to help facilitate the planning exercise.
Methodology: define and document the framework to guide the project. Outline process that’s to be used to complete the effort successfully (steps outlined below)
Deliverables: describe the expected deliverables and link to methodology/ process above.
Timeline: document timeline and outline dependencies and durations.

The charter helps you keep expectations under check. But it’s a great document to build together with all stakeholders.

As a team, coming up with the vision for the project just helps lead to a successful outcome.

As a tech exec, a well-defined technology strategy is crucial for supporting the IT direction in your organization. This strategy helps gain consensus on budget allocation and focuses effort by aligning technology initiatives with business priorities. In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, it is essential to stay ahead of the technological curve and utilize emerging tools and resources to drive innovation and growth.

One key factor in developing a successful tech strategy is understanding the needs and goals of your organization.

This includes analyzing current processes, identifying pain points, and determining where technology can play a role in improving efficiency and productivity. By involving key stakeholders from various departments, you can gather valuable insights and create a comprehensive roadmap for implementing new technologies.

Another aspect to consider is the ever-changing digital landscape. With advancements such as cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT), there are numerous opportunities for organizations to leverage technology for competitive advantage.

Key to the success of building a technology strategy is ensuring that you have capable staff, and they are regularly engaging key stakeholders.

To begin the build process, you need a solid technology strategy framework to shape strategy. Here are the key pieces:

1. Develop a Charter – to get initial agreement on scope of the strategy

The charter will serve as a proposal for the strategy effort and help to ensure buy in by outlining the scope. The charter also helps sell the idea to business and technology leadership. See more about the Charter at this post.

2. Capture the Business Context – vision, mission, values, and strategic goals

It’s critical to the success of the strategy effort to understand and align with business priorities. At this point it’s important to capture and document a clear understanding of the business direction and needs. See more about business alignment at this post.

3. Develop IT Mandate: Vision, Mission, and Objectives

Review current strategies to align with vision, mission, and objectives. Define Technology’s high-level goals to set IT’s purpose and guide activities in the strategy. See more about IT Mandate at this post.

4. Define Critical Success Factors (rules of engagement)

List success factors to establish high-level requirements that require top management support for the Strategy’s success. Details will be defined in future steps like governance and implementation roadmap, setting the initial baseline. See more about CSF’s at this post.

5. Analyze Current IT Environment

A large piece of the strategy build effort occurs in this step. Here analysis of the current environment (current state, or status quo) is documented and reviewed in order to do reflections and backward looking. Here is a post about analyzing technical debt. The level of technical debt is something that you will discover as part of the as-is analysis. See more about analyzing the current environment at this post.

6. Identify Strategic Actions and Outcomes

After analyzing the current technology environment, define and document the list of strategic actions and outcomes. These items would need to be discussed and refined via debate with stakeholder leadership. This step is critical for feeding the upcoming benchmarking exercise. See more about strategic actions at this post.

7. Envision Target State and Assess Gaps

The IT mandate and analysis of the current environment should allow for definition of strategic goals and a conceptualization of the future state. To achieve this goal, follow an Enterprise Architecture modeling approach that allows for depiction of a potential future state. See this post target environment visioning.

8. Develop Governance – to facilitate and enforce strategy execution

Establish a governance team and structure to ensure that the plan will be executed, communicated, monitored, and reviewed once established. This governance team should comprise key technology and business stakeholders. See more about governance at this post.

9. Develop Roadmap – initiatives with priorities, estimates, ownership and schedules

Finally, outline tangible activities that need to be executed in order to bring the Strategy to life. This is the implementation plan that ties strategic initiatives with the organization’s goals and/ or themes. Strategic initiatives are the result of analyzing the gap between current and target technology states. See this post of the initiative roadmap.

If you would like to see all the posts related to building a technology strategy, please see this page.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion

As a tech exec, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is crucial a creative and forward-thinking workforce. Unfortunately, it is common for leaders to hire individuals who mirror their own backgrounds and experiences.

People often seek the company of like-minded individuals because it provides a sense of comfort and affirmation. Surrounding yourself with people who share your views and align with your values can create a pleasant and reassuring environment.

Hire a diverse team.

Steer clear of hiring individuals who mirror your own qualities too closely. A true leader seeks out individuals who will push them beyond their limits, bringing a broad range of perspectives and fresh ideas to the table.

Hiring individuals who merely echo your views leaves you susceptible to disruption. In essence, they lack the genuine concern for your best interests, as they fail to recognize the evolving landscape of the business world that can affect you. What you truly need are individuals who are unafraid to say, “That approach may not be the most favorable because…” or “Perhaps we should consider this alternative instead…” Having a team that is ready to challenge and question is paramount to the success of any leader.

As a leader you need to establish a diverse team that allows a thought-provoking environment to thieve.

One should not feel threatened by individuals with great ideas. However, it is important to ensure that they are genuinely collaborating with you, rather than opposing you. Recognize that everyone is unique and establish boundaries and expectations that foster both personal success and organizational growth.

Skill Up

Technology is shaping the business landscape in a profound way. It is crucial for employees to acknowledge and adapt to this reality to avoid being left behind. Tech execs, in particular, should ensure that they are well-informed and continuously enhance their technological expertise to stay ahead of the curve.

That means learn about the technology that’s changing your work. ChatGBT is just the latest example of a technology that can be leveraged to replace people. But it’s not the only game changer out there.

As a technology executive, your responsibility is to ensure that your organization is ready for these shifts.

Have a plan. Ensure that you understand the impacts that technology is having on the workforce and the business in general. Make sure that the technology team and the business leaders are in alignment so that you can build a strategy to train your people.

Cloud is a big deal.

The cloud has a significant influence on how people conduct business. It transforms the approach to IT services, enabling businesses to play an active role in decision-making. By leveraging the cloud’s capabilities, businesses can achieve seamless enablement and enhanced agility, which is the ultimate goal of investing in a flexible and globally deployable infrastructure. By relying on vendors for infrastructure management, businesses can explore new opportunities for their IT departments. This is where the training plan plays a crucial role.

IT is shifting from infrastructure support to business enablement. The IT team needs to develop Agile skills, work with vendors, have the ability to recognize and implement new technology quickly, and overall participate in the shift to a more business-centric environment.

Manage Emotions as a Tech Executive

If you want to move up in the leadership ranks and be a tech executive, you need to manage emotions effectively. The fast-paced, high-pressure world of technology can be overwhelming and it’s easy to get caught up in the stress and frustration. However, as a tech exec, it’s important to maintain composure and make decisions based on logic rather than emotions.

Being sad, aggressive, mad, etc. just shows to leaders that you are an emotional person, and the question comes up as to if you can handle the stress of the executive world.

Here are some ideas for helping manage emotions:

Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness is being fully present, aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings without judgment. By practicing mindfulness, you can become more aware of your emotions and choose how to respond to them.
Engage in Physical Activity: Regular exercise not only enhances physical health but also boosts mental and emotional well-being. Physical activity releases endorphins, natural brain chemicals that reduce stress and elevate mood.
Connect with Others: Having a support system of friends and loved ones is crucial when feeling overwhelmed. Sharing your feelings with a trusted person can bring perspective and comfort.
Practice Self-Care: Make time for activities that bring you joy, like reading, bathing, or taking a walk. Prioritizing self-care allows you to process emotions in a healthy way.
Seek Professional Help: If you’re struggling to manage emotions, seek professional help. A therapist or counselor can provide tools and techniques for emotional management and support during difficult situations.

There are many other ways to manage emotions and cope effectively, but these five ideas are a great place to start. It’s important to remember that everyone experiences emotions differently and what works for one person may not work for another. The key is to find healthy coping mechanisms that work for you.

But remember, if you get upset in a work situation it’s better to hold it in… and let it out when you are not around your peers or superiors.

Click here for a post on expectations of a technology exec.

Month: March 2023