Training Information Technology Managers; A Seminar Outline

Technologists typically under-perform as managers. Not only because they might lack a skill set, but because of the expectation of vocational perfection.

There is a passion for the perfect in their products.

But to understand and practice management, a “batting-average” model of non-perfection is needed.

There is a difference between the work of the individual contributor and the contribution of the manager. The IT professional, as an individual contributor, brings a new vision for a product or service.

But introducing the Next Big Thing requires basic management.

The technologist is an individual contributor whose work is the creation of “perfection.” But management does not — must not — deal only in this perfection. It is the managerial skill set which brings the individual contributor’s perfect product to accomplish the mission.

Managers need to understand a different kind of network. A ‘Network of Support’–the ability of the technologist as manager to get the support of vendors, advisors, external stakeholders, customers, superiors and subordinates.

The IT professional should see his role as manager with a new formula: Work + Network = Results.

The success of the technologist depends as much on his ability to manage as his brilliance in new product application.

At the completion of this presentation, the attendee will understand,

1. The Management Equation: Vocational Time vs. Management Time

2. How Management Really Works: The Network of Management

3. The Who and How of Promotions: The Freedom Scale

4. The Mistake of Micro-Management: The Nervous Manager

5. How to Persuade Senior Management: The Commander’s Intent

John (Jack) Yoest served as Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Resources in Virginia, where he was responsible for the technology management of the successful Year 2000 conversion for the $5 billion, 16,000-employee unit.

Yoest is an Adjunct Professor of Management in the Business Technologies Division of the Northern Virginia Community College. He teaches advance management practices.

He is the former president of Computer Applications and Development Integration that provided software solutions in criminal justice.

A former Army Captain on the U.S. Armor and Engineer Board, Yoest directed research in night vision and electro-optics.

Jack has been published by Scripps-Howard News Service and has contributed to Small Business Trends, Small Business Trends Radio, The Business Monthly, Business & Media Institute and National Review Online. His web-log was nominated for Best Business Blog in 2006.

He earned an MBA from George Mason University and completed graduate work at Oxford University.

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