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Directors' Cut: David Taylor on the IS leader of tomorrow

By David Taylor

Published: Wednesday 15 September 1999

"The business worlds of today and tomorrow can be seen as a series of fast flowing rapids full of excitement, challenge, adventure and uncertainty; where the risks will be higher and the rewards greater. To become a successful leader of the future you must actively pursue these uncertainties - if you do, the possibilities are immense."

Randall P. White et al - "The Future of Leadership"

IS leaders face greater challenges than many of their business peers. Their lack of role definition - and in particular their position within the company hierarchy - adds to the problems caused by the alarming rate of change endemic in the industry. Such challenges demand new skills.

The IS leader of the future will have to reconcile these new skills with providing the traditional - and still in demand - IS service. This requires a delicate balance between being a master of change and a custodian of stability.

Then there is culture. For all its youth and radical image, IS departments are often populated by people who have progressed through technology and who are themselves resistant to personal and functional change. Within this environment, successful IS directors must shape their own future, building personal skills, profile and relationships. They have to earn authority within the organisation.

As IT emerges out of the confusion and uncertainties of the millennium, we approach a watershed in our history, and face a real opportunity: IS directors can be the influential company players of the future.

So what are the characteristics of such people? What are the differences between today's good IS manager and tomorrow's great IS leaders?

1. Clarity of Purpose

The new breed of information and technology leaders will articulate a compelling future for their people and companies. They will be quick to see strategic opportunities outside their organisation and will combine this with an ability to illuminate the most complex of these to business colleagues, the board and their CEO.

2. Personal Profile

The new leaders will combine an open approach to relationships with positive energy and a dynamic, can-do attitude. They will have the ear of the CEO and be seen, first and foremost, as a successful businessperson at the heart of the organisation.

3. Act, not react

The ability to make it happen - to take action and lead by example. They will take risks. They will have the persistence to succeed, and a deep-rooted self-confidence that transcends adversity - taking responsibility for things under their control and for their reactions to events they cannot control.

4. Be, not do

The acid test of leadership is whether you'd still get results out of your people if you were stripped of your job title and the power to punish and reward them. Successful leaders combine an energetic spirit with a sense of priority and perspective, and know how to relax. They inspire respect and trust based on who they are, not on what they do or say.

5. Develop people better than themselves

The new breed of leaders will take succession seriously and work to develop, motivate and promote people to become better than them. They know that combining motivation, creativity and human potential will be the biggest single factor in the success of IS departments as we move into the next century.

Many development practitioners refer to these new dimensions as personal power - a combination of attitude, belief and behaviour. It is within all of us to take this path. It may not be the easiest, and it will certainly involve leaving comfort zones, but it is the most rewarding. There has never been a greater need for inspirational leadership, visionary thinking, and decisive, positive action.

How IT emerges in the new century will depend on the identity, attitudes and spirit of everyone, but in particular of our leaders. To survive and thrive in the future, to take organisations into new territories, and to shape a compelling, visionary reality for people requires these new attitudes, beliefs and behaviours - and the skills to use them effectively and the wisdom to apply them wisely.

* David Taylor is the former head of IT business services at Cornhill Insurance and now president of the UK IT directors' association, Certus. He is also CEO of IT Turnaround (http://www.dtaltd.co.uk )