Investing in the IT Staff and Management - A Career Counselor's View

Investing in information technologies is not just about capital and expenses. Investing in IT is also about people. I hope that each person on your IT staff is an asset to the organization and, like any productive asset, investments in your staff can produce positive returns.

What follows is a discussion with Gino Maccaroni, the owner of Spectrum Life Management. Gino is a career and personal life advisor from Newberry, South Carolina who works with people from all walks of life. Since the topic here is investing in information technologies, I’ve asked Gino about his opinions on IT staff management and how investing time, money, and executive attention into the IT staff can improve a business’s success. With decades of experience in personnel recruiting and counseling, Gino offers his perspective on how to mentor IT staff and managers and develop communications throughout he business. Gino can be reached at 803-321-5999 and you can find more information about Spectrum Life Management at http://spectrumlifemanagement.com/.



Explain a little bit about yourself, Spectrum Life Management, and how Spectrum came to be where it is today.

I was a theologian and minister for several years. I fell into career management and impression management after a traumatic period that began with the kidnapping of my daughter, who was then fourteen years old. She was gone for nearly five years and I can’t explain the depths of that pain. When I finally got her back, I put her in a witness protection program and by then I was angry, bitter, divorced, bankrupt, and broken.

Then I was recruited by a national career consulting firm as an appointment setter, which is the low end of the recruiting scale. Emotionally, mentally, and spiritually I was drained. But I seemed to have a knack for the work. The average appointment setter made three appointments a day with candidates and I was getting twelve to fifteen appointments a day. The company liked my work and promoted me to an executive sales position and I became the person candidates would come to see. The average recruiter will close three client placements in a month and I was closing seven to nine placements a month.

So, I was promoted to the executive team but then the company was acquired by a venture capital firm. Even though I had more money in my pocket, I honestly did not like their values. I liked working one-on-one with my clients and this changed. So, my current wife and I decided to open a private practice which became Spectrum Life Management where we counsel our clients in career management, professional advancement, and image management.

One of the things to which I attribute our success is that I’m sort of like a sponge when it comes into tapping into people. I take it seriously to find mentoring for myself wherever I can from all of the executives and consultants with whom I work side-by-side. Every single one of them gave me something; I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know everything.

I do attribute any success I have to being mentored and coached.

Since you work with managers in transition or through career coaching, how does your success affect the success of the organizations who employ your clients?

Obviously I teach career advancement and impression management. The strategies, tactics, and principles that one uses for career advancement often overlap into actual performance on the job. Just the entire process of monitoring, analyzing, adjusting behaviors, projecting an image, showing confidence, communicating – all of this overflows into a client’s position and makes him or her more productive and useful to the organization.

Most people keep it private that they’ve hired a career coach so the client’s organization doesn’t really know I exist.

What is your general opinion of the quality of executive management today?

I do believe that there is an evolution in the air. I do believe that there are a host of executives who are beginning to wake up on a spiritual level and beginning to understand the value of being green (just as an example) and the benefits of having a good reputation by doing something that’s meaningful to their employees and the surrounding culture in which they live. I’m reluctant to really call that a spiritual awakening but more and more executives I meet are thinking that way and talking that way.

Would you say it has improved or declined in recent years?

If you look at the economy, you see a major decline because of what I call eros-centered thinking, the attitude that says, “I need mine”. I think that has been the undercurrent of corporate America for many decades. I have felt a ship to agape energy; a more forthright and giving attitude.

Can you give some specific examples to back this up?

I can only give you specifics based on clients I’m talking to but this is what I’m hearing.

Since this blog is about investing in information technologies and keeping in mind that the purpose of the organization is to maximize profits, do you have any general thoughts on how executives should invest in their IT staffs?

Yes, I do. One of the factors that really needs to be considered is top management’s commitment to and personal involvement with their IT staffs. This means that senior managers need to communicate to the rest of the organization their support for the approaches carried out by the IT staff. This includes the strategic vision that the players follow the proper processes and actually use the information to make sound business decisions. I also think that it means that senior managers accept information technologies as an investment and not an expense.

I can compare that to what I do an a career consultant. Wise people see working with me as an investment in success – not an expense. It also implies that, as an investment, IT takes time to implement and that changes, projects, and systems are not short term things but are there for the long haul.

How do you think IT managers can best invest in their staffs?

They have to be proactive in seeking out the top dogs in their industry. Don’t rely on human resource departments but investigate and hire the good people, the top people. It’s important that they offer challenging, meaningful work and that they provide opportunities for a staff to grow and develop. They need to help staff members be all they can be my mentoring them. Challenge and train your staff and give them the respect and trust that they need.

It’s also a major home run for the company and it often means tolerating mistakes because they lead to personal growth.

How can IT managers invest in themselves?

They need to see the strategic picture and to learn to communicate better about their needs, visions, and goals with the CEO of the organization. They can invest in themselves by learning how to communicate with the business. The majority of IT managers tend to just get locked into one way of thinking and oblivious to the fact that they need to communicate ideas to line managers who don’t think as they do.

How can IT staff professionals invest in themselves?

They would certainly benefit from what we are talking about – learning to have a strategic view. IT managers tend to be narrow-minded and expert at what they do but not at all good at seeing the big picture. They need to understand the value of what they do and how it relates to the big picture. They would really benefit from indulging themselves in a greater sense of purpose. They should also assess, learn, improve, and adjust to the strategic vision that their fellow managers and executives have and this will make a positive impact on their personal lives while making their work more meaningful..

How is IT management different from line management like sales or operations?

This question goes right to the heart of what I was just saying. Typically, IT managers do not see the big picture. The sales manager is completely dependent on the IT manager. The IT manager has an enormous responsibility as he or she is the grease in the wheel that makes the organization turn. Because information technologies managers do not tend to see the big picture, and they have poor communications skills, instead of working as a cohesive unit everything is chopped up and fragmented and the organization does not work as well as it should. I would also recommend to IT managers that they show respect to other managers and be sensitive to their needs.

Do you have any thoughts on how individual managers can encourage their organizations to invest in IT staff development?

Mentoring is definitely one area I recommend from the corporate staff. Mainly, executives should be putting some kind of structure on how the organization needs to align itself with the IT department to make sure that it achieves the organization’s strategic goals. And take into consideration other stakeholder interests. That means there should be some kind of actively designed governance process.

As a tactic, they should actively design IT governance around the organization’s overall objectives and performance and they should include the IT department in decision making and strategic thinking. Executives should keep the channels of communication wide open. Resource allocation, attention, and support should be given throughout the entire process.

From what I’ve gleaned it is very, very important to the IT side to clarify the exceptions or what I call the exception handling process. There is always a department head that wants something done that isn’t normal. From my experience that destroys the whole thing. If it’s planned ahead of time there are going to be exceptions to the rules then it goes a long way towards building good relationships and communications within the organization.

Gino, thanks for your time and insights.

You’re welcome and thank you.