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Leadership: It's Your Competitive Advantage
At Taos we believe that THE competitive advantage in IT is the quality of the leader and his/her leadership team and their ability to articulate and execute a sound plan. As such the focus of our newsletter is on Leadership.
As CEO of Taos it’s very clear and obvious to me that my number one job is to build the team and to get that team aligned around a vision. Once we’re clear on the vision, we focus on it. For us at Taos the focus is making you, the client, successful. If we can accomplish that, everything else falls in place. With the right team in place, it’s relatively straightforward to realize the vision.
Over the past 17 years, I’ve used the following simple principles to lead Taos and they’ve worked:
- Have a clear and sound vision (try to keep it simple.) Articulate it to your employees. Overemphasize the vision. Demonstrate it in different ways. Say it and repeat it to them often, practice it often, and lead by example.
- Build a team that aligns to YOUR vision (trust your gut.) Alignment is all about the team being in agreement and willing to work together to achieve the goal and turn that vision into reality.
- Don’t manage by consensus; it’s not healthy! Don’t compromise your vision and values in exchange for harmony (who’s to say you’ll achieve harmony trying to keep everyone happy anyways.)
- Focus your energies on the top performers. Don’t waste time on the non-performers and negative individuals.
- If your folks are not aligned or don’t work well together you have a group, not a team.
- When you have a team that is aligned, empower it and embrace it. This is your competitive advantage.
I’m happy to present to you two great reads this month. The first one is an interview we recently conducted with Jeff Lucchesi, CIO of BMHC. I’ve known Jeff most of my Taos life, since he was CIO of DHL Airways, then CIO of Corio and currently CIO of BMHC. Jeff is truly one of the best CIOs I’ve ever met. His leadership skills are without question. Case in point: we currently have relationships with close to a dozen CIOs or 1st level reports to the CIO who at one time or another worked for Jeff at DHL and Corio. He’s still in his prime, yet Jeff has helped mold the careers of these folks and even today, years since they worked for him, they continue to reach out to Jeff for advice. If the opportunity presented itself, I’m certain many of his current and former employees and colleagues would love to get a chance to work for Jeff again. To me, this is a sign of a great leader.
The second read is the first of three installments that our Managing Director of our Office of the CIO practice, Mark Johnson, promised to our readers in his introductory article back in October. Mark is truly a subject matter expert when it comes to IT leadership. Among other innovative leadership development techniques, he practices a unique power alignment methodology that Taos now leverages to help drive CIO staff alignment and focus. This approach is a very powerful tool and has been used to strengthen leadership bonds, focus, and ultimately, leadership team results at a number of our client sites. Enjoy the article.
As we close out an extremely successful 2006 and gear up for what promises to be an even more prosperous and exciting 2007, I am very grateful to every one of my clients who has trusted in Taos to deliver great results to you over the past 17 years. I look forward to continuing to deliver greater value in the years to come and to establishing great working relationships with each and every one of you.
If you would like to talk to me and learn more about Taos, feel free to contact me directly at ric@taos.com.
Sincerely,
Ric Urrutia
CEO & Founder
"delivering excellence in IT"
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