abilities

How to be a better decision-maker

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:01:35 -0400

According to one leadership expert, good IT leaders can not only make fast decisions on the fly, but they typically make better decisions than other colleagues. The key is realizing that decision making is a skill of both art and science--and there are four skills managers need to attain good decision making abilities. The first is a no-brainer: learn from your mistakes and the missteps of others. The second may surprise you--you don't need 100 percent of information to make an informed decision. The next two may be even more surprising: learn when to walk away and understand that nothing, especially in technology, ever achieves 100 percent perfection.

For more on boosting decision-making skills:
- read the column over at Optimize

Alignment spins on executive collaboration

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 20:01:37 -0400

Aligning technology with business is a collaborative effort that should be jointly shared by both an organization's CIO and its CFO. But that's easier said than done, according to a recent study. Celent surveyed tech and finance leaders within financial services, and only 58 percent report a "moderate" collaboration and only one-third responded that they have a highly collaborative environment. A big aspect to making it a reality is pulling in the CEO, say experts, and taking a strong top-down approach and as one CIO says, IT has to be viewed as "a lever behind business process improvement" focused on helping an organization leverage its abilities.

For more on improving collaboration:
- see this article at FinanceTech

The value of today's knowledge worker

Sun, 14 May 2006 20:01:38 -0400

Everyone's always touting what the top issues and items should be on the CIO's to-do list, but a new study reports that one aspect--the value of knowledge workers--is a business element that organizations need to pay attention to if they're going to outrun the competition. According to Foresight 2020, a major research project by The Economist Intelligence Unit, a company's employees' abilities to solve problems quickly, communicate efficiently and lead new initiatives are far more valuable and powerful than new technology solutions and processes.

For more on the power of knowledge:
- read this BPM Today article