What you should look for in an IT Manager

Great management is the driving force behind the growth of any company. A successful company has multiple managers who have the necessary leadership skills to motivate their employees to give their best shots as well as management skills to get the best out of their employees. Similarly, for an IT company, IT managers hold power to take the company to the next level or close down its operation.

Instead of being dictators and demotivate employees, IT managers need to be skilful to extract work from employees and achieve the set goals. It is important for an IT company to choose its IT managers carefully to ensure that they have the necessary skill set to deliver what is expected from them. Here are the traits to look for while hiring an IT manager.

Technical Knowledge –

An IT manager will be managing employees with technical skills. Therefore, the basic trait of an IT manager has to be technical knowledge. This is because the employees will look up to their IT managers when they have superior skills and knowledge in the field they are working in. There is no use of an IT manager who has only management skills but no technical skills. Only a technically sound IT manager can understand their employees completely and do all that is necessary to help them overcome obstacles and reach the get goals.

Employee Management Skills –

An IT manager’s job is to manage the employees under him and collectively finish a project perfectly within the deadline. The manager can ensure the project to finish within the deadline only when he can make everyone give their best on the project. This is where one needs management skills to understand his employees’ strengths and weaknesses and give them responsibilities on the project accordingly. Besides, he has to be skilful to tackle different members with different personalities in a team perfectly.

For example, if a team member has the best leadership quality, the manager can make him the team leader. At the same time, he has to ensure that everyone looks up to the team leader with respect both professionally and personally. Besides, he needs to ensure a healthy competition among team members so that everyone brings their best performance to outshine individually in the teamwork.

Project Management Skills –

It is one thing to manage a team and lead it to the set goal. But it is entirely a different thing to manage a project perfectly. In fact, more than employee management skills, an IT manager needs project management skills. This involves analyzing a project, breaking it down into simple modules so that every team member can comprehend, and coming up with strategies to execute the modules with deadlines. All these skills are critical for the successful completion of any project, satisfying the clients, and overall growth of the organization.

Communication and Presentation Skills –

An IT manager should have strong communication skills. He needs to interact not just with the employees but also with clients. There is no secret that a person with strong communication skills can become everyone’s favorite in an organization, and it is one of the most important skills to be a leader. He should be able to communicate his thoughts in a crystal clear manner so that everyone can comprehend at the very first time.

Similarly, presentation skill is important for an IT manager as he needs to present himself to his team as well as clients. Strong communication skills but not good enough presentation skills can make the clients doubt the company. Moreover, the employees will look down upon the manager and criticize him instead of looking up to him as their leader.

Ability To Work Under Pressure –

IT industry is quite intense in terms of work as it is mostly based on technical skills, thinking out of the box, and coming up with innovative solutions. On top of that, there are deadlines set by the clients within which managers have to finish the projects as per the client’s expectations. Therefore, IT managers will always be under pressure, and as the deadline approaches, the pressure intensifies. When pressure increases, the manager should not overreact and lose his calm on somebody else. Instead, he needs to be calm and composed and get the job done with proper planning and strategy.

Ability To Learn New Technologies –

IT is such a field where technologies are regularly changing. Unless an employee in an IT company keeps on learning and keeping up with the new technologies, he is not going to be suitable. In fact, any company which does not adapt to new technologies will go out of business. This adaptation starts not only from clients’ demands but also from the willingness of managers to learn new technologies and implement them in projects. Moreover, he can guide the new employees with knowledge in new technologies to perform better.

Experience In The Field –

Last but not least, an IT manager needs to be experienced. Nothing can replace experience, and you should track the entire career of the person before selecting him as an IT manager. There are a few skills and knowledge that you can learn, and there are certain things that you can only learn when you have enough experience. Therefore, give preference to those who have some experience in managing and leading a team in IT projects.

Conclusion –

To summarize, in order to hire a perfect IT manager for your company, you have to watch out for his technical skills, management skills, communication skills, personality traits as well as experience in the field. Lack of any of these parameters can lead to the downfall of your company. This is because the project deadlines will not be met, the team members will be unhappy, and they will always look for a way out. The reputation with the clients will suffer, and naturally, there will be no repeat clients and client referrals. Therefore, be critical about hiring the perfect IT manager, and the rest will excel for our company.