Training for the new world order

Just as users appreciate training provided by IT, IT staff appreciate training that will further their careers.

Beyond the technical training that should be a staple for any IT organization, Lehigh's Hall says organizations also should provide direction in business. "I would argue that companies should be requiring their IT people to get business training," he says. "This is the new world, the new order."

Hasbro is on board with that idea. It works with Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business, Schwinn says, sending management-level executives in groups to its advanced-management program. "The IT folks are right in there with other lines of business," he says. All six of his direct reports have been through the program, and now the company is progressing to the next level down.

Failure to train IT staff can breed resentment, as it has for Dargel, the system administrator who's headed to the National Guard. When some of the organizations he's worked for had a need for new skills or certifications, they would hire inexpensive, recent college or technical school graduates rather than train internal personnel. "Then they send you packing, with a little extra pittance as a parting gift," he says.

Susan Cramm, president of executive coaching company Valuedance, advises midcareer IT executives to have a 360-degree performance review -- which includes feedback from bosses, peers, subordinates and customers -- and study the results. "Determine what your strengths are. You don't need 50; you need a couple," she says. Then build on those strengths to make them "towering strengths" and work on any "fatal flaws" that crop up.

The common denominator Cramm sees across her client base is a need to improve soft skills, including negotiation, persuasion and relationship building.

Miller gets about US$10,000 in his training budget each year for his team of 10; last year the management directive was to spend the bulk of it on soft- skills training, including project management, communications, time management, conducting effective meetings and writing.

The writing training, for one, has already paid off in spades, by helping IT staff clearly and concisely fill out the statement-of-work forms now required for all IT projects.

The key to effective training is to have a development plan tailored to each individual, Cisco's Perry says. The plans map out where each employee wants to be in two, three and five years. Whether an individual wants to follow a business or engineering path, the company finds a way -- within reason -- to get them exposure in their chosen field.

Perry is also a fan of frequent job changes as a way to renew energy constantly. "If you look across Cisco senior staff, only two or three out of 12 or 13 don't have a different job than they did a year or so ago," he says.

Avnet follows a similar strategy, asking staffers to look out five years and imagine their dream job. "Then I know how to build your development plan," Kamins says. At the same time, he's learned that IT staffers are a different breed from the sales folks he's used to.

"Ninety-nine out of 100 sales people want their boss's job, but nine out of 10 IT people don't," he says. IT staffers do want to learn new skills and get new titles and more pay, but many don't want necessarily to manage others. So Avnet has created dual career paths that allow for that kind of advancement, he says.

For midcareer IT executives who want to move up the organizational ladder, Hall says master's of business administration programs designed for people with engineering or science backgrounds are the best bet. Failing that, just get as much business training as you can.

"That's where the action is. That's where the real advantage is going to be in the future -- that intersection between business and computer science," he says. "It's a void that is just absolutely unfilled."