Five Soft Skills Every IT Pro Needs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whether you are an IT professional or a hiring manager looking for tech talent, you know that soft skills are becoming an increasing part of the IT job.

Consumerization of technology has changed the demands of a company's customers, and those of the people who work in it and rely of IT for their jobs. In turn, this process has changed the nature of what it means to be an IT pro. In order to get a better handle on soft skills and what they mean for IT, InformationWeek spoke to Tom Gimbel, founder of the respected recruiter LaSalle Network, to talk about the changing IT department.

1.Communication Skills

Whether you are an IT professional or a hiring manager looking for tech talent, you know that soft skills are becoming an increasing part of the IT job.

Consumerization of technology has changed the demands of a company's customers, and those of the people who work in it and rely of IT for their jobs. In turn, this process has changed the nature of what it means to be an IT pro. In order to get a better handle on soft skills and what they mean for IT, InformationWeek spoke to Tom Gimbel, founder of the respected recruiter LaSalle Network, to talk about the changing IT department.

"If you have a company that doesn't have a lot of customer interface, if you're just a technology company, and you want to have a bunch of technology people who are all head down, that's fine," Gimbel said in an interview. "Does that still exist? Yes, it does, but it is rare. Most larger organizations have internal and external customer needs. And with more customer-facing IT you need soft skills and empathy."

2.Prioritization

Things aren't getting any slower in IT. We're all juggling multiple projects. Knowing how to handle distractions is a huge deal. Gimbel talked about the issue of getting a complaint at 3 p.m., when there is an urge by many to try to fix it by the end of the day. Yet management might have other priorities at that time. Can someone handle it? How do you find the right person for juggling priorities?

"If you could see someone's inbox, it would tell you a lot about them," Gimbel said. "It tells you how organized they are."

Multi-tasking is especially important in small teams, but no one can escape it.

3.Patience

"This one is really hard to measure," Gimbel said, "What we're really talking about is how to not get frustrated with the end-users." This all relates back to the problem IT pros have with being "between stakeholders." Navigating the competing needs of the business is one of the top issues with IT pros today.

4.Flexibility

You might be surprised by what Gimbel thinks about flexibility. While many would think it is about being able to do multiple jobs or look at things more than one way, Gimbel is thinking more about work habits. "I think of flexibility as more about where and when rather than the how," Gimbel said. "True technologists are creative. And they have to be in the zone to succeed. There's the idea of the coder who is working alone at 2 a.m." But what happens if you are a multinational passing work off through time zones? Or what if you need code right now, whether your developer is "in the mood" or not. Some workers are more or less capable of working under certain conditions and times. This needs to be taken into account with hiring.

5.Initiative

Again, Gimbel has an idea of taking initiative that's different from what most people think of. Most people think it is about innovating or getting creative. But there's a time and place for innovation. "The most important thing they can do is do exactly what you are told to do, and then get creative. People think they are there to get creative too soon." Get creative too soon and, instead of learning from the process, you could just be getting in the way. Listen to your manager, follow the process, and then ask questions to get creative.

Gimbel suggests learning lessons such as, "If I would have done this, I would have gone faster. I thought about doing this, but I'm glad I didn't, because I'd have gone slower." Remember, the manager who told you exactly how to do something has learned some of these lessons before.