In the world of information technology where everything is about codes and programs, there has to be some space for human interaction and more importantly, collaboration. In this Expert Insight interview hosted by John Golden, Don Crawley talks about how to successfully lead IT, teams.
This interview will discuss:
- Communication, Compassion, and Empathy
- Collaboration
Communication, Compassion, and Empathy
In general, IT people focus more on solving technology problems instead of creating relationships with customers and coworkers. Just like for Dr. Sheldon Cooper in “Big Bang Theory”, logic dominates over emotions in IT. Thus, an IT manager must make certain to respect the intellect and skepticism of IT people, while tempering their cynicism, helping them to work with different types of personalities, and making sure they treat everybody with dignity. Communication and compassion towards the end-users are of great importance for good customer service. Customers are not IT experts; they do not follow the same IT logic and they usually find themselves lost in the whole process. But that is alright because as the Functioning Theory of Sociology suggests, everybody needs to be an expert in different fields so that we all can lift each other and make our society function. Tech support is not about technology, it is about helping the end-users to do their jobs more creatively, productively, and efficiently. Furthermore, empathy is another crucial trait in customer service. During the Covid19 pandemic businesses increasingly promote showing empathy, but this is an everlasting trait. Leadership needs to show empathy towards its customers but also towards its employees. During this pandemic crisis, people who already worked in the virtual office might not get as affected as people who had to suddenly change their work style completely. Since we will never know the circumstances in someone else’s life entirely, empathy is the key to customer service as well as to internal leadership within the company.
Collaboration
Nowadays, the industries have become so complex that there are so many different specialties within the same industry. Managers have the challenge to manage people from different areas of expertise, to earn their respect, and to make them collaborate with one another. Managers who come to the IT field from different backgrounds turn out to be more successful simply because they ask more questions rather than just making statements.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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