Are you a non-technical manager in charge of your IT function?
I was also in this position about twenty years ago when I was asked to oversee a massive program’s IT security and management. I felt dumb and vulnerable because I knew nothing about IT. So, how was I going to manage it?
Well, I largely allowed this team to operate independently unless I was needed for a meeting.
Unfortunately, this management approach didn’t go well when the IT team’s decision to configure the network in a certain way allowed a cybersecurity breach to occur.
To my partial credit, I asked the right questions in a meeting earlier but ultimately allowed the “experts” to make a final decision, even though it still seemed like a bad idea in my non-technical view.
I see this particular scenario all the time with Not for Profits:
A non-technical manager is placed in charge of the IT function, and when they ask questions, they are dismissed, told not to worry about it or answered with an “it can’t be done” type of answer.
Most of these managers walk away afterwards, no closer to understanding the problem or creating solutions – trusting the “experts” know better.
Knowing that this occurs too often, here are some tips for a non-technical manager in charge of IT:
5 Tips for a non-technical manager:
- Learn the basics. Even if you don’t know anything about IT, you still need to understand it well enough to make good decisions and recognise risks. One client told me that she regularly searched IT questions online by asking questions like, “What are the risks with X? or “What are the disadvantages of Y?”
- Get a sense of your IT Team’s experience and expertise.
- Are they self-taught (common in Not for Profits) or do they have formal qualifications?
- What is the most recent training they have done? IT is constantly changing.
- Where are the skill gaps or single points of failure on the team?
- What worries them the most?
- Understand how well the team is supporting the rest of the organisation by reviewing their help desk tickets (this can also work for outsourced providers):
- How many tickets are open? How old are they?
- Can you spot themes or trends in the help requests?
- Who on the team is responding to each of the tickets?
- Do they have SLAs? Are they meeting them?
- Ask for a regular report from your IT manager to track these.
- And… if you don’t have a ticket system, you need one!
- Ask them to perform an Essential 8 self-assessment. If they don’t know how, get a Microsoft managed service provider to help do this for you. This will show possible deficiencies in cybersecurity management.
- Watch the budget requests. If your IT team is constantly asking for funding for external advice (especially for basic management functions like writing a Business Continuity Plan), they cannot support the organisation’s needs. Therefore, you need to consider upskilling and/or outsourcing more of your IT requirements.
Bonus Tip
Hopefully, you find the above tips useful. I’ve saved my most important tip for last, though. That is…
Bonus: If it doesn’t feel right, you should ask more questions. And if your team is unable or unwilling to answer your questions, get external advice.
Don’t make the mistake I made years ago of “trusting the experts.” When your gut says something seems off, you’re probably right!
I regularly help Not for Profits with reviewing the current state of their IT function. Let me know if you need some help.
P.S. If you found this article helpful, you might want to read these too:
- Your Not for Profit probably sucks at change management
- Why your NFP’s strategic plan needs an IT strategy
Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Association President, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today, she helps NFPs with strategic IT decisions, especially around investments.