La Governance di una Intranet
Scritto da: admin in Il mio lavoro, Intranet, tags: Governance, Intranet, Paul Chin
Paul Chin un consulente IT e scrittore freelance http://www.paulchinonline.com/ analizza l’importanza di chi è alla giuda di una intranet e delle qualità che tale guida dovrebbe avere. L’articolo in lingua inglese prosegue elencando i modi in cui il leader NON deve gestire il grande e multidisciplinare gruppo di vari professionisti cui è a capo.
The Importance of Intranet Leadership
Paul Chin
(www.paulchinonline.com)
8/21/2006
The book I’m currently reading is teaching me a lot about the qualities of a good leader. It’s a book that won’t be found in the business or self-improvement sections of any bookstore. Roland Huntford’s The Last Place on Earth recounts the 1911 race — between Britain’s Robert Falcon Scott and Norway’s Roald Amundsen — to be the first person to set foot on the South Pole.
This is a story of two expedition leaders with very different styles and personalities. It’s about British aristocracy versus Norwegian meritocracy. It’s about leadership ability. But ultimately, it’s about the crucial decisions made by Scott and Amundsen — decisions that led to the victory of the latter and the demise of the former.
The lessons learned from this book got me to thinking about the qualities of a good intranet leader and what’s required to manage and lead a large multi-disciplinary group of disparate professionals — developers, designers, business analysts, and content owners.
Two Types of Leaders
Intranets are ruled by committee, not by a single person or department. But, in most high-volume, enterprise-wide intranets, there’s still a hierarchy to this committee with two distinct leaders: The intranet overseer and the subsite leaders (see table below).
Many people in the corporate world pay a lot of attention to the hard skills and resources required to build and manage an IT system without giving enough thought to the soft skills — the people who put it all together. Those in leadership positions know how to manage not only projects and system, but also the people who work on them.
Management of personnel, or team leadership, follows the same programming principle of “garbage in, garbage out.” If staff aren’t happy, are mistreated, or don’t feel confident in the leadership abilities of those above them, they will be less likely to put in that extra effort required to build and manage an intranet.
Good leaders command a presence and instill in their staff a sense of confidence and trust without putting on airs. Even when staff encounter difficult situations — whether it be trying to overcome a problem with a project deliverable or the frenetic pace of trying to recover from a debilitating system crash — good leaders have this ability to guide them and impart upon them a sense of security.
| Intranet Leaders | |
| Intranet Overseer | Subsite Leaders |
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(See my article Multi-tier Intranet Ownership for more on intranet governance models.)
The Qualities of a Good Intranet Leader
You can’t buy good leadership skills. Books and seminars can help improve people’s leadership skills, but it can’t make them something they’re not. Good leaders have an inherent ability that’s fortified by experience and past actions. They learn from their mistakes and take these lessons to heart.
Good intranet leaders:
That concludes part one of this report. Check back to Intranet Journal for part two, covering how not to lead an intranet team.
There are a lot of people who want to be leaders for all the wrong reasons: glorification of their own image, status, money, self-gratification, ego trip. If nothing else, we can learn a lot from their mistakes. They will highlight, through their actions, all the things we shouldn’t do as good leaders. The table below highlights the guilty parties. See how many you recognize from your working life.
| The Un-magnificent Seven: Leader Types to Avoid | |
| Type | Characteristics |
| The Iron-Fisted Dictator | Has a “my way or the highway” attitude. Iron-fisted dictators want things done their way and only their way. They’re rigidly and stubbornly stuck in their ways, refusing to listen to their staff’s suggestions. They believe their subordinates exist solely to carry out their wishes. |
| The Wishy-Washy Fence-Sitter | Can never seem to make a decision … or can they? Yes, no, maybe. Wishy-washy fence-sitters lack an assertive voice and don’t have the self-confidence to make even the simplest of decisions. They walk right down the middle of every issue to avoid taking a stand. |
| The Vanishing Magician | “I’ll get back to you on that later …” Vanishing magicians never seem to be around when they’re needed. They rarely make time for those below them. Staff queue up or mill about outside their office looking for guidance only to find an empty desk. |
| The Chronic Complainer | They expend all their energy complaining about how things aren’t going the way they want rather than doing something productive to remedy the situation. They always feel sorry for themselves during difficulties. They’re also frequent victims of self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, constantly complaining that “this is never going to work” will cause it to come true. |
| The Egotistical Narcissist | Narcissists are too busy worrying about how their actions will make them look to care about whether they’re actually doing the right thing. The majority of their actions is to promote their own agenda and image rather than for the good of the team and project. |
| The Nervous Nelly | They have caffeine running through their veins and a resting heart rate of about 93 bmp. The Nervous Nelly is unable to function in stressful situations. They’re high-strung to begin with and will freeze up, unable to make quick and crucial decisions when they’re needed most. |
| The Superficial Faker | They wander about and talk like a used-car salesman. They’re usually very efficient and effective speakers — and they talk … a lot. They talk and never seem to get anything done. They do this to mask their deficiencies, using verbal slight of hand to hide the fact that they don’t really know what they’re doing. |
Closing Thoughts
A lot of people, to varying degrees, wear masks throughout the course of a normal working day. They choose their words carefully, they try not to step on anyone’s toes, and they suppress certain actions that may be deemed inappropriate or negative. But during stressful times, much of this professional facade can fade away, revealing something very different: instinct and survival, neither of which are always ingredients of good judgment.
Effective leaders, however, don’t lose themselves during these trying situations. They don’t shy away from challenges. Instead they take charge of themselves, their staff, and the situation. Leadership is required most during these difficult and challenging times — such as disaster recovery or a major system rollout. This is something that’s learned through experience; it can’t be inherited or bought. And it’s through past actions that staff will respect and place trust in their leader.
Leaders, despite their staff’s uncertainty and anxiety, will guide them through tough times. As the old saying goes, “Adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.”
Paul Chin is an IT consultant and a freelance writer. Previously, Paul worked as an intranet and content management specialist in the aerospace and competitive intelligence industries.
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