Strategic Insights Survey An IT Leadership Perspective - Harvey Nash

4.3 Skill SetsIT leaders recognise the need for more than just technology skillsFigure 15. Top three skills for IT leaders% saying skill was essentialCommunication skills 74%Leadership skills 70%Influencing skills 69%This may not be all that surprising, but what was interesting is that the need for in-depthIT skills wasn’t even in the top 10 for either question. In fact, IT skills were second fromlast, or 13 out of 14, with only 22 per cent saying it was essential.4.3.3 Staff SkillsWith regard to the skills considered to be very important within their own team, theresponses indicate that IT leaders recognise the need for more than just technology skills.The top response, by 68 per cent, was for the team to build and maintain relationshipswith business. This was followed by managing IT developments and programs, andmanaging and delivering IT operations, both of which were deemed very important by54 per cent.Figure 16. Top three capabilities needed in the team% saying skill wasCapabilityvery importantBuilding and maintaining relationships with the business 68%Managing IT developments and programmes 54%Managing and delivering IT operations 54%When then asked to rate how effective their team was at these exact same capabilities,the responses indicated a significant shortfall between the importance the IT leaderplaced on the attribute and the proportion of staff the leader felt was excellent at it.Figure 17. Capability of team versus desired level of excellence% rated % desiredCapabilityBuilding & maintaining relationships with the businessexcellent10%excellent68%Managing IT developments and programmes 18% 54%Managing and delivering IT operations 23% 54%The top talent development priority to up-skill their workforce in the coming year forover half of the respondents, 59 per cent, are management training programs. Technicaltraining programs ranked third at 47 per cent.2008 Strategic Insights Survey - An IT Leadership Perspective 21