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Don't start the new year with a dejected staff. Inspire them! they'll take IT to new heights.
Whether your IT staff is reeling from layoffs or you just want to energize the team for projects and growth in the new year, it pays to know how to motivate. That skill doesn't come naturally to most CIOs. But it's one worth learning; A CIO who can't motivate isn't likely to get much done.
Kevin Stack knew this when he began his job as CIO of crafts and fabrics retailer Jo-Ann Stores Inc. last year. One of his first goals was to give his staff -- which had previously been cloistered within the confines of the IT department -- more exposure to the business side so they could figure out how to use IT to increase sales and profits.
But first, there was one small problem to take care of: Stack's 100 staff members weren't exactly ready to trust their new leaders. In addition to Stack, they had gotten a new chief executive, who had begun making changes in the corporate culture. One of the Hudson, Ohio, company's new policies encourages employees to be at work between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.; previously, workers' exact hours in the office were more flexible. Though the change sounds straightforward enough, it put workers on edge. What other changes were in the offing, they wondered?
Winning them over would not be easy. Stack learned this early on, when he invited the staff to drop anonymous suggestions in a collection box. One person objected, he recalls, that suggestions couldn't truly be made without fear of repercussion because there were security cameras posted near the drop box, which meant Stack could review the tapes to divine who had made what suggestions.
It seemed paranoid. But it spoke volumes about how low morale had fallen. "The only way to attack that theory is to gain some trust with the staff," Stack says.
Over time, by clearly communicating his goals and including them in his decision-making processes, that is what he did. Now, one year later, no one is fretting about security cameras (though as part of the building's overall security, they remain in place). During meetings, in one-on-one impromptu lunches, and over coffee and doughnuts, Stack encourages his staff to speak up, and they do. The atmosphere is so open that at one recent meeting, he fielded questions and comments ranging from how he gets along with the chief executive to a critique on the shape of the corporate parking lot. Stack may never make it his priority to reshape that lot, but the important thing is that his staff members aren't afraid to ask.
That means they can spend less time watching their backs and more time working with Stack on other initiatives, like learning more about the business, so they can use IT to drive sales and earnings. "I'm on a quest to build an IT organization that is more engaging to the business," Stack says. And now that he has a re-energized staff behind him, he can.
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