It Leadership Manual - (Wiley CIO) by Alan R Guibord (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Savvy advice for developing the necessary skills to become a vital part of any management team

Today's IT leaders are faced with an unprecedented leadership and organizational challenge. The entire landscape has changed over the past few years and it is now time for leaders and organizations to re-invent themselves to meet the new order. IT leaders need to redefine their role into one of being a trusted business advisor. IT Leadership Manual provides you with a set of specific recommendations and suggestions to assist you in your self-evaluations and to develop a personal plan for the future. It helps you build the leader in you, as well as how to become a formidable competitor in your own right.

• Essential coverage of one of the most demanded IT topics
• Helps you redefine your role from IT leader into trusted business advisor
• Discusses leadership style, building out your network, achieving balance, the art of sales, and more
• Written for IT managers and executives
• Helps you transform from the backroom support service to a recognized member of the leadership team
• Gives you the tools to migrate to today's expectations; Innovation, collaboration, influencer, trusted advisor

Traditional skills no longer apply. Organizations are now demanding a new set of expectations from IT leaders. IT Leadership Manual reveals how you can adopt new styles to make the transformation from IT manager to top management.

From the Back Cover

You're a smart, ambitious IT manager with an eye on the executive suite. Or maybe you're a CIO who'd like to be more effective in communicating with senior management and more closely aligning the IT function with business strategy. In either case, technical expertise alone will not get you where you want to go. Success in today's people-centric business world means mastering the "soft" skills that generally don't come easily to analytical types. It means transcending your technical bias and adopting a totally new style rooted in personal engagement and collaboration. And it means finding ways to inspire trust, to motivate, and to foster communication both within your department and throughout the company. In other words, it means becoming a leader.

Written by Alan Guibord--the man who, more than anyone, helped define the role of the modern IT leader--this book provides you with a roadmap for making your personal journey to leadership. And at each turn in the road, IT visionary Guibord is there, offering sage advice and guidance on how to develop a compelling leadership style, arming you with strategies and tools for developing the skills you'll need to become a vital part of any management team, and inspiring you with the confidence to become a formidable competitor in your own right.

While leadership may not be something you can master by reading a book, IT Leadership Manual will help you take the first giant step on your journey by showing you how to:

• Understand what really makes you tick using powerful self-evaluations
• Leverage your self-knowledge to create an effective, personal leadership style
• Create a solid plan for achieving your career goals
• Establish personal relationships and trust--the glue that binds teams
• Build strong relationships throughout your company
• Embrace diversity and work effectively with people of many cultures and backgrounds, both in the home office and globally
• Develop an intimate understanding of your company, its vision, culture, and goals
• Sell your "personal brand" to the key decision-makers and powerbrokers
• Align your team or department with overall corporate goals
• Make a strong business case for your projects and the IT function as a whole
• Redefine your role as IT manager to one of trusted advisor and business partner

IT Leadership Manual teaches you what leadership really means and what it really means to be a leader. Just as importantly, it outfits you with the skills you'll need to cement your position as a crucial business partner and, ultimately, plant your flag at the top of the corporate heap.

About the Author

ALAN R. GUIBORD has more than thirty years of global IT leadership experience. The founder and Chairman of The Advisory Council (TAC), Guibord is considered an IT visionary. He has held CIO positions in small to midsized organizations as well as Global Fortune 500 corporations. He served as a member of their top executive teams. Additionally, Guibord has lectured at leading universities, presented to IT leadership groups around the world, and acted as an advisor to several key firms, including Oracle, 3Com, and Microsoft. He is also a coach and mentor to several IT executives.