Practicing What We Preach …

This week, I got a small dose of humble pie from our CIO.  I was in his office discussing the difficult time that one of my teams was having filling a key position.  Finding someone is critical to the success of this team and it has been difficult finding candidates that would be able to come in, hit the ground running and make a difference.  We have key criteria for this position, and I’m not willing to budge – this is one of those times where I don’t have the luxury of training someone, I need someone with a specific skillset and experience.

Before everyone goes all crazy on me for speaking out both sides of my mouth, I normally utilize a very aggressive internship program to fill open positions within my team.  It is rare that I hire experienced candidates.  When I do, I am very specific about what I am looking for and I stick to my guns.  I won’t hire someone just for the convenience of filling the role, I will wait until I find a candidate who fits the needs that I have and that be a net positive for the team.  I’ve bent in the past when I felt I just needed to get a body in the door, and it’s a painful experience.

So, then, let’s get back to the story.  I’m sitting in-front of my boss – our CIO – explaining what steps I’ve taken and where we are at in the process.  He’s letting me vent and as we get close to wrapping up this part of the discussion he asks a simple question, ‘Have you considered hiring someone remote?’

Whack – right to the center of the forehead!  Ok, so you need to understand for the last several years, I’ve been the most vocal proponent inside the organization to allow our team members to work remotely.  We have successfully introduced it into my teams and this has slowly crept into a couple of other areas of the company.  This has been allowed in a very limited fashion, but has proved to be successful enough that a key member of our team moved to another state and organizationally, nobody questioned his ability to continue working for us when he asked if he could do so prior to moving.

Additionally, via an acquisition several years back, one of my teams is split geographically with the manager located at our main facility with half of his team and the other half all working in disparate locations across the southern US.

So there I am the biggest proponent of getting people to work remotely sitting there in front of my boss looking like a fool! Organizationally, we are ready to expand this program.  In fact our COO has recently spoken about the need to show flexibility in where our teams are located.

What could I say, but, ‘You’re right! I guess it’s time for me to step up to the plate and take the next step and push this program forward!’

As leaders within an organization, we have to remember the things that we are fighting for and when given the chance, we need to implement those changes into the organization.  Our bosses expect it of us and we expect it of the people that report up through us – we need to remember, the same rules apply to us.

If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile

It's NOT about the Tech or the Process - it's about the Customer!

This week I have the pleasure of participating in the annual SHAZAM Forum!  It is an event that my organization holds each year to keep our Financial Institutions informed on key trends within the industry.  Over the next few days I will have the opportunity to interact with hundreds of our customers.  To listen to their stories, to understand their needs and to enjoy some time together.

Let's be honest, as much as I care about the tools that we use and the processes that we have in place.  Our customers really could care less.  They care about that fact that the systems we provide will function - that they can open a new account when someone walks into one of their branches, that they can process a loan when one of their commercial customers needs a new piece of equipment, that their account holders can login to their internet banking site and transfer money between accounts, that their account holders can use their debit card when purchasing groceries at their local grocery store and that when I detect some fraudster starting to steal their customers money - that it is stopped.

They really don't care that I use Java or C++, they could care less if I used Agile or Waterfall project management paradigms.  They don't think about the various testing methodologies in place to prevent bugs from impacting their ability to perform their work.

Put simply - our customers want and deserve to be delighted when using the systems and services that my organization provides.  They don't want to know the details of why or how we made decisions and built the services/systems, they just want to be able to use them to conduct business with their account holders.

I look forward to our annual Forum because it's my opportunity to get to know the folks that choose to do business with the organization that I work for; I get to hear what is important to them; I get to listen to the frustrations that they have using the systems that my teams build; I get to listen to the concerns that they have about the market that they serve.

Let's be honest, on a daily basis, most individuals within an IT organization have very few opportunities to interact with the customers of the systems that they build.  I'm intentionally not counting the internal customers.  Internal customers are important, but they do not provide a true reflection of what our Financial Institutions, their employees and their account holders are challenged with on a daily basis.

It's important to occasionally step away from the technology and immerse yourself in the world that your customers deal with every day.  To understand their interactions with the systems and services that you build so that you can understand what needs to change in future iterations.

In other words - it's not all about me, it really is all about the customer!

For those of you that will be attending our Forum - I look forward to seeing you again this year or meeting you if it's your first time!

If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile