Welcome to the 21st Century where all IT workers now view themselves as temporary workers. The constant cycles of downsizing and outsourcing have made even the most committed workers view their jobs as being not so much as a career, but rather as a temporary pit-stop.

A question that I often get asked by both new and old IT leaders is “how can I become a better manger?” The question is a simple one that has complex answers. What all IT leaders want is to become one of those leaders who has the ability to get all of our employees to light up when we show up. We want to be able to get them excited about us and about their jobs. How hard could that be?

Dr. Jim Anderson recently spoke to a group of South-Asian IT managers about their role in making their companies successful during times of global change. Although the world of technology may be coming out of a period of cost reductions and staff cuts, it’s what IT managers do going forward that is going to set the course for the rest of their career.

The workplace is a-changing. As more younger workers start to flood into IT departments (ok, “Millennials” if you must) a lot of what used to work from a management point-of-view has stopped working and this is leaving IT managers with more questions than solutions. There are roughly 80 million workers in this next wave and they are hitting IT especially strongly. IT managers had better find a way to bridge generation gap and do it quickly!

Dr. Jim Anderson delivered his keynote address “The Future Belongs To You — If You Are Ready To Lead” to a packed house of Verizon IT managers on Tuesday, March 9th. As the global economy starts to once again wake up, his message was even more important to the next generation of IT leaders.

Dr. Jim Anderson’s recent article on dysfunctional Information Technology (IT) workplaces has been cited in the February, 2010 edition of Tom Dennis’ “Effective Engineering” newsletter.

So this may push a few buttons, but it’s probably a good question to ask in these times IT downsizing and increasing responsibilities for everyone: are men or women better at juggling multiple tasks at the same time? Traditionally, everyone seems to think that women do a better job of this than men, but are they (still) correct?

All humans, including those in in your IT department / on your IT team, respond to four basic drives. Given this understanding, we are now faced with the really big question: how does an IT leader use this knowledge to motivate his/her staff? It turns out that there are actually a number of possible levers that you can pull…

They really are out to get you, you know. All those schemers who want your job, your promotion, your bonus are even as you read this sitting at their desk scheming how best to make you look bad, take credit for your work, or even how to get you fired.

IT managers know that sometimes employee motivation can be a lot like performing brain surgery & you’ve got to be careful or you’ll end up doing a lot of damage. If an IT manager can realize that their staff (indeed all humans) have four fundamental emotional drivers that need to be met, then they are well on their way to maximizing employee satisfaction and maximizing productivity. So what are these four drivers that we all respond to?