I am currently gearing up to hire a new director to oversee a major portion of our infrastructure. The job description has been written and posted. The interview team has been selected. And the first set of resumes have been received and scrutinized. During all of this prep work, I have been mulling in my head the characteristics I want to see in the candidates. To help me think about this, I pulled out the document I had written a few years ago when I was hiring another director level position. I thought you'd appreciate seeing what I look for in senior level staff:

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You pick up any book or article on careers and most likely there is something about the importance of networking. I think networking is very important, but I've never liked the typical advice of attending a professional event with the sole purpose of getting your business card into the hands of as many people as possible. So, twenty people have your business card and perhaps you have the card of the same twenty people. Now what? Probably not much.

I think real networking occurs when you become part of something with others--aka, a professional group or society. Let me give you an example.

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One of the best things you can do for your career is to add education to your portfolio. The type of education that you need and should pursue depends on where you are with your career.

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One of the most important things you do as a leader is make decisions. Sometimes you need to make decisions on your own; sometimes you need to lead a group towards making a decision. Developing a competency in both situations is critical to your success.

I remember when I was faced with my first big decision as a new CIO. I needed to put forth my recommendation regarding a major system decision. I kept weighing the choices and just couldn't decide. My boss commented that he had never seen me so indecisive. Ouch. This isn't the kind of thing you want your boss saying about you!

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Nineteen years ago I went for an interview for a project manager position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The entire interview lasted ten minutes. My future boss asked me three questions and then he stood up, shook my hand, and thanked me for coming by. I was convinced I had blown the interview, but days later I was offered the job and my career in health care IT was launched.

Months later I asked my boss about the short interview. His explanation was simple-he sizes up people within a few minutes of meeting them. I was thankful I had made the cut.

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The Boston Chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM) recently held a “Women in Technology” session. The session consisted of four female CIO’s sitting on a panel and sharing their experiences in climbing the IT ladder. The women were an impressive bunch and the room was packed with women and men.  

Other regions have held similar sessions and the rooms are always packed full. Why? Why is there always such a draw to hear about the trials and tribulations of women CIOs?  

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The other day someone asked me about mentors. Does everyone need one? What do you actually talk about with your mentor? 

I thought these were great questions. The simple answer to both questions is: it depends.

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I recently was the keynote speaker at an IT conference at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. I shared my career story and then ended my talk with the five things I wished someone had told me when I was first getting started on my career. Here is what I said:

1) Strive to achieve your career sweet spot--that place where you are good at what you do and you love doing it. If you get to this place in your career, everything will fall into place for you.

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Bill, a reader of this blog, recently asked my thoughts about passion in the workplace. No, not that kind, he clarified in his comment, but passion for the work itself. I will always choose passion over apathy. There is nothing like watching someone who is completely energized by their work, their project, or the system they manage. Passion brings enthusiasm, dedication, and a willingness to go the extra mile.

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You may have noticed that my blog entries have been far and few between over the past few weeks. The reason is that for this period of time I lost control of my own agenda. I’m sure you know what I mean by this statement. It’s when you find yourself being pulled in a million directions and you have a hard time holding on to the reins of the things that matter most to you. The next thing you know all your time is being spent on things that matter to everyone else and you have little time left over to focus on the things you care about.

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Learning how to be a good listener is an important part of developing your relationship skills. There are many reasons why it’s hard to be a good listener. You might be so pre-occupied with your inner voice that you can’t hear a thing the other person is saying.  Or you might be so set in your own ideas that you have a hard time being open to someone else’s view. Or maybe the other person is waxing on in a way that makes it hard for you to concentrate on what they are saying.  

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I’ve spent the last 22 years working in IT. I started my career as a system consultant at Automatic Data Processing, and now I’m the deputy chief information officer at Partners HealthCare in Boston. Through the years, I’ve managed and mentored hundreds of IT professionals. After all this time, the thing that I know for sure is that the most successful IT professionals have this in common: they are competent and they have strong relationship skills.  

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