Getting NetSmart - Ease your concerns with training

Network World this week published its annual You Issue, a special section - and on the Web, a mini-site - all about network professionals. One of the articles, "Your insecurities," delves into what you consider to be the most worrisome parts of your jobs as network managers.

To get a reading on your top concerns, Network World conducted a survey of 100 network executives. While the problems the network executives pointed to seem insurmountable, many of them are merely an issue of training.

For instance, one of the biggest concerns you stress over is employee management. Often, managers are on edge because they don't have the tools at their disposal to help them hire and maintain employees. They also can feel overwhelmed by the weight of staffing shortages or big teams. Two types of training can help a faltering manager.

Taking leadership training is a sure way to build confidence when dealing with your team. It gives you strategies for dealing with a variety of situations that arise. Often, many of the issues that come up in managing a team are nothing new, and though you feel isolated, others have already experienced your anguish. These experiences are shared in leadership training.

Another part of the equation is project management. Without project management skills, it's easy to feel inundated by every task that comes your way. The trick is to get on top of your projects, anticipate them before they arrive and figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your team to handle new tasks. The more you know and prepare ahead of time, the less angst you'll feel when the project lands on your desk. Also, half of employee management is managing the work that your employee does, so if you're not sure how to develop a project plan for the task, then you'll have a hard time gauging the employee's progress.

Technology is also a big obstacle for you, according to the survey results. You worry that you're not up to date on the latest and greatest technologies to hit the market. Getting behind the curve is easy in our industry. Spend too much time "working," and you miss out on all the new standards, products and services. Spend too much time out of the office, and you lose sight of your job. It's a fine line to walk.

Setting technology goals for yourself could help. Make sure that you set out a plan for training. For instance, are you going to learn a new skill or brush up on a new technology each quarter? Are you going to make sure that one of your team members goes to training and then reports back to the team every month? Figuring out your training expectations ahead of time could save you the headache of trying to catch up later.

Finally, you say your career worries you. A lot of what can be frightening about your career is how easy it is to become complacent and not brush up your skills. If you're too focused on your present-day job, you can look and find that you've lost your competitive edge in both business and technology skills. Make sure you always are taking courses to improve your leadership, business and technology skills. Join mentoring programs at your work and study how managers and network professionals you admire do their job. Never get to the point where you think you're done learning.

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