In recent months, many IT leaders have felt pressure to prepare for uncertain events in the workplace. This uncertainty falls into various categories, including data governance/security, industrial disruption, organizational restructuring, digital transformations, and employee burnout.
Now that uncertainty has become the norm, IT leaders are relying on their past experience to guide decisions on the unforeseeable future. The future of these leaders is predicated on the ability to survive changes that occur every day.
Let’s explore three important tips that IT professionals can use to adapt with confidence to an ever-changing work environment.
1. Diversify your skills
The adage that “skills pay the bills” remains true in today’s workplace. As an IT professional, you should consider diversifying your soft and technical skills to avoid becoming obsolete. Career diversification reduces risk by enabling you to deploy different skills that span across different functions of the company.
Having different skillsets in your arsenal will ensure protection from sudden managerial change. It’s not always great to be a professional “jack of all trades and a master of none,” but it is often better than being the master of just one skill in your dynamic career.
[Read also: IT talent: 6 ways job expectations have evolved.]
2. Prepare for the unexpected
It is never easy to think about the increasing number of cyber threats, data breaches/leakages, server crashes, and other calamities that may occur at any given time. However, to be prepared, IT leaders need to be comfortable dealing with crises.
With the increase in corporate and technological uncertainty, many IT leaders are forced to rely on internal experts and external service providers to develop a strong security operations center (SOC) while reducing security risks and improving the work environment for every employee.
[Read also: CIO role: 5 key opportunities for IT leaders in 2022.]
3. Build resiliency
As you navigate your career, resiliency is a requirement for overcoming failure. Sometimes you will fail regardless of your professional status. These times reveal the story of your journey to success. Consider failure as a sigh of relief; you are not losing anything by failing. Rather, you are getting rid of something while learning from your mistakes and gaining insights into your future endeavors. Let your failure become the catalyst for your projections.
[Read also: IT leadership: 8 tips to improve resiliency.]
As you consider the highs and lows of your professional journey, spend more time learning from the low points than thinking about the highlights.
[ Get exercises and approaches that make disparate teams stronger. Read the digital transformation ebook: Transformation Takes Practice. ]
