As today's IT managers increasingly deal with the challenges of global competition and a changing workforce, effective management and leadership skills are needed more than ever. To address this growing need, the AIM Institute and its business members have collaborated to create an annual IT Leadership Academy. The goal of the academy organizers is to prepare IT managers to more fully leverage the talents and contributions of the local IT workforce and maximize its effectiveness. Starting this fall, selected nominees will attend a series of monthly day-long, issues-oriented seminars from September through May.

The expressed need for such an academy emerged from various sources, including the AIM Board of Directors, over the course of the last year. The AIM leadership team conceived of the IT Leadership Academy and contacted its business members to help design and launch the academy.

AIM is coordinating the program under the guidance and direction of a volunteer Steering Committee, comprised of IT managers from small, medium, and large companies, representing the diverse industries in the region. Kris Lappala, vice president at First National Bank, is serving as chair of the Steering Committee. The committee has developed a framework for the Leadership Seminars and in the coming weeks will announce the nominating process.


Background

Information technology, as an industry, a career, and a set of specific skills, has always been shaped by innovation and continuous change. The pace of this change is accelerating and numerous challenges lie in store for those working in this field.

For IT managers, the demands will be further exacerbated by substantive changes in our workforce: the baby boom generation is retiring and taking with it many skilled technical workers; the workforce is becoming more diverse; and global competition is creating greater demands on American companies to demonstrate an innovative value proposition that cannot be replicated at lower cost off-shore locations.

For those working in IT, this requires a more complete set of both technical and non-technical skills and a full understanding of the business processes forming the context for the work of the IT department. What can IT managers do to address these challenges? And how will IT managers — especially those who have moved up the career ladder due to technical success but without having received any training in management and leadership — respond?

For more information, please contact:
John Jeanetta
Vice President of Organizational Development
AIM Institute
(402) 345-5025 Ext. 127
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