What are we going to do tonight, Brain?

Same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the IT department!

So I had a 1 on 1 with the CIO about a week or so ago. It went quite well. We discussed many things, mostly how my team was doing, how our projects were going, the fact my team is understaffed and comparative figures to justify the need for more staff. The CIO said he was on board with the need for more people on my team to support the organization. He asked if I could provide some detailed info for him to go to bat with HR. I had to cautiously mention that the data has been ready for a while and my boss was supposed to review it with him. I then did the smart thing and promised to get him the data by the end of the day. Which I did.

The last subject we got on was my career plans. I slipped in how I was disappointed in not being selected for the second round of interviews. I was told it was because I wasn't qualifed for the position and that I shouldn't expect to "parachute in" to a new job just because I wanted it. While I'm confident I could "parachute in" to ANY job in this department and succeed, I let it drop. However, we did talk about what I wanted to do in the department so I could perhaps focus on that. When I gave him my potential interests, he said, "so you mean everything." And it turns out I did. So he basically told me to pick something.

That got me to thinking.

Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?

I think so Brain, but how are we going to get the monkeys into the rubber pants?

I sat back and tried to figure out what I REALLY wanted to do. Well, run the WHOLE department and take the CIO's job, of course. But it will take a little while to get there. So where to start on my plan for departmental domination?

At home, so to speak. I realized first I had to build the kind of teams in the department that would be as effective as before our merger. That means first getting the help desk/service desk running right, and then working with our server administration team to get the network set up the way I want. Basically work to build a world class IT infrastructure. Not to be too blunt, but I'm getting the feeling my boss is ineffective in getting things done.

So I've gone on the offensive (known as taking initiative). I'm doing everything I possible can to build the service desk into the organization I think it should be. Fortunately, my counterpart in Schenectady has the same vision I do and told me she supports my efforts. I've begun having meetings to move things forward, getting things done that have been sitting around too long, and beginning conversations with other teams to get the things I want. I did have a quick conversation with my boss to let him know the things I'm doing (in a politic way not even once implying he was holding things up). He was glad I was doing it. In the Navy, we call that "Command by Negation". I'm going to keep on doing what I think needs to be done until someone tells me no.

I've determined my part of the organization needs a leader, and that leader will be me. Look out people, here I come. Get on board or get out of the way.

Comments

Popular Posts