Strategy, Communication and Relationships Key to Leading Teams

Expectations within the technology community have shifted over the past few years, and as state agencies have emerged from pandemic response, there is a perspective change for all involved — seasoned IT veterans to newly arrived workers. Top of mind is IT transformation and how to implement it facing both new and old challenges that include a faster pace, hybrid workforce and traditional funding models.

These are just a few of the points brought up during Monday’s Texas IT Leadership Forum, held north of downtown Austin. Public-sector technologists and vendor representatives, including agency CIOs, gathered to talk about leadership and how to move “the ball forward” in technology.

In remarks that opened the annual event, state Chief Information Officer Amanda Crawford highlighted points from a recent National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) report on leadership traits for a CIO.

The top three are to be a strategist, communicator and relationship manager, she said. Technologist was No. 9.

“Think of those three things and think about what you do in your daily lives — strategist, communicator or relationship manager,” Crawford said. “In order to do our jobs and be able to advance the ball on and move forward with technology, we absolutely have to be able to excel in those things.”

The “top challenges” to CIOs, she continued, have morphed and were reported as:

• Workforce
• Digital transformation
• Funding
• Cultural resistance to change
• Cybersecurity

“When you think about all those things at the core, we’re talking about massive initiatives to change culture … digital transformation and driving that change. And we’re not going to get there without you being able to be in tune with the business side to be able to speak to state leadership to appropriators and to motivate others.”

Crawford spoke about her experience in professional development during her prior statehouse roles and noted that leadership training was important in a changing technology world.

“I hope that you’re able to come away with some really great lessons learned that you can apply and then go back and motivate your teams that all work so hard for Texas,” Crawford said. “I also want to thank you all for all that you do at your agencies.”

The IT Leadership Forum is a Government Technology event. Government Technology is a sister publication of Industry Insider — Texas, and their parent company is e.Republic.

Continuing coverage of the IT Leadership Forum will include how various agencies are approaching these issues: Hybrid workforce, modernization and bringing technologists to the table.