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ILTA’S 2010 IT STAFFING SURVEY Do you develop and mentor your future managers from within? Why and how? • Yes, typically we do. We have a unique culture and find that our best managers are home-grown because they are primed to work in our nurturing, civilized and positive environment. We have often found that we can get the technical skills through training, but it’s difficult to train managers from outside our organization to adopt our egalitarian, collegial and humanistic approach to managing. • Yes, definitely. This benefits you (allowing you to delegate more) and them (by building their expertise beyond tactical work). How? Allow them to run meetings in your absence, assign them as lead on specific projects, and have them attend management- specific training in areas for which they might not yet meet the mark. • I always try to develop future managers from within. Sometimes that works...sometimes not. I feel it is important to use the local talent for obvious reasons. It sends a signal to the other staff members that says, “do a good job and you could be promoted.” The downside is that, on occasion, the previous relationships with former peers interferes with the ability to be a successful manager. • Yes, in some cases. We first look to promote from within to reward top performers and provide a career path. If there is not an internal fit or the job requirements are beyond current internal capabilities, we then look outside the organization. • If appropriate, we do. It’s not always easy to transition from being a peer to a manager within the same organization, but I have had good success with a couple of promotions to supervisory roles. I think it’s important to keep in close touch with new supervisors/managers to help them develop their skills in those roles. • Yes. We focus on skills needed to become a manager during annual review and try to assign projects which will allow for development in those areas. www.iltanet.org 2010 IT Staffing Survey 13

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