As we say goodbye to 2012 and start looking forward to another exciting year in tech, it's a good time to pause and take stock of your professional and personal progress as an IT manager.
Take a few moments to read through the best of Computerworld's management and career, or click a link below to skip directly to your chosen topic.
- Embrace big ideas
- Build productive relationships
- Be a better boss
- Take care of your career
- Make a big move
- Try something completely different
Embrace big ideas
Invest for transformation in 2013
Maximize the return on your investments in disruptive trends like big data, cloud computing and mobility.
Some companies have discovered that the benefits of sharing data more widely are well worth the costs and effort.
Let go of your 'command and control' mindset
The consumerization of IT has some managers giving up gatekeeping. The result? More productive employees, more rewarding tech jobs.
Prepare for the coming Cobol brain drain
When the last Cobol programmers walk out the door, so may 50 years of business processes within the software they created. Will you be ready?
Tech-savvy employees have long bypassed IT to get their hands on hot technologies. Rather than standing in the way, smart CIOs are now embracing and even encouraging shadow IT.
Stop searching for the elusive 'purple squirrel'
Despite the talent shortage, some managers still search for employees with an impossible set of skills. Instead, they should work to improve the talent they have.
Give employees time off to innovate
Companies like Google and 3M give tech workers free time to follow their passions. Could it work for your organization?
Say goodbye to the corporate phone
Users are demanding their own smartphones, and support-weary IT is only too happy to hand over the reins.
Know when to say no to new technologies
Sometimes not adopting a hot new technology is the wisest business decision you can make. Four CIOs tell their tales.
Get over your addiction to rock star developers
You want the best and the brightest money can buy. Or do you? In fact, you're better served by a group of developers with mixed skill levels who focus on getting the job done.
Mine your organization for good ideas
Idea management can help your organization stay competitive. Here are 10 best practices for getting the most from it.
Barraged with requests for mobile, social and analytics apps, IT must prioritize projects to give the business what it wants.
Build productive relationships
Recruit the best executive sponsor for your IT projects
Every big project needs a high-ranking exec with a stake in the game and solid connections within the organization. Here's how to find and train the right one for the job.
Get along better with your marketing department
As corporate marketing campaigns become all-digital affairs, IT and marketing execs find themselves wrangling over territory. Here are 4 tips for sorting out who does what.
Get to 'yes' with your legal team over cloud computing issues
Inside the enterprise, the biggest obstacle to cloud computing is often the company's own corporate counsel. Here's how IT is getting to yes with legal.
Visionary IT leaders are brave enough to ask why line-of-business managers attempt to bypass IT -- and how they can manage the situation rather than ignore it.
Communicate better with your global team
Premier 100 IT Leader Chris Miller also answers questions on long-term unemployment and coping with a woefully understaffed IT department.
Savvy IT leaders are using social media to better communicate with peers, employees and customers. You can too.
Break up with a mentor with class and grace
When a relationship has run its course, the end must be handled professionally.
Build relationships, and career opportunities will follow
Like it or not, we are all contractors now. Here's how to make the most of the situation.
Be a better boss
6 tips for holding on to your workplace stars.
Motivate workers with salary, skills and strategy
IT professionals rank career development as their top priority -- even higher than compensation.
Interns aren't just for grunt work anymore. When properly managed, they can bring new insight to IT problems and processes.
Embrace the skeptics on your team
Working with skeptics can be painful, but the right kind of skeptic can be highly valuable, especially during project planning.
The traditional sysadmin role is changing, thanks to cloud computing and virtualization.
Nurture your newest hotshot, the tech business analyst
The once lowly business analyst is suddenly in high demand. Here's how to work well with the ones you've got.
Find skilled IT contractors...
Need outside expertise for your next IT project? These resources and tips can help.
Hiring contract tech workers is a quick, easy way to staff up a project or offload mundane tasks -- but managing them can be ticklish.
Take care of your career
Prepare for the coming IT skills revolution
The current tech talent gap is just the first sign of a coming revolution in the IT jobs market. Here's how to secure your footing now and brace for what's ahead.
Track promising directions for a tech career
Premier 100 IT Leader Dave Ballai also answers a question on getting a master's degree.
Career maps help tech workers navigate the choppy waters of IT employment.
Consider hiring an executive coach
CEOs have long used executive coaches to take their leadership to the next level. Now IT pros are following suit.
Explore free and cheap ways to study for IT certifications
Use these tips for finding inexpensive study resources and getting hands-on experience.
Learn how to work around a bad boss
Premier 100 IT Leader Raman Mehta on how to cope with an uncooperative higher-up.
Adopt three quick tips for presenting to the board
Communicate more effctively with your leadership-level peers.
Make a big move
Take control of your own IT career
The new economy puts you in the driver's seat of your career. Can you handle it? We show you how.
Learn from recent hires how to land a new job
Four IT workers who recently found new jobs describe their hard-won success and offer a view from the street.
Highlight hot skills on your resume
Soft skills are key to career advancement, but they're difficult to quantify. Here's how to revamp your resume to make your talents shine.
Look for jobs on the 'other side' of the cloud
As companies turn increasingly toward the cloud, corporate IT staffers wonder if the grass is greener working for a service provider.
Try something completely different
Teacher, farmer, beekeeper and technologist -- how IT professor James T. Wilkes combines his life's pursuits.
... or a move entirely out of IT
What do you do after reaching the pinnacle of IT management? If you're like these CIOs, you leave. Here's where they went, and why.
Read more about it leadership in Computerworld's IT Leadership Topic Center.