The boards of both AIIA and AEEMA met separately but concurrently last week to discuss the proposed amalgamation of the two associations.

ICT companies need to maximise career development opportunities for employees so future leaders will have the ability and background to influence boards and organisations on the value of ICT, John Price, Chairman of AIIA told a major conference in Sydney recently.

He said that potential leaders need to be recognised now and their potential developed if the industry is to avoid a possible crisis of leadership in the future.

"CEOs and information officers must understand that, in the future, we are going to have fewer people in the workforce and we're going to need to have sound leaders who gain the respect for operating in the Generations X, Y and cross-cultural environments," he said.

Speaking at this year's SEARCC conference about identifying and developing leadership potential, Mr Price said that addressing leadership on every level from junior management to company heads ties in strongly with the IT skills shortage that Australian businesses face today.

He said that early identification of leadership potential requires a strategy that includes psychometric assessment and detailed behaviour interviewing which emphasises interpersonal skills and team ability. A necessary barometer looks to characteristics such as confidence, determination, empathy, capacity to consistently position a message, accountability, perseverance and integrity.

“Building on effective recruitment, the development plan needs to reinforce leadership theory with challenging small projects, mentoring and encouragement to take on voluntary functions within associations like AIIA and the Australian Computer Society,” Mr Price said.

“As well as identifying leadership qualities and nurturing existing staff, it is important to recognise the ability of potential leaders to adopt cross-cultural understanding of the IT industry which is becoming increasingly reliant on outsourcing and external employment,” Mr Price said.

"CEO’s and Information Officers are consistently dealing with multi-cultural teams and a potpourri of backgrounds within their organisations," he said.

Australia is facing the dilemma of skills shortages in IT. Other countries, such as India, are focussed on training and retention. Techniques such as ‘boot camps’ are intended to develop leadership in the safe environment of simulated application development projects. In this way, new graduates can take be blended into cross-cultural teams in projects across the world.

“This presents a heightened challenge for CEO’s and Information Officers who must learn to communicate across cultural barriers and to deploy cross-geographical teams effectively,” Mr Price said.

He said that companies need to break from their traditional ad hoc development strategies and develop mentoring and training systems which challenge young leaders, recognise and reward expertise with early promotion and balance with more mature heads in coaching and mentoring roles. This is in addition to finding meaningful and flexible work environments for talented older staff wishing to remain in the work force, Mr Price added.

Mr Price said that AIIA’s Developing Business Skills for ICT Entrepreneurs education and mentoring program was an example of a development approach which was paced to suit the real world of company leaders.

“Real leadership in ICT is not just about doing the task, but about making sure that the people involved at the individual and group levels want to be there, know how to bring out the best in their people and can communicate up and down the organisation," Mr Price said.

John Price
Chairman
Australian Information Industry Association