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Active Listening: Communication and Empathy as an IT Leader

Active listening is an essential skill for an IT leader. Your ability to communicate effectively and show empathy impacts your team’s success.

Focusing on what your employees say and understanding their points of view help you make decisions and resolve issues. These actions build trust, respect, and collaboration among your team.

Practicing communication and empathy with your team increases employee engagement, performance, and productivity. These actions elevate job satisfaction, employee morale, and attraction and retention rates. The results strengthen your bottom line.

Engage in the following behaviors to practice active listening and empathy as an IT leader.

Recognize Verbal and Nonverbal Cues

Pay attention to your employee’s tone, facial expressions, and other body language. These cues provide insight into how your employee may be feeling.

Keep in mind these emotions might not be verbally expressed. Or, your employee could say they are fine when they are not.

Focus on what your employee is and is not saying. Acknowledge what they are saying and how they are feeling. Ask follow-up questions to uncover more information.

For instance, “Thank you for sharing you feel about this situation. Would you share a bit more about your thoughts? I would like to hear more about your perspective.”

Process Verbal and Nonverbal Information

Work to understand the messages you receive from your employee. Also, keep track of the points made during the conversation.

For instance, “Here are some key points and areas of agreement and disagreement from our conversation. Here are more pieces of information to gather and suggested next steps. What do you think?”

Share Appropriate Responses

Use the information you gathered to reply to your employee. Include verbal acknowledgments, clarifying questions, or paraphrasing to show you were actively listening.

For instance, maintain appropriate eye contact, facial expressions, and body language while responding. Also, nod your head and use acknowledging phrases such as “That is a great point.”

Follow Up on the Conversation

Use your behaviors to show you were listening during the discussion. For instance, you might implement constructive feedback your employee provided. Or, you could talk about why you made another decision.

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Building a Resilient IT Workforce: Adapting to Rapid Technological Advancements

Building a resilient IT workforce helps your company adapt to rapid technological advancements. Because ongoing change impacts your business, you must be able to keep up to maintain your competitive edge.

The ability to maintain an agile, resilient workforce supports effective business operations. Your workforce can prioritize digital solutions that fill your company’s current needs while creating a platform for innovation. Then, your workforce can evolve to fit your changing business needs.

Implement these tips to build a resilient IT workforce to adapt to rapid technological advancements.

Focus on Digital Transformation

Determine which technologies and cybersecurity strategies are required to support a remote or hybrid workforce. Also, decide how you can use technology to promote a human-centered workplace. These approaches impact how your IT team helps support management practices that align with business strategies.

Embrace Cloud Technology

Take advantage of cloud technology to increase the agility of your business platform. This agility lets you add the capabilities and functionality needed to adapt to new technologies. This adaptation lets your company add capabilities to its tech stack to increase its competitive edge.

For instance, you might increase the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to improve efficiencies. You also could increase cybersecurity to improve your competitive edge.

Automate Decision-Making

Use AI and ML to create thresholds that indicate when an automated process requires human input. Increasing automation elevates efficiency in business operations for stronger customer management and product or service innovation.

For instance, you can use customer relationship tools to predict and flag your customers who are likely to stop making purchases. Then, you can take steps to encourage customer loyalty through discounts or related actions.

Drive Innovation

Use cloud capabilities to scale and support research and development. For instance, use AI and data analytics to reinforce discovery, modeling, and prediction for faster prototyping and testing with lower risk. Leveraging shared knowledge and data insights drives workforce and company performance.

Accelerate Your Ecosystem

Move to standardized architectures and cloud solutions that support the cocreation of performance and innovation. Examples include common services, application programming interfaces (APIs), reusability, and extensibility.

For instance, you might decompose your technology stacks for the continuous integration and delivery of new capabilities. Or, you could make it easier to share data and knowledge for greater insight and innovation along your value chain.

Establish Agile Targets

Clarify how your workforce should evolve to support new technologies and operating models. Include the diversity, skills, and experiences you want to attain. Then, provide relevant resources and incentives to reach business goals.

Do You Need Help with Building a Resilient IT Workforce?

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Transferable Skills: The Best Skills to Have When Changing Careers

Transferable skills are the best skills to have when changing careers. You can apply these talents and abilities to multiple roles and industries for a successful transition.

Including your relevant transferrable skills in your resume shows the value you can provide an organization. It demonstrates how the skills you developed in previous positions align with the skills required for the position you desire. This encourages the hiring manager to contact you for an interview.

Learn which transferrable skills to include in your resume when changing careers.

Industry Expertise

If you are changing careers within the IT industry, include in your resume your knowledge, skills, and experience that can benefit the company. Mention the amount of time you spent in the industry and the types of projects you worked on.

Communication

Strong verbal and written communication skills are required for virtually any role. You likely will engage with colleagues, managers, coworkers, HR professionals, and other company stakeholders. Effectively sharing your ideas, input, decisions, and thought process is essential for success.

Find effective ways to list in your resume examples of your communication skills. This may include how you explain IT concepts and projects to non-IT professionals so that they understand your work.

Project Management

Overseeing at least some parts of projects is essential for most roles. As a result, including in your resume organization and time management shows you establish priorities, maintain a schedule, and finish tasks by the deadlines.

Consider referencing IT projects you managed. Provide enough detail to explain your role, results, and impact on the company.

Analysis

Your analytical skills are essential for problem-solving. You can use data to make educated decisions and explain your reasoning.

Consider sharing in your resume examples of how you analyzed IT problems to find solutions. Include the impact of your actions, such as increased efficiencies or lower costs.

Adaptability

Because change is part of every company and industry, fast adaptation is essential. This is especially true if your career change leads you to work for a startup. Your role regularly may change based on the company’s needs.

Highlight in your resume situations where you had to quickly adapt to complete an IT project. Include how you think on your feet and perform in high-pressure situations to benefit the organization.

Leadership

Demonstrating leadership skills is beneficial when changing careers. Hiring managers always want to add leaders to their teams.

Include in your resume examples of your leadership skills to stand out from other candidates. Depending on your work experience, share examples of when you lead IT projects, employees, or both.

Are You Ready to Change Careers?

If you are changing careers within the IT industry, reach out to RightStone for help with the transition. Visit our job board today.


Green Flags To Look For In A Potential Employer

Green flags in a potential employer indicate that the organization may be a good place to work. These signs include attractive company culture, challenging work, and opportunities for advancement.

Understanding how to look for green flags in a potential employer before applying for a role, during an interview, and after receiving a job offer helps determine which company may be right for you. This helps you be successful in your new position.

Discover Green Flags To Look For In A Potential Employer.

Green Flags In The Job Posting

Look for these signs in the job posting:

  • A diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture
  • Company values aligned with yours
  • Competitive compensation range
  • Attractive benefits
  • Tailored job qualifications

Green Flags For The Company

The more diverse the employees, benefits, and perks, the more equitable and inclusive the company:

  • Diverse employees in leadership roles
  • Pay Transparency
  • Negotiable benefits
  • Equitable benefits, such as paid family leave instead of paid maternity leave
  • Significant budget for employee professional development
  • Mentorship and/or coaching program
  • Wheelchair-accessible building
  • Gender-neutral restrooms
  • Paid volunteer hours
  • Adequate information to prepare for interviews

Green Flags For Junior Developers

If you are beginning your IT career, look for a potential employer with these traits:

  • Headquarters in a city with at least one IT boot camp
  • Signs on the company’s website or LinkedIn profile that the organization hires bootcamp graduates and junior developers
  • Blog posts on the company’s website or social media pages that are directed at the junior developer experience

Green Flags During The Interview

Seek these elements during an interview:

  • Punctual interviewers
  • Interviewer camaraderie
  • Inquiry about your preferred pronouns
  • Questions tailored to your knowledge, skills, and experience
  • Interviewer engagement

Questions To Uncover Green or Red Flags

Consider asking these subtle questions to determine green or red flags:

  • How is your company involved in the community?
  • What does success look like here?
  • Is weekend work common?
  • How does the team approach tight deadlines?

You also might want to ask more direct questions:

  • Are there any requirements for using work apps on personal devices?
  • If you could fix one thing within the organization, what would it be?
  • Are employees encouraged to raise technical and ethical concerns?
  • If you knew then what you know now, would you still have joined the company?

Are You Ready to Find Your Next Employer?

Work with RightStone to find your next IT role. Visit our job board today.


Career Check-In Time! Are You on Track to Meet Your 2023 Goals?

The middle of the year is an excellent time to check in on your career. Understanding whether you are on track to meet your 2023 goals is essential to accomplish your objectives.

Perhaps you reached some goals but not others. Maybe you have goals that no longer fit your career objectives. These are reasons why you should revisit your goals.

Follow these guidelines to check in and determine whether you are on track to meet your 2023 career goals.

Review Your Goals

Look back at your goals for the year. Determine whether they still align with what you want to accomplish.

Take out the goals that you no longer want to attain. Consider replacing them with new ones. Or, you can dedicate more time to achieving your remaining goals.

Determine whether you reached any of your goals. If so, cross them off.

Consider whether you are putting in enough effort to meet your remaining goals. Remember that some may take longer to accomplish than others.

Measure Your Progress

Use your established criteria to measure your progress toward your goals. Comparing where you were when the year began to where you are now shown how far you have come. It also indicates what you still must do to attain your goals.

If you are not on track to achieve your goals, determine why. Find ways to resolve the issues and get back on schedule.

Track Your Goals

Regularly check in to record your progress in reaching your goals. Knowing where you are at in the process helps determine whether you are on track to meet your goals. If you fall behind, you can take action to get to where you should be.

Review Your Action Plan

Focus on whether you are reaching the deadlines included in your action plan. If not, determine why.

Perhaps the deadlines were unreasonable. Or, maybe you require more resources or support to meet them.

Resolve the issues that caused you not to reach your deadlines. Then, reset your timeline.

Celebrate Your Successes

Reward yourself for the goals you accomplished. You might want to go out for dinner or drinks with friends, enjoy a spa service, or plan a weekend trip to somewhere you have been wanting to visit. This provides motivation to continue to attain your goals.   

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How To Find Gratitude In A Job You Don’t Love

Finding gratitude in a job you don’t love can be challenging. Having to fulfill job duties and responsibilities you dislike makes coming to work difficult.

Your adverse feelings about not loving your job can carry over into your personal life. You might consistently come home tired and stressed. This can lead to issues with your family and friends.

Fortunately, you can take steps to find gratitude in a job you don’t love. This makes your work more tolerable.

Implement These Tips To Find Gratitude In A Job You Don’t Love

Maintain A Positive Attitude

Focus on positive thoughts as you work. This may include how hard you worked to secure your job, how much you accomplished throughout the day, or what you plan to handle next.

Maintaining a positive attitude helps create a positive work environment. This is one thing to be grateful for when you don’t love your job.

Emphasize What You Enjoy

Focus on what you like about your job and company. This may include your commute, office location, or manager. Or, it could be your competitive salary, attractive benefits, and perks, or the knowledge and skills you developed that can lead to your next position.

Emphasizing the positive aspects of work helps you find gratitude. This makes having a job you don’t love more bearable.

Take Breaks

Schedule regular breaks throughout the day. Include an hour for lunch.

Use your breaks to engage in relaxing activities. This may include stretching, taking a walk, or meditating. Or, you might read a book, listen to music, or talk with colleagues and coworkers who are on break.

Use all your paid time off. Take vacations with family and friends. Making memories with loved ones helps you find gratitude when you don’t love your job.

Develop Work Friendships

Working with people, you enjoy helps pass the time. You can talk about your interests and experiences during breaks. You might even decide to get together outside of the office.

Engage in Fun

Plan after-work activities that you enjoy. You can focus on them during your work breaks.

You might want to participate in a yoga class or join friends for dinner or happy hour. You could volunteer with a nonprofit organization or engage in a new book.

Setting boundaries between your work and personal time helps maintain peace of mind. Focusing on yourself helps you find gratitude in a job you don’t love.

Need Help Finding Great Employees?

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How To Build Stronger Relationships At Work

Humans are naturally sociable. This is why building strong relationships increases our happiness.

Having strong work relationships helps increase engagement, collaboration, and productivity. It also improves job satisfaction and employee morale.

The stronger your work relationships, the more industry professionals you connect with. This can increase your career opportunities.

Implement These Tips To Build Stronger Relationships At Work.

Display a Positive Attitude

Be positive when interacting with colleagues and coworkers. This encourages them to remain positive as well. It also helps maintain a pleasant work environment.

Stay Present

Focus on others during conversations. This helps you remain mentally present and engaged. Providing your full attention to others helps build stronger relationships at work.

Openly Communicate

Be honest and transparent when communicating with colleagues, managers, and coworkers. This helps build trust and rapport.

Actively listen during conversations. For instance, ask follow-up questions to gather more information. Also, repeat what you hear to check your understanding. Additionally, consider what was said before responding.

Appreciate Others

Let your colleagues and coworkers know specific things you appreciate about them. This may include someone’s positive attitude, their regular check-ins to see how others are doing, or their desire to help when needed. Expressing appreciation encourages others to form strong relationships with you.

Offer to Help

Let your colleagues and coworkers know you are willing to help them when needed. Providing your knowledge and experience to benefit others shows you care about them.

Ask for help when needed. Others should be willing to support you as well.

Be Accountable

Follow through on your commitments. This shows that your colleagues and coworkers can rely on you.

Be realistic when asked to take on a project or participate in an event. Let others know if your schedule does not allow for anything more to be added.

Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence

Continuously improve on identifying and managing your emotions and reacting to others’ emotions. Understanding how emotions shape your thoughts and behaviors increases your control over your actions. This enhances your self-management.

Increasing your emotional intelligence deepens your understanding of who you are. This helps you communicate more clearly and build stronger relationships.

Are You Looking For A New Role?

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3 Ways to Learn About A Company’s Culture Before Accepting A Job Offer

A company’s culture is defined by its mission, vision, and core values. These characteristics set a foundation for the goals, expectations, and ethics that define employees’ behavior at every level.

Companies can have a variety of cultures. For instance, whereas some companies have a team-based culture, others support individual accomplishments. Also, some companies have hierarchical management, while others are more casual.

Working for a company whose culture aligns with your values is essential for long-term success. This provides motivation to work individually and collaboratively to reach company goals.

Discover three ways to learn about a company’s culture before accepting a job offer

1. Online Research

Use the organization’s website to research the company’s culture. Pay close attention to the mission statement and careers page to help determine the organization’s values and priorities.

Gain insight into what working for the organization is like. Look for details on compensation, benefits, awards, and other relevant information.

Visit the organization’s social media pages to learn about the company’s priorities. Use your findings to determine whether to accept a job offer from the organization.

2. Employee Feedback

Read employer reviews to determine what current and former employees have to say about the company’s culture. Look for positive and negative patterns in employee feedback.

Use LinkedIn to connect with current and former employees. Ask them to share honest feedback about the company’s culture. Use what you learn to determine whether to accept the company’s job offer.

3. Job Interview

Arrive early for your interview to observe the office environment. Focus on the energy and how the employees interact:

  • Do the employees appear happy to work for the organization?
  • Are the employees friendly to you?
  • Would you enjoy working in the environment?

Ask about the company’s culture during your interview. Consider choosing from the following questions:

  • How would you describe the company’s culture?
  • What makes the company’s culture unique?
  • How would you describe the work environment?
  • What do you like best about working here?
  • Which activities do you participate in outside of work hours?

Focus on your experience during the interview process. This provides an indication of what it would be like working for the organization.

Reflect on the following issues:

  • Were you treated professionally?
  • Did you talk with different employees?
  • How comfortable did you feel throughout the interview process?

Do You Need Help with Your IT Job Search?

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3 Tips To Help Attract & Retain Women In IT

Attracting and retaining women in IT is challenging. Some of the most common reasons are slow salary growth, lack of career advancement, and limited opportunities to secure senior leadership roles.

Fortunately, you can take steps to help attract and retain women in IT. These suggestions can help.

Implement These Three Tips To Help Attract And Retain Women In IT

1. Offer Flexibility

Let your employees work remotely or hybrid. Include job-sharing options and a flexible schedule.

Letting your employees decide when and how to complete their projects shows your desire to fill your employees’ needs. It also demonstrates you trust your employees to finish their work on time.

Offer family-friendly leave policies. This provides your employees with time off to care for a sick child or tend to an aging parent’s needs.

Providing flexibility promotes employee engagement, performance, and productivity. It also helps attract and retain women in IT.

2. Prioritize Pay Equality

Provide equal pay for equal work. This helps attract and retain women in IT.

Many female employees who are mothers take time away from the workforce to raise their children. When these employees resume their careers, they often are paid less because of their absence.

Women with similar levels of education typically earn about the same amount in similar roles, regardless of whether these employees have children. In contrast, fathers typically earn more than other employees, including men without children, regardless of their education level. This significantly impacts the gender pay gap.

Female employees who are mothers tend to work fewer hours to fulfill family responsibilities than employees who do not have children. This often lowers the working mothers’ ability to earn income. As a result, an employee’s contributions and results should impact their compensation rather than the number of hours worked.

3. Promote Women

Provide additional support for your female employees to move up to leadership roles. Show that your employees’ knowledge, skills, and experience are valued and respected within your organization.

Offering a mentorship program for women helps develop them for your company’s more senior roles. Guiding these employees to meet the criteria for promotions encourages them to join your organization and remain long-term.

Supporting female employees’ career growth helps attract and retain women in IT. Having women in leadership positions encourages other women to work for your company.

Do You Need Help Attracting And Retaining Women In IT?

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How Is AI Impacting Modern Staffing & Recruiting

Artificial intelligence (AI) is positively impacting modern staffing and recruiting. This helps hiring managers use their applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes fairly, shortlist candidates more accurately, and hire more efficiently.

AI-powered tools integrate with an ATS to increase talent intelligence in the modern staffing and recruiting process. This helps more quickly accomplish time-consuming tasks. As a result, hiring managers can dedicate more time to higher-level responsibilities.

The use of AI in modern staffing and recruiting helps hiring managers more effectively screen, assess, and engage with applicants. The ability to automate workflows and gain insight into talent pools helps hiring managers find top candidates.

Discover How AI Is Impacting Modern Staffing And Recruiting.

Task Automation

AI is used to automate high-volume tasks. Examples include screening resumes, shortlisting candidates, and scheduling interviews. This helps hiring managers bring the best talent aboard.

Intelligent screening software uses machine learning (ML) and a resume database to determine employees’ success based on their performance, tenure, and turnover rates. For instance, the software learns the current employees’ skills, experience, and other qualifications, then applies this knowledge to new applicants. The software also accesses candidates’ public data sources, such as public social media profiles and prior employer information, then uses the information to grade, rank, and shortlist the candidates.

Candidate and Job Matching

AI uses data to match candidates’ knowledge, skills, and experience to the job requirements. This increases employee engagement, performance, and productivity. It also elevates job satisfaction, employee morale, and retention.

Candidate Interactions

Recruiter chatbots ask candidates questions based on the job requirements. The chatbots then provide candidate feedback, updates, and next steps.

These interactions enhance the candidate experience. They also encourage candidates to remain engaged in the recruiting process.

Digital Interviews

AI is used to assess a candidate’s facial expressions, word choices, and speech patterns. This helps determine the candidate’s fit with the position and culture. It also supports employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

Augmented Intelligence

Technology cannot fully replace human capabilities. As a result, AI should be used to enhance staffing and recruiting efficiency and employees’ potential.

For instance, hiring managers can use AI to proactively determine their staffing needs and start recruiting rather than spending time on reactive backfilling. Managers also can spend more time with candidates to build relationships and determine culture fit.

Do You Need Help With Staffing And Recruiting?

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