In my experience, CIOs often have the right intentions but sometimes make inadvertent mistakes that can kill their IT cultures. In a recent article on five IT risks CIOs should be paranoid about, I highlighted several IT team culture issues, including team burnout, mounting technical debt, and continuous crisis management cycles. Below are 10 other ways to IT leaders damage their IT culture — and how to avoid it.
Resorting to micromanagement or command-and-control
“Micromanagement is one of the fastest ways to destroy IT culture,” says Jay Ferro, EVP and chief information, technology, and product officer at Clario. “When CIOs don’t trust their teams to make decisions or constantly hover over every detail, it stifles creativity and innovation. High-performing professionals crave autonomy; if they feel suffocated by micromanagement, they’ll either disengage or leave for an environment where they’re empowered to do their best work.”
While experienced CIOs avoid command-and-control behaviors, it can be hard to avoid micromanagement when under pressure to deliver innovations and hit deadlines. Instead of succumbing to the pressure, CIOs should consider collaborative approaches:
