by Zoe Zorka
It's easy to forget about the tech team tucked away in the corner of an office, because, from a social perspective, you might argue that they keep to themselves, or they are so engrossed in what they do they don't particularly care about socializing with the rest of the team. But, from your perspective, you need to ensure the tech team is an integral part of the organization. Whether you are rustling up a team social, or on the other end of the business spectrum, contingency plans for a business emergency, we've got to ensure that they feel part of the unit. What are the best ways to do this?
Investing In Their Education
In some ways, it's quite simple, you nurture an employee by contributing to their professional or personal development. Because coding, app development, or domain issues are specialized problems that only they can solve, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't take an active interest in their development. Technology is a constantly evolving thing, especially with the complexities involved in DNS security, the latest lines of codes, and ensuring that your app is free from bugs, and your team can't be expected to research this outside of work. You have to focus on their professional development and provide the time as well as the resources.
Giving Them Pride Of Place In The Organization
The importance of a positive company culture stems from teamwork, but also a realization of the bigger picture from yourself. It's important for you to ensure that they feel part of the team, and you need to take the opportunity to focus on their work and recognizing it accordingly. After all, we've all had a perplexing phone call with the IT department, and we can consider them to be, in many ways, “worker bees”. But without them and their specialized knowledge, where would we be?
Encouraging Consistent Communication
This is as much a lesson for the business as it is for the entrepreneur. Having contact with the team, and finding ways to motivate areas of the business uniquely can give you more of an insight into each specific team. When it comes to tech, having an appreciation of the time and effort required to fix software patches will endear you more to them. Even if you don't understand the complexities of what they're doing, you have to see how it fits into the bigger picture. While you don't necessarily have to understand everything about your business, you still need to know what is going on and how it fits into the entire infrastructure. A temptation to leave them to it is not just foolish for the business, but it also highlights how hands-off you are. This is a very bad trait for an entrepreneur.
This is a lesson we can take with us to any team. And as a leader, we can feel that we shoulder the stresses of the business all by ourselves. But it's not just us, it's these teams that dedicate their hard work and time to ensuring that the business stays afloat. This is none truer than in the technological aspects.
