Christian Leadership Alliance

The Care and Keeping of Donors

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Getting the IT Focus Right

Welcome aboard! As the new head of IT, I realize you're facing a mountain of emails and an even larger "to do" list. But before you get lost in the demands of your new role, I thought it would be helpful if I shared five thoughts that will greatly contribute to your becoming the most valuable IT professional we've ever had! Interested? Read on …

Know Us

Remember that all of us—your peers, your teammates, those you support with IT services—are professionals just like you. We face deadlines, get stressed and need information to help us make the right decisions. Sure, we also jam printers and forget what you told us in training. But we care about the work we do and those we're trying to help. We're simply hoping you can help us do our job—our ministry—better than we've ever done it before.

So get to know us. Think of us as people, treat us as professionals, and we'll appreciate your professional skills all the more.

Another way you can get to know us involves knowing our information. I realize we've got a ton of it. And yes, we might not ever use 90 percent of what we've saved. But rumor has it, disk space is pretty cheap these days, a lot less expensive than peace of mind, which we have by keeping all those old files around. I'll bet you're unpacking manuals that are three versions old right now! Well, that's what our old files are. Good friends. Reminders of great projects and work well done.

Tell you what. Instead of focusing on our free space, help us become as good at using our information as we are at collecting it! Get to know our data. Graph our facts and figures. Ask us what we need to make better, faster decisions. Want to excel in IT? Appreciate our hearts. Appreciate our challenges. Appreciate our information and how it can help us do more ministry! Focus on "Information" as much as you do on "Technologies," and we'll get along great.

Support Us

Here's a simple little thought I don't ever want you to forget: We asked you to join our team—not to tell us "no," but to tell us "how."

Maybe our idea is too expensive. Maybe it's too hard to pull off. Maybe it just doesn't make sense. But if we can come to those conclusions together, things will run a lot smoother than if you come to those conclusions by yourself. Who knows? In the process, you may be surprised.

Part of leadership is thinking big. "Think different," Apple Computer says. Part of growth is challenging old ways of doing things. The quickest way to stunt our growth—and by the way, to limit your own growth—is to give us reasons an idea won't work instead of how, with your help, it could work.

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