Five Tips for IT Leaders to Drive Change in 2023

Learn how IT leaders can create organizational shifts to reach their business goals.

Jan. 25, 2023 | By Kunal Patil

Business transformation involves more than the hottest new technology. IT leaders should understand the overall business goals and use technology to achieve business outcomes.

To help transform for long-term growth, IT leaders should develop a business transformation strategy that:

1. Uses data to drive decisions
2. Creates flexibility for the business
3. Cultivates a culture of transparency
4. Celebrates achievements along the way
5. Invests in your employees

1. Make Informed, Data-Driven Decisions to Build a Business Transformation Strategy

Sustainable change starts with a targeted approach. Data is the new oil, and leaders now have access to unlimited data to inform decision-making. Since a business transformation strategy requires a roadmap that provides a clear understanding of desired business outcomes, use data to help you stay prepared for what’s next.

Use data to inform and build business goals. According to the TEKsystems State of Digital Transformation report, 85% of digital leaders clearly define the desired business outcomes before starting any digital initiative. By starting with the end in mind, you can build the roadmap that serves as the foundation for achieving true business transformation.

2. Focus on Agility to Take Advantage of New Trends

Today’s trends become tomorrow’s standards. Leaders should prioritize staying adaptable in the face of emerging industry trends and constantly changing environments. Create flexibility and resiliency within your company to not only overcome disruption, but also grow, innovate and thrive through it.

Stay engaged and anticipate challenges in the market to become the first to understand how new or evolving technology can help you achieve established business goals. Our research indicates that 92% of digital leaders use digital technology to advance business strategy and 87% of them agree that their organization’s ability to compete in the market is greatly dependent on the flexibility of their technology culture. So evaluate how you can leverage the trends to give you an edge over your competitors. Doing so helps you seize opportunities to use digital technology to advance their business strategy.

For example, with recent downtrends in equity markets and signs of potential recession, IT leaders can adopt financial operations and other platform optimization initiatives to regain control over capital and operational expenditures. Organizations must set up a business transformation strategy focused on agility to anticipate potential hurdles and use them as opportunities for advancement.

3. Be Transparent to Increase Employee Engagement

Communicate strategic objectives openly and often to keep your team engaged and all on the same page. Proactively initiate conversations with your team. Transformation can’t succeed with employees, teams and departments working in silos, so regularly share your vision, goals and expectations. Not only does this approach ensure they feel valued, informed and included to keep team morale high, but it also ensures that business and IT teams stay on the same page.

Transparency is a two-way street. Leaders must welcome constructive criticism from the team—and act on it. You’ll likely uncover needs that might otherwise go unnoticed while increasing employee engagement.

4. Prove Business Value to Your Organization and Your People

As technology evolves, so will the way businesses use technology. Leaders’ business modernization initiatives and decisions will have far-reaching impacts across organizations. Demonstrate ROI so you can consider securing funding for future initiatives. Since business transformation doesn’t have to happen overnight, start small. Identify potential, quick wins to prove business value that will lead to achieving a broader goal.

For example, when we partnered with a technology and healthcare solutions provider to improve customer experiences through legacy IT migration, we couldn’t show success right away. The process began with wins like developing a strategic roadmap and solution architecture to prove the value that is yet to come. At the end of the project, the team saw a 64% increase in velocity, 86% increase in customer satisfaction and 32% improvement in work predictability.

You don’t just have to prove the value of your goals to those who fund your projects. Your employees matter, too. Make your decisions with conviction and stand by them. That confidence will translate to employees. Big initiatives can take years, so celebrate milestones and incremental progress to keep your team feeling motivated. Recognize your team’s hard work along the way. After all, your people are the heart of your business transformation.

5. Help Your Team Learn and Grow to Instill Confidence

The modernization journey is disruptive across people, processes and technologies. You can help your people learn and grow at work to minimize the disruption. In fact, the TEKsystems State of Digital Transformation report reveals that 26% of digital leaders say gaps in technical talent serve as a top challenge to business transformation, and nine out of 10 leaders of organizations don’t currently have the talent they need to succeed. Overcoming these challenges will require including talent and workforce strategies in your business goals.

Leaders across the organization must promote team upskilling to keep pace with the ever-changing technical landscape. Those who don’t can expect costs to skyrocket while business goals are delayed. Empower your teams with upskilling and training opportunities, and your team will be confident and excited about achieving enterprise objectives.

Get Ready to Soar Above Your Competition

Leaders drive your business forward and can effectively implement a business transformation strategy that will allow the organization to soar above its competitors. To do so, leaders should connect business goals to the people driving the business forward to the technology that enables them. Get started and drive change in 2023 and beyond.