About Christian Wickham

Posted on: 20 February 2014 30 March 2023
Author: Christian Wickham
Leave a comment: About Christian Wickham

If you would like to know more about this site’s author, Christian Wickham, please read about his leadership style, his care for staff, view on technology change, and his Executive MBA experience.

What is your view on the enterprise software ‘X’?

Enterprise software that is past it’s second version is often presented and perceived as a “magic wand” to solve all the problems that the enterprise may have. The truth is that no matter how great and powerful the software is, the implementation can dramatically fail to meet expectations if it is not done properly.
Project planning for any implementation requires careful consideration of the needs of the business that has driven the selection of software to deliver the solution. Each department of the enterprise that will either be affected or benefited by the implementation needs to be consulted and a detailed pre-implementation requirements document created and signed off. It is only with the buy-in of all affected divisions of the business, the full understanding of what is required by all project members that the implementation should be started.
With a strong technical grounding, Christian has the ability to effectively select, evaluate and plan the important implementation phase of any enterprise software. Many IT Managers are easily seduced by the latest technology and adept sales patter, but an effective IT Manager can remain focused on the business needs, and see technology in the context of current existing infrastructure.

What are your main skills?

Apart from the technological skills identified in my Resume and in my leadership style;

Resolving complex problems

by thinking “outside the box” and finding an alternative solution to an issue that may seem unsolvable. In the past, it may not be apparent that there was a ‘problem’ to be resolved, but I have been able to see the inefficient or ineffective aspect of a process or system, and find an improved way to do it.

Explaining technical issues

to non-technical people in a way that they can understand, using analogy and comparison with known concepts. This is used to best effect when justifying the strategy of using a totally new technology to a Financial Director or the board.

Establishing relationships

with other departmental managers and external suppliers, by deducing what drives them and what their needs are. Each manager needs to be treated differently, sometimes in tone and sometimes in communication method or structure. Motivation is individual, and it is a manager’s job to be able to know what needs to be done for each person.

What is the main challenge of being a CIO?

When leading a team of hands-on and technically competent IT staff, there is often a risk of mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, and it is an important part of anyone’s development. The risk with IT staff is that a person with high level access to systems can cause major damage. It is human nature to attempt to cover one’s mistakes, or simply deny that anything was done.
It is good to learn from your mistakes, but it’s better to learn from someone else’s mistakes as you don’t have to suffer and this is best done in a group. If an IT Member makes a mistake, then they are encouraged to immediately notify the rest of the group, who then all learn from the mistake, and can work together on resolving it. This creates an ethos where mistakes are not something to hide from, and a sharing of knowledge and skills.

Management of external 3^rd party suppliers can be a full time skill in itself. Christian has years of experience in working with existing suppliers, finding new suppliers, terminating contracts and maintaining faltering supplier relationships. Each supplier must be treated individually, and made to feel that the company sees the supplier as the most important relationship – even if the supplier is only providing a small service. To ensure that a supplier provides the best service for the lowest charge, it is advisable to take advantage of extra services and capabilities, such as analysis and reports or a prospective sale quote – as this can make the supplier feel valued and in turn provide excellent service.

How did you become a CIO?

I have written an account of my career path here on this site and on LinkedIn, and my aims as a CIO.

What is your people management style?

“Management through reality” is based on establishing a rapport of trust and understanding from the team members, where each member is treated with respect and given the opportunity and space to demonstrate their skills and learn new ones. When team members feel valued and respected, they are less likely to do things behind or against their manager or team leader. A team is built from individuals with aspirations and fears, and these need to be considered in their context by their manager, and Christian is able to ensure that people can work towards their personal goals within the context of the needs of the business.
In the environment of working towards the needs of the business, when team members are included in the early stages of project planning, and allowed to fully understand why and what is happening, they are aware of the needs of the business and the focus of the project, and are able to give feedback at an early stage. When Christian delegates tasks to team members, they then do not see this as a chore or unexpected – they see the task as required and ‘obvious’ and simply the reality.

When team members are not working effectively, this is not always due to their “fault”, it can be caused by many factors that can be resolved by the manager with the direct involvement of the badly performing team member. Everyone needs to feel that their job is going somewhere, and Christian is experienced in finding the motivation in people and developing it.
Christian is a hard task master. Having done many of the roles that his staff do, Christian is able to evaluate how quickly a task can be done and not how long it will take. This also means that Christian can encourage development in his staff, without putting excess pressure onto them.

Managing through developed trust and respect means that Christian does not manage through fear, and Christian’s detailed technical expertise means that no-one can pull the wool over his eyes. With a strong technical background, Christian has often done many of the roles that his team members have done, allowing effective delegation and realistic expectations of timescales and results. This also allows Christian to work well with senior management, providing realistic and achievable timescales and immediate feedback when asked to deliver solutions.

What is your strategic management style?

Managing the department needs to be done in the context of the needs of the business. The wider perspective of the overall business should be the bedrock that decisions are made from. Christian has an ability to be able to see the business and the future to ensure that the IT infrastructure can provide for the needs of the business.
Christian ensures that the IT department are made aware of the goals and direction of the business, as too many other managers filter the information that the IT staff get, which does not allow the team to work well on their own. People who work in IT are often very intelligent and “drip feeding” them with information will only reduce their flexibility, and may cause problems if they decide to do “extra” work and are unaware of the business needs that originally drove the project.
A key tool in evaluating the performance of a service providing department such as IT support, clearly documented SLAs are crucial to measuring the workload and ability of the team. Christian makes extra efforts to ensure that staff do not fall into the easy trap of “sidelining” or otherwise ignoring tasks that are of a low priority, simply because they are a low priority – staff should be encouraged to complete everything before SLA set timescales.

Unfortunately for many people who have come from a technical background, they are easily seduced by the latest and greatest technology and gizmos. When taking feedback and input from team leaders, other managers and team members, Christian takes the needs of the business as more important than the latest technology or tool – it may be very good and may have a clear ROI, but if it does not add value to the business, it will not be implemented across the company. For a team of enthusiastic “gizmo junkies”, a few trials and test environments can keep the skill levels and the enthusiasm for the job high, but only where it does not impact the ability to provide service to the business.

Christian’s slogans

You learn best from other’s mistakes as you can see how it happened from the outside. This means that you have a more dispassionate view of the issue, and you learn about the issue, and not how it made you feel. Mistakes are a part of life, but it is good to see how people resolve them, so that you do not get caught in that trap yourself. Christian encourages his team to pay attention to when things go wrong, and by treating the mistake positively, team members are encouraged to learn, and not develop an ethos of ‘blame’.
You are judged on your results, not your efforts and you do not get rewarded by a failure, no matter how long you spent trying to make it a success. If there is a tedious or unpopular job that you need to do, then if you can find a way to meet the objectives by doing it a different way, then not only is it done faster, but it will also be easier or quicker next time. In many instances, finding and then downloading a free tool off the Internet to complete a task can be quicker than doing it manually – Christian encourages his staff to do this, with his guidance and approval.
People always remember the negative and quickly forget the positive. It can take months of hard work and repeated success to make people forget about a failed project or task. Each team member is encouraged to strive for success, as this makes life so much easier. Christian works with staff to ensure that their motivation and mood is maintained to ensure that they give good service and results, so that even after a failure, they are still able to focus on their future successes.
No-one likes to look stupid but often appreciate learning. The way that people are told what they have done wrong needs to be crafted to ensure that they benefit from having their errors pointed out. Christian has worked with people of a sensitive disposition and has built a skill in using “praise sandwich” methods and careful wording to ensure that skills and knowledge are increased, and personalities are not deflated.
People love to complain about anything, even if there is nothing wrong. Although it may seem obvious and simple, providing them something basic to complain about needs to be carefully managed. Deflecting their attention into the managed problem and away from the working infrastructure can very easily backfire. This is also the same with team management – people like to be able to complain about something.
Nobody wins in a ‘he said, she said’ argument as it is not important what words someone used. If a disagreement erupts from confused statements, then what matters is not what combination of words someone said, but the meaning that someone else derived from them. This encourages team members to think of the consequences and the possible miss-interpretations that someone could take from their statements.
Be prepared to change your mind as no-one is 100% correct 100% of the time.
People respect an honest back-down as the focus should be on the solution, not on who was right.