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Explain why adaptability and interpersonal
skills are important to an IT professional.
Among the skills that employers are looking
for in the IT business field, adaptability is ranked the highest along with
communication, interpersonal skills and a strong work ethic.
As we move into the new millennium, IT
roles are shifting at a rapidly increasing pace. Technical skills alone are not
sufficient for success in the IT profession --- soft skills like adaptability,
interpersonal skills, communication, problem solving, and teamwork are
increasingly important. Recognizing that no curriculum can provide all training
needed by every employee in every position, the issue then becomes to identify
which specific sets of knowledge, skills, and abilities are most important for
IT professionals.
Why is adaptability so important to an IT professional? As
all know that IT professionals face many changes and challengers in their
career life adaptability plays a main role to overcome these challengers. They
never can expect what kind of change is coming down the road, which is why
being able to adapt to the environmental, professional and organizational
changes - to bend - and remain as nimble as possible when working through
change at their work place. In addition, if the IT person is able to adapt to
unfamiliar situations quickly, he is obviously going to make a better
impression on his employer hence who fit into the company culture tend to be
more successful and productive than those hired simply because they fit the job
description. Some studies indicate that almost half of an employee’s success in
the first 18 months of being hired results from fitting well into the company
environment.
In addition to this, among all challenges faced by IT
professionals today, developing strong interpersonal skills also ranks as one
of the biggest and most critical. In fact, studies show their ability to work
with people can make the difference between IT project failure and success.
These interpersonal skills include; personality awareness, communication,
conflict management, trust building and collaboration. Having all this in an IT
professional will help him/her achieve; an effective deal with a variety of
personality types, better meet the needs of their teammates and customers, effectively
handle conflicts that arise with teammates and customers, enhance trust with
teammates and customers and lastly work collaboratively with teammates and
customers.
Recent literature has identified many communication and
leadership inadequacies amongst senior IT managers and consequent breakdowns in
the IT/business relationship. This is due to the lack of adaptability and
interpersonal skills that the individual has. Therefore, considering all these
factors, adaptability and interpersonal skills is very important to have in an
IT professional.
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