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The role of front-line IT managers is an interesting one. At some point during their careers, they made a decision that most IT professionals never make: to share responsibility for the job performance of others and to be held accountable not only for what they accomplish, but also for the efforts of others. Many take on this responsibility to have a greater impact on the organization than they could have as a network engineer or systems programmer or systems analyst. Some view the job of front-line manager as a step toward something greater. Still others do it because it is the only way to make more money. Whatever the motivation, it doesn't take long for front-line technology managers to understand that the job looks a lot different from the backseat than from the front seat--and more than a few end up wishing they could step aside gracefully.

The lack of front-line management talent in today's IT organizations is a quiet crisis with consequences evidenced in a frustration that pervades many enterprises. The problem is particularly acute in emerging technical areas like network engineering and client/server systems' management, where technical professionals can make a comfortable living at jobs in which the y need only be concerned with their own performance and the systems for which they are responsible. I've had a front-line manager leave and I couldn't get a staff member to take on management responsibilities even on an interim basis. A failure to come to grips with this issue is a sure ticket to IT mediocrity. Worse, it may be the single greatest factor that leads CIOs to consider radical outsourcing of IT functions.

The Successful Candidate It's been my responsibility over the past 13 years to hire and supervise a lengthy list of front-line technical managers in user services, operations, systems programming and networking. Some have succeeded beyond my most optimistic expectations; others have not. Every time I put together the ad copy to fill one of these positions, I am confronted with the same dilemma: How do I make this job look appealing enough to attract a reasonable number of qualified candidates while still maintaining a sense of good conscience, a feeling that I am not engaging in false advertising?

In a well-managed technical organization, finding front-line managers should be a lot easier than it is. As organizations flatten their hierarchies and the number of managers declines, the ratio of nonmanagers to managers obviously increases. It is therefore logical to expect management candidates to emerge from within the organization. In fact, it could be argued that one of the most important responsibilities of senior management and the CIO is to see to it that quality front-line technical staff members are hired and appropriate development programs are put in place to encourage these people to aspire to more responsible positions within the organization. But this isn't always so easy.

Relatively few organizations can afford to hire technical staff with much consideration for their management potential as it is increasingly common for organizations to pay high salaries for front-line nonmanagerial talent with specialized skills. And even if you do hire technical staff with management a spirations, it can often backfire. The only thing worse than the lack of an internal candidate for a vacant front-line management position is the existence of multiple qualified candidates. Be prepared to wave adios to the ones who don't get the job.