Technology changes so fast in our society, that our methodologies, procedures, and comfort zones often lags behind. I’ve discussed the lag in acceptance for Telecommuting in my article, Telecommuting: Old-thinking vs New-thinking as one example of societal trends not keeping up with technology.

Another, is in our form of communication. In the past, we communicated almost exclusively with telephones and in person discussions. Now, we have email, chat rooms, and IM. We can access fellow team members at our every whim, even when they are working remotely. But this luxury of communication has it’s drawbacks. We all struggle with distractions, and these forms of instant communication create even more than we would already have. Focusing on a single issue at a time is generally the best method of completing a task, but being bombarded constantly with requests for help on other issues from teammates, requests for status updates on tasks by project management, and spontaneous team brain storming and problem solving meetings all serve to derail us from our train of thought and prevent us from completing the task at hand.

There must times when team members are allowed to focus on their current task, without risk of interruption in thought process. When developers are problem solving, it takes some time for the brain to get into the problem, thoroughly digest it, and get the creative juices flowing to find a solution. But how any times have you been involved in this process, only to be called into a meeting, get involved in an email thread, or be bombarded suddenly with IMs?

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If so, Karen Salmansohn, on her blog, discusses the number one trait of a great leader.

The trait? Fun. She says:

Yes, fun. It made sense. Employees are more inspired to be productive when they work in a fun work environment – than in a tough, serious space which operates on fear and stressful internal competition.

I agree that it is at the very least one of the top traits. Every leader that I have enjoyed working for has made my job fun. That doesn’t mean it was all fun and games, but that I enjoyed my work, and there were frequent lighthearted moments. We all work better in these circumstances (yes, even you serious stick-in-the-muds). I’ve never understood why so many IT Managers want to make their department more efficient so they begin cracking down and toughening up, and essentially taking all the fun out of the job. Motivation slips, passion slips, morale plummets, and soon the best employees leave for greener pastures. I’ve seen it happen in several of my jobs, and it never ceases to amaze me that it continues to be tried as a way to improve the department.

So, current and aspiring IT leaders, ask yourself, are you fun?

Or at least that is what Money magazine claims. I’m not sure I agree with their ratings in each of the categories.

Low Stress?
I suppose compared to being shot at, or having someone’s life in your hands it’s low stress, but I’ve experienced plenty of stressful situations in my career, including going through two mass layoffs (both of which I escaped without job loss, but not without stress), countless overtime hours, ridiculously imposed deadlines, outrageous client demands, writing software that is vital to a company’s daily success where one bug can bring it to its knees, poor Project Management (ie. micro-management), and constant shifting skill sets required to maintain “hirability”.

Flexibility
I don’t know what they mean by flexibility. I see they say, “Telecommuting is quickly becoming widespread.” However, I have found extreme resistance to telecommuting. Ten years ago I thought by now most Software Engineers would have the option to work from home. But old habits die hard, and human psychology changes much slower than technology does. While countless studies have shown that working from home improves productivity and reduces employee stress, many old school managers are still resistant to it, and somehow feel you aren’t working if they can’t see you in front of your computer in your cube. Thankfully, I’m currently enjoying telecommuting, and as long as it lasts, I plan to stay on my current contract. I have as flexible hours as I could want, so for me, right now, yes flexibility is a benefit. But, from past experience, and hearing from others in the field, I’m surprised a study would show this to be a strength.

Creativity
This category has been one of my biggest complaints over the years. It really depends on your management. In many environments you are told exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to have it done by. That doesn’t leave much room for creativity. I have had the good fortune to be on some projects, including my two year project at IBM, that gave me great freedom for creativity. But I have also had many projects where I was completely constrained to follow antiquated architectures, development methodologies, and project management styles, that squashed any hope of thinking creatively and allow for problem solving. Tip for IT managers: Software Engineers will work harder and with more passion if given the chance to be creative!

Ease of Entry
So on this category they give it the worst grade and yet this is the one category I’d give an A to. Why you ask? No, not because I think its an easy to skill set to pick up, but because IT managers seem to think it is, and hire just about anybody. They either hire because someone memorized an API (but can’t use the API, learn on their own, problem solve, etc), or because they seem to have great potential (aka. they came cheap). This field should be a lot harder to get into than it currently is.

I thoroughly enjoy my job, when I’m on the right project, but I’m not sure the grades from MONEY magazine are accurate, but this is what so any are told in high school, so its no surprise that seemingly millions and millions get into this field every day.