Nexus CEO Earl Foote Talks Team Management On Today’s Top Leaders

It can be easy to assume that success in the IT industry, or in any technical profession, is based solely on technology. How much a given worker knows about a technology, how skilled they are at both applying it to a given situation, and resolving issues as they occur, etc.

However, that’s not necessarily true. According to our CEO Earl Foote, success in this world is dependent on how well you support your team — not just as skilled individuals, but as people in their own right.

“What’s most important to us is people developing themselves as people,” says Earl. “Developing their technical capabilities is important, but what has been most pivotal is people developing themselves as people.”

Jen Anderson of Today’s Top Leaders interviews Earl Foote, CEO of Nexus IT Consultants, in the second part of this podcast. Check out this installment of the interview here:

In the course of the podcast, Earl and Jen discussed a range of topics surrounding the IT world as a workplace. Earl drew on his many years of experience as a leader and manager in the space to offer valuable insight into the state of the IT work world.

Key takeaways include:

  • Generalization To Specialization: Whereas at one point, someone with general IT skills would be capable of managing a given IT environment, as time goes on, more complex and specific areas of skill are becoming more important. Cybersecurity, cloud management, and compliance are key areas of interest, in which there is a general shortage of adequately skilled workers.
  • Culture Is Key: Employee satisfaction and engagement are just as important, if not more so than their degree of skill. It’s critical that you develop a business culture that promotes teamwork, work ethic, and accountability, at all levels of the organization’s hierarchy.
  • Education Needs To Keep Pace With Industry: To ensure future success and growth in the industry, it’s important for technical institutes and other sources of IT education to stay in line with the development of the industry as a whole. In his position, Earl notes the lack of specialized and skilled workers entering the IT industry that can fill much-needed roles in cybersecurity and compliance.

The bottom line is that the more you invest in your employees and your work culture, the better your business will become. The more valued your staff feels, the more likely they’ll stay, as well as contribute to a high-quality service offering and engaged workplace culture.

To learn more, make sure to check out the full interview from Today’s Top Leaders above.