Update note – we recently created a 2.0 version of this article which provides a newer perspective on IT Workplace trends. We invite you to read the newer version and provide comments or questions.

Leadership in information technology-centred workplaces has become an ever-changing avenue, especially throughout the course of the last decade. In such an expertise-driven environment, it can be easy to put your head down, focus on the task at hand and begin to ignore workplace development, communication and employee engagement.

While types of IT workplaces now vary wildly, there are some key components you can foster to create a more successful IT workplace. Here are three factors to nurture:

Focus More on Your Clients

You might be able to say this of most modern industries but, for the successful IT workplace, it matters doubly so. With large to small businesses, web infrastructures and households relying on a myriad of IT devices and interfaces on a daily basis, client focus is incredibly important. Quick response times to customer inquiries – especially outages, user issues and complaints – can turn a customer on the fence into a brand ambassador.

Avoid colloquial excuses for issues and be up front with clients, especially if they have a history of positive sentiment for your company. At the same time, use email signatures that highlight the person they’re talking to. Never make them feel like their trapped in canned responses.

Leadership that Cultivates Personal Growth

A successful IT workplace sees employees as a key asset. The level of expertise and ability developed in your team directly impacts the quality and stability of the company’s output. Staff, managers and directors need to understand and value this fact. Acknowledging individual and team successes is an important part of building a winning team.

Help your team members advance, by aiding in their skill development and grooming them to succeed, instead of carving out static positions in your company that stunt improvement and advancement. To build a successful IT workplace, you have to build a team that feels like they all have agency within the group. Regular collaboration and responsibility ownership can go a long way. Let them know and feel like there are getting to make decisions, instead of being told what to do.

Build Communication, Instead of Just Using It

Build your team’s collective intelligence, by creating and updating direct lines of communication. Rather than creating a framed hierarchy for communications, successful IT workplaces readily update practices and cross-disseminate ideas and feedback across teams and departments. If an employee needs to work out the kinks in their own communication skills, facilitate that: don’t just wait around for them to get better.

Successful IT workplaces harbor a sense of teamwork that is integrated into everything they do. While it’s difficult for those at larger organizations to know everything each other is working on, smaller teams should be aware of what a regular day looks like for the rest of the group. Building these progressive workplace relationships fosters a solidarity that greatly improves satisfaction, worker retention and output.