Fostering The Personal Connection

Clive Hawkins, IT Director at Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific

Clive Hawkins, IT Director at Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific

The perception persists that IT professionals are overwhelmingly task-oriented people: introverts who prefer dealing with machines than people. While there are some compelling reasons for the stereotype, the work we do does not dictate the type of people we are.

Even though most of our work is machine-related, we must remember the most important aspects of our work involve interaction with others.

Connecting with your team

I am the Senior Director of IT at Wyndham Destinations Asia Pacific, part of Wyndham Destinations, a business line of Travel + Leisure Co., the world’s largest membership and leisure travel company. I have led the team since joining the company in 2007; over the years, that role has evolved.

We have expanded into different markets, and my team has become international. I have learnt about other cultures and how to manage remotely. We work increasingly in an environment where data security is critical, automation is common, office hot desking is a reality, and more work is conducted from home or on the road than ever before.

In this environment of remote working and artificial intelligence, i still find the ability to build personal connections has never been more important

In this environment of remote working and artificial intelligence, I still find the ability to build personal connections has never been more important.

Leadership continues to be an undervalued trait, particularly in information technology. As a team leader, I quickly learnt that everyone in our field is different, and you have to understand them to motivate them successfully. Many leaders treat their team members as they would want to be treated; I made this mistake early with a team by empowering them and letting them do their work, as leadership theory teaches. It turned out some people felt abandoned! By all means, people must be treated with courtesy, but different people will require different interactions with their leaders.

However, I still believe strongly in empowering my team and trusting them to complete their work; micro-managing does not yield satisfactory results. I also think it is important that people understand why they are doing what they do. Knowing why raises the importance of work and demonstrates to your team members their own impact. It also helps prioritize; the more of, the bigger picture we understand, the easier it becomes for us to determine our priorities.

Every week, I compile a weekly newsletter for my team at Wyndham. At first, it was a way to inform the team about who was working on what. Then I slipped some personal information at the bottom – for example, a brief line about holidays people had enjoyed – and I realised my team read those personal tidbits first. I turned the newsletter upside down to include those personal notes first, and we added in things like Netflix suggestions and thoughts of the week. It was just a small idea, but it has been invaluable in helping us understand each other and collaborate together, and it showed me better than anything the value of the personal connection among my own team.

Connecting upline and planning

Being able to connect with key decision-makers within your business is a vital part of strategic planning. These executive leaders can help you understand the bigger picture and shape your priorities.

Unfortunately, funds are not bottomless, so there will always be an opportunity cost. As IT professionals, we are quite often at the cusp of where technology is moving. Thoroughly understanding our business’ big picture – and the cost – will help us put together compelling cases for technology.

However, even then, not everything can be rolled out at once. Part of growing a personal connection with others is having patience and realising that an opportune moment may emerge down the track for the business to adopt your suggestions rather than in that moment. In IT, that moment frequently emerges when legacy technology has to be replaced.

Relationships are extremely important when it comes to remaining up-to-date and considering technology that is ahead of the curve. I investigate widely myself, but I rely heavily on suggestions from innovation partners, including my own team and our suppliers within the marketplace.

Connecting with account managers

Relationships with account managers from other companies should not be just one-way but, rather, something that is fostered over time.

From time to time, account managers will look for opportunities to showcase customers, and these represent great win-win opportunities to build your brand. Some of my account managers have become professional friends – the relationship always remains professional, but we have collaborated, shared ideas, and improved the benefits both businesses draw from the relationship. They can be an underestimated source of innovation.

Tips for start-ups looking to forge connections

More than many other industries, the IT space features start-up businesses – some of which regrettably disappear after just a short period of time. Often this is because they have not been able to develop the connections to keep business coming through the door.

When I have looked at suppliers or service providers for some of our bigger projects, I often look at the price and whether a company is capable of delivering on a promise. It is only practical to try to reduce risk; sometimes, that involves choosing a business with a track record.

But start-ups stepping into an unfamiliar space can usurp bigger players by focusing on developing relationships. Start-ups also have a size advantage in providing greater personalised care and service than a big company can. For example, sometimes, we will deliberately choose a smaller player we know can deliver results because we want to be valued as their biggest customer and derive additional flexibility from this arrangement.

When selecting whether to go with established players or start-ups, we pay closest attention to who will be most interested in the needs of our business. We seek innovation from suppliers and partners, so we will strongly consider those who investigate our business and ask questions.

While we as IT professionals are perceived to be excellent at detail, building relationships with our teams and each other is just as critical if we want long-term and strategic stability. Excelling at increasingly prevalent artificial intelligence is no substitute for knowing how to foster personal connection.