CIO OPINION
Let me be a bit provocative and say that technology – although it ’ s moving fast – is the easy bit .
Sjourd Wijdeveld , Chief Information Officer at Trivium Packaging
Working in IT : Why emotional intelligence is critical
Sjourd Wijdeveld , Chief Information Officer at Trivium Packaging , discusses the skills an IT professional needs to safeguard their workplace and ensure their role remains impactful .
A job in Information Technology ( IT ) today looks vastly different from just a few years ago . While IT was once a separate function in a business addressing operation and support tasks , now , it is a fully integrated business team .
Developments of new technologies are going at record speeds in today ’ s world . The introduction of OpenAI ’ s ChatGPT is a good example , which reached over 100 Mio users within two months globally . This not only requires IT professionals to stay ‘ on top of their game ’ in keeping up with technology developments , but also build strong relations across an organisation to work together on the adoption of these new technologies .
IT professionals require a high level of skill and strong emotional intelligence to adopt and implement new strategies while balancing the legalities and ethics of tech with no former blueprint for success .
So , what skills does an IT professional need to safeguard their workplace and ensure their role is impactful in this new digital and technology-led landscape ?
IT is everywhere
Basic technology skills are no longer just within the purview of IT professionals . Most positions in any company require a certain amount of technology knowledge . Take communications as an example . Sophisticated analytics enable a greater understanding of how messages are received , but also require people with the right skills to put the analytics into actions that will improve communications .
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