8 Essential Skills You Need to Master to Succeed as an IT Service Professional

Staying reliable and relevant in this age, where technology is changing every minute, can be a daunting task. While companies should match their pace with this “digital transformation,” individual professionals cannot afford to stay behind either.

Being current and competitive is the need of the hour, and for serving this need, more businesses are turning their focus towards a customer-centric orientation. Well, this shift in orientation can directly impact their personal requirement, and they might want to deploy an IT Service Management team which can eliminate errors and provide cost-effective and efficient solutions for delivering services to the customer on time.

Therefore, to be on the top of their game, IT Service Professionals and those aspiring to become one should acquire the following set of skills.

1.    Automation and Artificial Intelligence

Using automated services such as chatbots, virtual assistants, automated operators and agents, ITSM professionals can establish a mechanism to deal with mundane queries and repetitive tasks. The time saved can be further used in pro-active and value-added work by the support team.

By learning the right skill-set from authentic courses such as ITIL Certification, IT Service Managers can further excel into making well-informed decisions by exploiting larger data sources through data mining and analysis.

However, an ITSM manager cannot solely depend on Artificial Intelligence and needs equal human support. Therefore, he/she needs to master some skills to deal with human resource as a manager too.

2.    Business Knowledge

A good ITSM manager is the one who is well-versed with the technical know-how along with the “business” aspects of the business such as keeping in line with the business goals, vision, and make profits. ITSM is no longer the back-end operations cell of the business unit but works as its partner, which ultimately requires it to develop an effective strategy.

In future, even ITSM will have to deliver what the business value expects it to and, probably they will come up with a name for ITSM’s business-focused services soon, as a professional one cannot ignore the importance of the IT services reflecting in the returns of a company.

3.    Establishing Customer Relationships

Not just the business, establishing a good relationship with the customers by imparting a pleasant experience is also one skill-set an IT Service Manager should possess. The links of the customers with the IT department, services, and customer services offered by the business are extremely important to make the clientele feel belonged.

These relationships can target the enhancement of either end-user experience, employee experience, or service experience. Whatever the perspective is, ultimately, the manager who is able to align the customer, business, and employee expectation is the one who stands out in the crowd.

4.    The ability to Communicate and Collaborate

People, process, and technology has been the process mantra of the ITSM over the years. However, it is the people aspect of their job that has been given the least importance. Now, things are about to change.

ITSM professionals will now have to focus on people as much as anything else, and it is by stupendous communication and collaboration skills that they will be able to manage small teams that work towards a similar goal. It is only the ones who will be ahead in the team game that will make the cut.

5.    Change Management

One question that every IT service professional has to entertain every time the software comes up with the new upgrade is- what’s in it for me? Well, with technology changing at a fast pace, the business cannot afford to lag, and the updates now and then are required.

The regular digital transformation needs the IT pros to keep their socks up at all times and focus on business objectives, workflows, and IT activity. That is, the team should be well-equipped with satisfactory responses to each query, and it is through the pro-active behavior of the manager to study and communicate the change and the value it adds to the product that a successful IT service management can be achieved.

6.    Dealing with Problems

No manger, no matter at which level he/she is, cannot prophesy what problem may arise in this dynamic environment. While the business might take time to correct the problem, it is the IT service team that is required to help customers maintain their calm. Therefore, an IT service manager should encourage a free problem-solving culture in order to empower them when needed.

So, the managers who look beyond the blame-game and instead focus on the problem at hand and deriving a quick and effective solution are the ones who excel.

7.    Innovation and Learning Abilities

An IT service professional is no good when she/he has no zeal to learn and incorporate a free culture in which new-blood has a say. The reason being, ongoing learning promotes a flexible thinking process and the ability to accept new views, and ways to do a job shows the integration of the workforce. Both of these combine to bring in innovative changes in the ways the team works.

Moreover, if the manager is open to learning about more the advancing market has to offer, she/he will better be able to grab the tangible opportunities than lurking about imaginary ideas that have no scope.

8.    Interpersonal Skills

Today, no professional can survive without a perfect set of interpersonal skills because, in this day and age, communicating with the internal executives, stakeholders, and staff is as important as communicating with the clients or customers. Whether or not the other individuals understand what goes on in IT services cell, an IT services manager should know how to work in collaboration with them.

By being transparent, accountable, and motivated, the ITSM will be able to earn the trust of the stakeholders. This is required to remain in service of business for long. The more others consider IT department accessible, the better interpersonal skills will the manager portray.

In brief, it is not an easy task to stand out as an ITSM professional with the sky-rocketing competition. However, the ones who learn the right skills such as change management, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence, Problem Solving, and how to align the interests of the IT service department with that of the business will go a long way.