Could the tech talent shortage be solved short-term through career latticing technique?
Maybe so, if employers were willing to think outside the box of their own four walls about how to employ scarce web engineers.
“Think global, hire local,” urges tech exec Matt Asay. If tech-driven companies in Silicon Valley and New York can’t find enough developers, maybe they should consider hiring them wherever they find them and simply managing them virtually. After all, argues Asay, if it makes business sense to outsource to another continent, doesn’t it make even more sense to create virtual teams who live in other states?
This is too logical to not happen, which means that the ability to manage virtual teams will soon be emerging as critical for tech project managers. Leading people you can’t see is a completely different skill from managing those whom you can directly observe hammering away at their keyboards and scowling at their screens.
But leading a virtual team builds such management skills as:
- managing results
- recognizing quality
- streamlining communications
- using organic advantages, such as having workers in different time zones, to meet goals
Employers will have to stretch their definitions of successful team management to include virtual leadership. They will soon find that a roster of managers who can lead ‘anywhere’ teams will open up a new world of possibilities for recruiting and retaining tech talent.