In the world of IT desk side support technicians there will always be the need for servant leadership. Due to evolving technology and the lack of resources needed to keep IT staff trained for the latest hardware, operating systems, and application software, the manager of support operations needs to be able to provide servant leadership.
It is critical that the manager of support operations makes a conscious choice to place the priority of the support technicians over their own interests (Northouse, 2013). One reason being is the IT support technicians are the face of the IT department. The competence of the IT department is directly reflected in the front line support, which is provided by the support technicians. Failure to resolve issues the first time in a timely manner will reflect poorly on the department and ultimately the organization.
Organizations place service level agreements on IT related issues that need to be met in order to provide quick solutions and prevent minimal impact to the business. The manager of support operations needs to be able to map out an approach to technical issues and create a knowledge base, which the support technicians can reference to find quick solutions. This will minimize research time and reinventing the wheel when troubleshooting issues. The outcome will be faster resolution times for IT issues and guiding and leading the support technicians to solutions.
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice Sixth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA , USA: Sage Publications Inc.