IT Employment

Titles don't really convey much without knowing the context, so it is hard to say what skills are needed for a Director of Operations.

In a company with a small operations staff, everyone may require technical expertise. This is especially true when the business decisions and personnel decisions (hire/fire, salary) are handled outside the operations organization.

As the operations staff becomes larger then business and managerial skills become more important for whoever is responsible for the operations.

A large part of the issue is the idea that the manager is compensated more than the staff. While I suspect this is true more often than not, this is not always the case. I have been in organizations where the lowest paid individual happened to be the manager. It is a question of value and market. At that time, replacing the manager would have been easier than replacing the technical personnel.

The job discription for Director of Operations should define the critical skills.

I've found that the higher you go in management,the more people skills become important. You're dealing with both management levels above you and with your department staff, as well as your peer managers. Different groups require different handling and occasionally some finesse. People with few interpersonal skills will usually manage to upset the apple cart, so to speak.

It sounds as though this person is giving you some problems. Maybe he was passed over for promotion and thinks yourjob should have been his??? If this is the case, there was probably a very good reason. More than likely that same lack of people skills we have been discussing.

You are now in a management position. This does not require you to know "everything about everything" under your pervue.

A manager does not need to be an expert on every skill set of every person he manages. A successful manager usually has at least a working knowledge of those skill sets. An astute manager recognizes what the limitations of his expertise are, and seeks out out those people that have more expertise. These are the people you rely on on when questions arise require skills/expertise outside of your experience.

It is your job to be able to manage these "experts" and know who to turn to for specific expertise.

Your technical knowledge and experience will still be needed, because these skills will allow you to discern whether any of these "experts" are trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

As the Director of Operations, how is your time spent?

If your time is spent planning the workflow, deploying the staff, and attending meetings, your technical skills are of secondary importance.

A managers technical skills need to be sufficient that they can know what is possible, and know when their staff is feeding them false information.

People, Business, and Orginizational skills are the primary criteria for a good manager.

Many a good Technician or Engineer has been ruined by being moved into management.

Chas