| | March 201719UTLOOK Healthcare Tech someone admin level access up to the senior folks on your team and to deliberately leave it an informal process. At the senior level, they own their environment and should know best about something that is incredibly hard to gauge as a manager with our own perceptions and biases. And in the long run, they will be responsible for fixing whatever this person does wrong. The "Guy"Every vendor has a "guy" somewhere. This is the person that has worked there since their garage startup days and understands things about their product that no one else does. If you have a problem with a certain product that has gone on too long, you need to find this person. The "guy" will take it personally and be excited that you have found a bug in their system. They will welcome the opportunity to dive into the complexities required to resolve it. A warning: Be prepared to be deservedly humiliated if your escalated problem isn't truly a problem but something stupid you did. Interestingly, when you ask about the "guy", your vendor will instinctively know who this is Other things to look for in Technical PeopleThere are many, but I want to point out a few that I always look for. The biggest red flag for me is the technical people with a dedicated fervor about an operating system, manufacturer, or application. What this means to me is that their field of expertise is narrow, and if you have to make a quick left as an organization, they are worthless in that effort. I prefer folks who may be very experienced at certain things, but have enough general knowledge to pretty much "figure it out". Another is folks who don't have some sort of plan to perpetually self-educate. This is a clear indicator of their passion for their craft. This could simply be subscribing to trade rags or attending regular meetings of a shared knowledge group. Techs need to compare notes with others and have a sounding board for their ideas with people who get what they are talking about. This is critical in our business as things change so quickly. I insist on this on every person in my team and do it for myself. Last is folks who can't immediately answer where their function stands in the overall big picture. This could be poor communication from management, but even then, they should have some general idea. In my book, failure to do so basically means that they either don't care, or haven't taken the time to consider their impact on your organization. I have been collecting hundreds of these little observations for years and am never wanting for more examples to fill the pages. The way I see it, it's our job to identify these folks, place them in the right positions, and to make sure they have what they need. That way we all succeed together. HTIt's critical as a manager to collect their information and consider it carefully
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