Building a Successful Technology Support

Building a Successful Technology Support Team

This paper presents a discussion about what it takes to build an effective technology support team. The writer explores the personality issues that can arise and how they impact the relationships within the technical staff as well as outside of the technical staff. There were two sources used to complete this paper.

Building a strong and successful technology support team is important to just about any company in the world today. Technology handles so many aspects of business today, that to have the technology fail to operate can be very costly for even the smallest company. For this reason it is important to have a strong, successful technology team in place so when something does occur it can be addressed quickly and efficiently. Building such a team takes a combination of locating those who are technically capable and knowledgeable and making sure they have the type of personalities that can serve a team effort.

Who They Are When building the team it is important to choose team members based on their education, knowledge and skills. If one section of the team consists of software experts it is important to locate additional team members who are strong in other areas including networking, hardware and peripherals. Having a well rounded team of experts who can address any aspect of a company's technological needs is the first step to building a successful technology support team, however, it is only the beginning. In addition, the company must be sure to put a team in place that works well together, both with other team members and with people outside of technology support.

Experts agree that many problems associated with the idea of team development are founded in the personalities of the team members and how they interact with each other. If team members do not work well together the team is weakened and the overall impact will cause the company to suffer the consequences (Personality and the Team (http://www.teambuildinginc.com/services5_retreats_personality.htm).

There are several problems that can have a significantly negative impact on teams when individual personalities clash.

Members who dominate discussions are a common problem in teams today. Sometimes personalities are overbearing and there are one or two team members who try to speak the entire time the team is meeting. This not only creates resentment among other team members, but it also can cause the team to miss out on valuable suggestions and insights from team members who are not a dominating during the team meetings (Personality and the Team (http://www.teambuildinginc.com/services5_retreats_personality.htm).

While putting together a successful technology support team it is important to find team members who are willing to speak up and voice their opinions but are also willing to sit back and allow other team members to voice their thoughts as well.

It is also important to locate team members who are adept at bringing projects to closure. While there are many people who like to constantly tweak and work on a project, in the business world every minute down is a dollar lost, therefore the team members must have personalities that can see projects through to the end quickly and efficiently (Personality and the Team (http://www.teambuildinginc.com/services5_retreats_personality.htm).

While technology support team members may not agree on every aspect of a project or a problem it is important that the members of the team are able to discuss, debate and decide how a problem will be approached and solved. Without the ability to do so the company will hang in the balance waiting for someone to fix what is wrong.

Finally the team members must show each other respect, both within the team and when talking to people outside of the team.

When putting together the best technology support team possible it is important to balance personality types so that the team can work as one unit comprised of individual elements.

Outside of the Team

When team members are able to work together, share the workload and decision making and help each other achieve success the company will benefit from such a union, however, it is also important that the members of a team are able to communicate outside of the group successfully.

Technology support team members often work at the desk and workstations of other employees (Newman, Teresa. Leadership: Leveraging Personalities to Create Powerful Teams (http://www.detroitchamber.com/detroiter/articles.asp?cid=103&detcid=388).Those employees may be short tempered or stressed out because their computer or other technological device is down and they are not able to get their work completed. It is important the technology support team members are chosen for their ability to interact with others in a professional calm manner and help to diffuse any stress that is being experienced.

According to Vice President of Marketing for Teresa Newman, for Project Innovative Incorporated personality blending on a team is one of the most vital components for success (Newman, Teresa. Leadership: Leveraging Personalities to Create Powerful Teams (http://www.detroitchamber.com/detroiter/articles.asp?cid=103&detcid=388).