Introduction
My current position affords me two types of leadership positions. While I do not manage people directly I manage both a project and a job function. I am responsible for working alongside IT professionals to automate a good chunk of my job function that is now done manually. The IT professional meets with me to find out my needs and wants. He then takes this information and writes the appropriate code to make the system work the way that I need it too. I am responsible to make sure he understands the importance of why we need what I am asking for and then I review what he has done prior to any implementation. I am qualified to manage this project even though I do not have an IT background. Past experience in working on automated systems in prior companies has taught me what is possible to achieve. In addition, having been in my line of work for more than 15 years has given me the knowledge of what we need this system to do in order to make our customers happy and properly maintain our records.
On another note I also manage my job function. In most large companies the role that I fill is performed by various teams of people. The company I work for is on the smaller side so the volume of work is significantly less than that of a larger company. I am the only person who performs my function. If I am ill or on vacation my job does not get done by anyone else. I see every trade through from beginning to end. If I am not here the customer simply has to wait until I get back. I get calls regularly from customers looking for contact information within my company. When the customer finds out that the contact is myself for all functions they are looking for they are usually quite surprised. My extensive experience ...