This is a column I wrote for Systems Management News that I am reposting here.

Being a manager in IT is an challenging and often thankless job, but there are steps that we can take to make things better. Making things better though involves keeping multiple things in mind - the company, our team, and ourselves. To get things going in "The Savvy Manager," let's look at these components and some of the issues we should have in our thoughts.

In case you have not noticed in the navigation, I started writing a column called "The Savvy Manager" for Systems Management News. The magazine is targeted at system administrators, data center managers, and similar people. It is a new magazine being published by the same company that does SD Times, one of the more reputable trade mags in the industry. My column focuses on the management side of the audience and will cover subjects like business-IT alignment, personal professional development, staff professional development, relationship management, and similar subjects.