Some of you may have asked this question to yourselves in the past.

This is an image I put together that depicts a situation I've encountered throughout my career — only with different players and slightly different circumstances.

I've spent almost all of my corporate career in IT leadership and management positions and one thing that I've heard from people again and again is that I'm an IT type but I "get it". In the beginning this didn't make a lot of sense but it sounded good. As I managed more and more IT professionals, ranging from hard-core infrastructure types to developers, the "you get it" started to make sense.

Everyone knows that some people are pretty logical while others seem to be more emotional in nature. That's where the term "right brain" and "left brain" comes from. Usually, left brainers are the analytical types who think, analyze, assess to reach their decisions. As the "you get it" started to make more and more sense, I realized that the IT professionals kind of fall into a unique category of their own.

By nature, they are definitely left brainers. After all, it's their analytical skills that make them IT professionals. However the business types, who are also left brainers, hardly ever see eye-to-eye with IT folks. I've noticed during my career that there seemed to be a disconnect between IT and business types and an inherent distrust that comes with it.

The issue seems to stem from the dramatic difference in their respective focus areas. A business person — in particular, those who are in leadership roles — are bottom line type of people. They see everything as pieces of a puzzle. If taken to the extreme, they see everything as "resources" at their disposal. This may explain where the term "Human Resources" comes from So, most business types don't really care whether a task gets done using technology or people for as long as:

1. Results are delivered
2. Task was handled in the most cost effective manner
3. Last but not least, everything done during the delivery of the task is aligned with their corporate strategies and standards.

This is a perfectly logical stance. Their focus area is the company's bottom line.

On the other hand, IT professionals focus on technology. They're focused on getting things done using their particular technical tools. Taken to the extreme, they're in love with their technical tools as opposed to the results they can achieve using them.

Again, it's no surprise that everyone will use the tools and resources available to them but blindly going to the tools and resources available in every situation is like insisting on using a hammer for a root canal procedure because that's the only tool available.

This seems to be one of the main differences between the business and IT types even though they both spend most of their time using the left side of their brains. Business types realize that they may be missing the proper tools and resources they need, so they go out and get them.

This probably sums up what I've done throughout my career. I've been the bridge between business and technology. I've been the "bi-lingual" one who speaks both business and technology.

I, however, did something that was critical to my being an effective leader. As I was focusing more and more on business side of things, I made the decision not to lose my technical skills. The reason for this was pretty simple. Most IT professionals are highly intelligent people. Taken to the extreme, their intelligence can also produce a certain degree of cockiness. I knew very well — being an IT person myself — I could not lead those IT types unless they respected me as an IT person.

Using the language analogy again, I not only had to speak their language but I had to speak it without an "accent". They had to be convinced that I really was one of them who also spoke business. Not the other way around.

So, here's the moral of the story:

It is critically important for a business leader to have an intimate understanding and hands-on experience on those areas where he/she leads others. This keen appreciation of the subject matter creates mutual respect between the leader and his/her team, and only then, a healthy and functional relationship can be established.