You're falling behind on the latest IT service trends. How can you catch up and stay ahead of the game?

Staying up to date with the current tech trends and developments is crucial. Following influential people and trends is a good place to start. You must push past the latest hype cycle and think long term. The latest and most hyped trends might not be the best for your company or team. An example would be the latest trend to bring cloud based services back into the enterprise. This illustrated that a better cost structure and SLAs can be on your own team and infrastructure. Take the long term view — what is best for your company and team? Make the right choice based on where you are now with a thought to the future.

It's essential to stay current with IT service trends if you want to keep up with the quickly changing IT scene. Your plan of joining professional networks, subscribing to credible IT news sources, and following prominent IT thought leaders on social media is excellent. It is true that these steps will yield insightful information about cutting-edge approaches and technologies. It occasionally offers the chance to talk about and work together on subjects of interest.

In my career spanning various fields and industries, I've learned that continuous and broad learning is crucial. While some colleagues became experts in specific environments, due to the nature of my earlier field engineering and services ownership efforts, I was lucky to be forced to continually explore associated but different areas which greatly expanded my skillset. This approach builds a diverse toolbox that's invaluable when new challenges arise. Don't just deepen your current expertise; broaden it by learning something related but distinct from your daily focus. This ensures your growth on a wide range of skills to hone and deploy when needed, making you more adaptable and valuable in the ever-evolving IT landscape.

Continuous learning is a must in technology and in leadership. You should take ownership in your career path and coach your team to reach their long term goals. Take a people first approach.

Maintaining your competitive edge and relevance in the IT business requires a certain attitude towards lifelong learning and unlearning. Webinars, certificates, and online courses are all great ways to increase your knowledge and abilities. Considering the importance of cloud computing, analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and security in today's tech world, and customising your education to concentrate on these and other important topics.

Indeed, networking is essential to being competitive in the IT sector. Attending conferences, workshops, and seminars can help you develop relationships that may open up new opportunities and provide insightful knowledge about developing trends. Being involved in a professional community guarantees that you'll always be exposed to new viewpoints and creative concepts.

Have the courage to try new tools, technologies, and processes. You could opt for pilot projects to see how they work for your team and company. The newest low-code or no code AI based solutions are perfect candidates. Look to implement a high value low effort project or POC — something that provides excellent business benefits.

A leader should always be on the lookout for opportunities to innovate, whether they require more or less work. Set priorities for your efforts and don't let them take precedence over other tasks. It is the responsibility of the leader to clarify and convince others of the positive benefits of innovation, that requires the support of every level of the hierarchy. These projects constantly assess the capability and inventiveness of your team.

Quando se trabalha com tecnologias legadas pode ser sempre um desafio adicionar inova??o, porém com novas estratégias de desacoplamento é possível aos poucos ir experimentando adicionar novas tecnologias dentro de sistemas legados. Utilizar novas tecnologias em outras áreas da empresa também é uma op??o para trazer o novo para a tecnologia sem colocar em risco o sistema core

As a technology leader, it is paramount to evaluate all of your proof-of-concepts. How flexible and adaptable is it? How does the team, including the business, deal with the change? What value did it bring?

The use of technology and tools is only a small portion of adaptation. The ongoing evaluation of usage or engagement reports aids in assessing the degree of adaption. You may maintain your IT services at the forefront of innovation by making well-informed judgements based on a constant evaluation of what works and what doesn't.

In my experience, I have profited greatly by focusing on high-value, overarching topics with enduring fundamentals applicable across IT. For myself, breadth and depth in cybersecurity, organizational development, managed services, and broad infrastructure knowledge (both cloud and on-premises) remain consistently relevant. The key is to continually refine and adapt these fundamental skills to modern IT challenges. For sure, we should consider AI a core skill crucial for your future success. By mastering core areas and applying them across various IT challenges, you ensure your expertise remains valuable. Remember, the ability to apply timeless principles to emerging technologies is what truly keeps you ahead in this dynamic field.