The goal and danger for you is that you would want to be the leader/facilitator of the group, not the authoritative voice of right and wrong. Your job is to get the community talking to others in a way that’s best for the company and hopefully for them personally. If you try to impose your points of view or personal agenda on the community it can easily sour and dramatically hurt your reputation within the company. Your internal visibility and value to the company will rise as the value of the community gains strength, activity, and momentum. Certainly be an active participant in the group, but don’t be its dictator.
What’s interesting about starting and helping run these types of communities, whether inside or outside your company, even if you do it with no thought of personal gain, is that it’s truly incredible how much it can benefit you personally:
• You will meet and get to know people you otherwise, most likely, would have never met.
• You will become a more knowledgeable professional, almost by osmosis, just by reading people’s posts, answering people’s questions, and being central to the concerns, issues, and triumphs of those doing work similar to your own.
• You will learn how to be a leader, even if you don’t aspire to attain a leadership role.
• Lastly, you will have the satisfaction of doing something good for the world, by helping the careers of those you work with, your IT organization, and your company as a whole.
If you have any questions about your career in IT, please email me at
eric@ManagerMechanics.com or find me on Twitter at @EricPBloom.
Until next time, work hard, work smart, and continue to grow.
Read more of Eric Bloom's Your IT Career blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Eric on Twitter at @EricPBloom. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.
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