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Introduction
It’s no secret that IT is always evolving. After all, the “T” stands for technology, and we all know how fast that moves. Add artificial intelligence (AI) into the mix, and the pace of change only accelerates. With these advancements, it’s no surprise that IT team structures have also evolved to keep up.
That’s why strong leadership in IT is more important than ever. It takes a unique skill set to not only manage a team but also adapt to new technologies and guide others through constant change. To dive deeper into this topic, we sat down with Charles IT’s Director of Professional Services, Dereck Jacques, to discuss what it takes to build and lead IT teams in the age of AI.
The Journey into IT Leadership
Dereck may be an IT expert now, but his path into the field was anything but traditional. He originally went to college to become a pharmacist, but when that didn’t pan out, he pivoted to athletic training instead. All the while, though, he was working with computers and technology on the side.
“I realized if I was taking my free time to do that, it's probably something that would be good to focus on for myself. So, I switched my major…and found a job in a school system,” Dereck recalled.
After finishing school, Dereck launched his IT career within that same school system but quickly saw limited opportunities for growth. That’s when he found Charles IT. Starting as a technician, he was immediately drawn to the private sector’s fast-paced environment, not to mention the ability to work with PCs instead of Macs. As Charles IT grew, so did the need for more teams, and Dereck was tapped to lead the company’s third team. His success in that role led to even more growth, both for Charles IT and for his own career.
“We had started to split off some other avenues of our business as we as we were growing, the team pod and the team lead structure that we had didn't function anymore, mainly because we, the team leads at that point were very, very hard individuals to source,” Dereck explained. “We needed to understand the ROIs and the business sense of what was going on both internally and externally. And we're going at a pace that, that individual that had all those skills put together was really difficult to find.”
This led to the creation of a dedicated projects team, among other structural changes, and Dereck stepped into the role of Director of Professional Services to lead these new initiatives. Today, he continues to help shape the company’s evolving IT strategy.
Challenges in Leadership and Team-Building
While Dereck’s journey from a technical role to a leadership position may sound seamless, he admits it was actually one of the biggest challenges he faced in team building and leadership.
“I was a very technical person. I could sit down and troubleshoot issues in people's networks and servers, but up to that point, I hadn't actually led other individuals or managed them,” Dereck admitted.
Fortunately, he found great leadership and mentors at Charles IT who helped him learn and grow into his role. Their guidance allowed him to find his own leadership style and build confidence in managing a team.
Yet another challenge Dereck highlighted is the constant need to fill gaps in his team as employees progress in their careers, just as he did.
“It's one of the most satisfying pieces about leading and having a team,” Dereck explained, adding, “And the hope there is that you have other people that you're mentoring…that can start to fill those slots as the people towards the top move out and move on to bigger and better things.”
That’s why developing talent from within is so important to him. His goal is for internal hires to be the ones stepping into those open roles, ensuring continuity and growth within the team.
“Team building isn’t just building new teams, it’s rebuilding teams over and over again…So you need to be dynamic on how you fill that need because there will always be the holes,” Dereck said.
Building IT Departments and Key Factors in Structuring IT Teams
At this point, you might be wondering, why all the different teams? Dereck has the answer.
“The driving force behind the teams that I've created have been, I'd say, 90% company growth… We had that client base that was growing, and we wanted to be able to give our clients that personalized touch. So, having a subset of our techs needing to know only a subset of our clients let them be really personal with them,” he explained.
As Charles IT continued to grow, the need for specialization became even more apparent too.
Dereck continued, “We took the project execution and quoting out of the service teams and put them into a dedicated team. So, we can again continue to scale but also be able to give that service that our clients expect and that we want to be able to deliver.”
From there, more teams were formed to focus on specific areas like internal support, product development, and prospect support. By breaking these functions into separate teams, members could concentrate on their core responsibilities without being pulled in multiple directions.
Most recently, Dereck built a Managed Security Team in response to the evolving cybersecurity landscape, particularly in the post-COVID world.
“At Charles IT, we've always been pretty focused on security, but we wanted to make sure that we had dedicated professionals with dedicated security backgrounds handling all those security alerts that are coming in,” he said.
But creating a team isn’t just about identifying a need and filling it, it requires careful structuring to ensure efficiency. Dereck believes that starts with communication.
“You see a lot of organizations with managers of managers and mid-management, upper management, C-level, and you end up with eight layers of people that need to be communicated to, to get anything done. And the CEO makes a decision, and you're six people through playing telephone by the time it makes it down to somebody sitting at a desk. So, we work really hard to keep a fairly flat organization so that communication can happen really efficiently,” Dereck said.
For him, that means meeting with the strategy team, Charles IT’s top-level team, every Monday morning before sitting down with other managers to discuss the company’s direction and vision for the week, quarter, and year.
At the same time, communication needs to flow both ways.
“It doesn't do us any good if we set a vision at the top, and by the time it's being executed by the techs that are helping our clients, if it's not working, we need to know about it,” Dereck explained.
Keeping teams aligned with company goals requires constant movement and adaptability.
AI’s Role in IT Team Development
So where does AI fit into all this? For Dereck, it’s all about making his team more efficient. That means leveraging AI to handle administrative tasks so employees can focus on meaningful work.
“They want to be helping the client, they want to be talking to them, they want to be fixing their problems. And that's where AI enables them to do those types of things rather than focusing on the kind of maintenance items and simple things that otherwise would be taking up their time,” Dereck said.
Another key use of AI is for data collection and trend analysis, helping to improve client service. Instead of manually digging through tons of past tickets to find what went wrong, AI helps techs get straight to the problem, making troubleshooting faster and more accurate.
Of course, AI isn’t without its setbacks. For Dereck, one of the biggest hurdles is managing expectations around what AI can actually do. Many people might not realize that AI models need proper training, and even after implementation, there’s still work to be done to ensure they provide reliable insights.
“We're expecting it to just revolutionize everything immediately and weren't putting forth that extra bit of effort, and either giving up on it immediately, or doing a whole lot of wrong things out of the gate because they just assumed that whatever it was spitting out to them was correct,” Dereck emphasized.
At the end of the day, whether it’s for business scalability or improving workflow efficiency, Dereck’s goal is to use AI to help employees not replace them.
So yeah… don’t implement AI and then fire people.
Or as Dereck puts it, “Implement AI and let that other half of your team either support your clients better, do better things, do more things, or just help scale your business at the same time without needing to continue to add on additional resources to your teams.”
Advice for Aspiring IT Leaders and the Future of AI in IT Team Structuring
It’s clear that Dereck knows what he’s doing when it comes to building and leading IT teams, whether AI is involved or not. So, he has some solid advice for anyone looking to step into an IT leadership role or build a successful team.
“I think the biggest trap a lot of people run into when trying to move into a leadership position in IT is you need to understand there's a whole new set of skills that you need to learn,” Dereck admitted.
In IT specifically, being technically skilled doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to manage and motivate people. But there’s a way to bridge that gap.
“You need to humble yourself a little bit and say, ‘OK, I'm moving into something brand new. I need to be open. I need to make sure that I'm learning and asking as many questions as I possibly can,’ and hitting as many different sources for information as you can,” Dereck explained.
And that learning will likely include understanding how to integrate AI into leadership and team structuring. Dereck believes AI will continue to play a growing role in trend analysis and decision-making, ultimately improving client satisfaction.
“The overall crunching of a ton of data in making determinations and finding trends and patterns out of it, I think is going to really drive a ton of efficiency and more satisfaction out of especially the service businesses like ours, where it is important to deliver good service as quick as we possibly can, and as effectively as we possibly can” Dereck explained, adding, “It’ll just make it a better experience for everybody.”
As AI continues to evolve, IT professionals should embrace its potential while prioritizing strong leadership, communication, and team-building skills.
What’s your take? How do you see AI shaping IT leadership and team development? Drop your thoughts in the comments!
