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From 10 Things, here’s a list of IT team leadership styles. IT managers have a poor reputation as managers, but I find that stereotype is not always deserved. All managers have to deal with their periods of fear, overconfidence, and weakness.

My university’s MSIS program helps students develop their leadership and management skills through coursework, especially in the IS 6100 and IS 7010 courses that I teach.

For some students, additional work may be needed outside the classroom. Toastmasters is one way to get public speaking experience, and I highly recommend this group. The meetings are a fun way to network, too.

I’m always surprised when MSIS students tell me they haven’t joined an industry association like the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) or the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Trade groups are an excellent way to network and find jobs. I was a board member of the Honolulu AITP chapter for 3 years. The meetings are interesting, and the coconut job line is alive and well.

Student memberships in some of these groups are an excellent bargain. The ACM includes access to its digital library. It’s a great way to do a literature review without visiting a physical library. The ACM is a global organization, and its placement service lists jobs around the world.

Anyone who studies telecommunications and wants to stay in Hawaii needs to join the Hawaii Telecommunications Association (HTCA). This group holds a conference each October, and their monthly meetings are well attended by CXOs, managers and technologists.

10 Things recently published their own list of essential IT organizations, which provides some more groups.

From two articles in the New York Times: the US government is blocking a buyout of network equipment manufacturer 3Com. Cisco dominates that industry, and 3Com has never recovered from the dot-com bust earlier this decade. Dan Primack posted an article that provides additional insight into the US government’s national security concerns. Boston’s Bain Capital had teamed with Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies in the proposal. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) reviewed the proposal, and was concerned that the Chinese military might try to compromise 3Com’s security software unit, TippingPoint.

From yesterday’s Honolulu Star-Bulletin and today’s Honolulu Advertiser come two reports on a recent poll of Hawaii small and medium-sized businesses. The outlook is not good, with reports of decreasing revenues, and complaints about ill-prepared local high school graduates who cannot handle entry-level jobs.

Sprint announced that it will roll out its no-contract, no-credit-check, no-activation-fee mobile phone plan, Boost Mobile, in Hawaii. Pricing is lower than local operator Mobi PCS, according to this Star-Bulletin article. I discussed Mobi PCS on 21 May 2007. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile have announced US$99 per month unlimited mobile plans, but these require contracts. Contracts are one way to lock-in customers, as I noted earlier today. Competition for mobile phone customers has become more intense in the last few months, as I noted on 26 January 2008.