Awareness of Pitfalls - Limited social skills
For the most part, IT staff members are not the most socially skilled group of people. Nicknames like nerds, geeks, etc. have been, for the most par, well-earned over the years. For example, I have in the past had to coach junior IT staff members who had been unable to make eye contact when talking to attractive female staff that the eyes they should be trying to contact were a good one to two feet above where they spent most of the time staring. Then we wonder why IT staffs have been called creepy in the past. Granted, most IT teams are made up predominantly of introverts, but it is your responsibility to figure out how these groups can effectively communicate with customers. You need to help them define communication strategies that work. You need to aim to be comfortable with every member of your team being client-facing! Yes, even the developer you feed pizza and highly-caffeinated soda to. Overcome their social awkwardness and help your team view customers as people, and have your customers realize that your team are people too!
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