The role of an intranet manager is very new, and most intranet managers only started on this career path in the last five to ten years. Intranet managers come from all walks of life and have very different skills.

Because of this, the role of intranet manager is not well defined. The key skills needed by intranet managers fall into a few broad categories:

• technical skills
• business acumen
• leadership

In reality, very few intranet managers are competent in all these areas. However there are many opportunities for intranet managers to learn and grow. From our experience, the common attributes of successful intranet managers are:

1. ability to create and foster personal networks
2. ability to deliver
3. a thick skin
4. ability to achieve customer-focused outcomes
5. consistently striving to improve
6. knowing how to let go of content
7. being pragmatic in decision making
8. displaying self-confidence
9. harnessing the power of the organisation
10. having an effective sponsor

In this article we define these attributes and outline two methods for intranet managers to improve these crucial skills.

[Read the full article by Catherine Grenfell]