Political savvy is a critical skill for IT executives, who must compete against other business unit leaders when they lobby for project prioritization and budget allocations. But IT professionals often overlook the need to establish effective strategies and determine how best to thwart a nemesis or influence the CEO, according to panelists and attendees at an IT management conference held here yesterday.

"It can kill you" if you"re not politically savvy, said Christine Davis, a former business executive at Texas Instruments and Raytheon who is currently a consultant for Arlington, Mass.-based Cutter Consortium. Cutter sponsored the conference here.

To survive in politically charged organizations, said Davis, it"s imperative to have support not only from your boss but also from the people who are lower down on the corporate organizational chart.

A good staring point is for IT managers know their strengths and weaknesses and then take steps to address any shortcomings in their ability to lead and influence people, said Robina Chatham, a Cutter consultant who is a visiting fellow at the Cranfield University School of Management in Cranfield, England.

The most effective way to influence other managers is through collaboration, said Chris Avery, a Cutter consultant who is a principal at Partnerwerks Inc. in Comfort, Texas. "Research shows that we"re doing more decision-making in groups," said Avery, noting that such models can help IT managers in gaining peer support for initiatives.

Still, he advised IT professionals to "be sharper than the sharks that are out there to gun you down."

A consensus-building approach to decision-making doesn"t always work, said Lou Mazzucchelli, another Cutter consultant, who is also a venture partner at Ridgewood Capital Management LLC in Ridgewood, N.J. For companies that make decisions by consensus, such as Hewlett-Packard Co., "the amount of time it takes to reach consensus has been a detriment to those organizations," said Mazzucchelli.

Whatever tack IT leaders take, it"s essential that they be able to influence business decisions -- especially within companies that are heavily dependent upon IT, said Berit Svendsen, chief technology officer at Telenor ASA, a telecommunications company in Norway.

"If the CIO or CTO doesn"t have influence, it"s a risk to the business," said Svendsen.