Do you have a love-hate relationship with the information technology (IT) portion of your business? You love it when your website generates leads, for instance, but hate the time it takes to manage your website, along with social media, your customer relationship management system and on and on. 

This Wall Street Journal article suggests asking yourself these 4 questions to make your IT department more manageable:

1. Am I using technology to transform my business or am I just adding bells and whistles to existing processes?
2. Am I ignoring important business differences as I standardize processes across the company?
3. Who is making sure my company's digital strategy is being implemented?
4. Is electronic data empowering my team or controlling them?

The authors say that IT “determines whether the company's dealings with customers and suppliers are efficient, scalable and timely; whether employees have the information they need to do their jobs; and whether employees throughout the company see technology as a tool to move forward, or an anchor that keeps them running in place.”

You can hire out many of the tasks necessary to implement IT functions, but be sure that you’re leading the strategy and goal-setting. Your IT department will not only be more manageable, but more powerful.