Going without technology these days is like eating a Greek salad without dressing or a gyro without tzatziki. The cornerstone upon which modern business is built, technology has redrawn the lines of what businesses can do, what is expected and what job roles typically entail.

Still, executive leadership often fails to see the way business demands connect directly to their organization’s information technology (IT) stance. Customers demand the ability to purchase products and services at any time, which requires an always-on business — but failure to understand and embrace technology as part of leadership responsibility is a failure to ensure profitability.

Recovery time objective (RTO), recovery point objective (RPO), software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), on-premises software, cloud — these words and acronyms may not sound like much to a company executive, but to an IT department, they all have real meaning. Understanding the IT language can be difficult, but this doesn’t make it any less important. At a bare minimum, executives need to understand enough to make educated decisions. But where do you begin? I’ve detailed three steps below.

1. Talk About Common Goals And What It Takes

First and foremost, you must foster a better working relationship between yourself and IT. Better communication starts with frequent communication. If it’s been a month and you’ve not seen or said anything to anyone in IT, there’s a problem. Open a dialogue with IT managers to be sure you’re addressing their concerns. IT must learn to talk with executive leadership, like yourself, in lay terms, but this can be hard if they’re constantly immersed in the day-to-day tasks of keeping your operations running. Encourage them to meet you where you’re at, and be patient, giving them the chance to rephrase things. It will get better as they learn more what level of knowledge you already have and where you need to be educated. This is a two-way street. You will also learn where you can educate them on the intricacies of your business. The more they know about your business, the more they will be able to help you.

Once you and IT have a shared understanding of business goals, turn the conversation toward what it takes to get there. This will be where you’ll learn the majority of IT terms integral to your decision making. In this discussion, you should get a better picture of what is needed or lacking. You should also be reassured of what is working well.

2. Know Your Risk Posture

Now that you have a better understanding of technology terms, it’s vital to also understand your current IT stance and the risks you’re currently under. Cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated with their tactics and executives are often the targets of phishing emails since those accounts contain the valuable “goods.”