The protests around the G20 summit and the march on the City will give banks' hard-working IT team one more reason to feel despondent. If the shrinking industry, job cuts and enormous upheaval were insufficient, the palpable anger of the public against bankers being indiscriminately directed at all City workers is enough to make anyone fear Monday on a whole new level.

In 2009, while it is a recession for high street retailers and it is a depression for car makers, in banking sector it is more like a war.  This is not only because people are scared and uncertain, but the scale of destruction of careers and large businesses is unprecedented.

In these circumstances, it is not enough to be a good manager of your team - whether it is the IT department, the whole business or even a small group.  Genuine leadership is needed to motivate your employees and colleagues, and IT directors need to step beyond the routine of managing, and recognise they are now responsible for the morale, productivity, loyalty and effectiveness of their team.

The military has lived with these responsibilities for a long time. In the army, there are three very simple rules for leadership in a battle, and they are very relevant for IT directors wondering how to make lead their shell-shocked and cynical troops.

Firstly, everyone is afraid in a battle - the leader included. However, a leader should not show this to the troops (forget all the modern talk about showing your weaknesses and vulnerability!), or otherwise you will confirm and amplify their fear.  No matter how bad and feed up you feel - don't show it!

Secondly, do not let your troops lie down in a firefight or they will not want to get up.  Instead you need to maintain moment and purpose.  If now is not the moment for the big push, keep their energy and enthusiasm with worthwhile tasks (and definitely not ones that will be cancelled half-way through!).

Lastly, it is the leader's responsibility to bring his troops back alive.  Leaders should do all they can to get good performance from a team but should remember that these are real people with real emotions - the City has forgotten that you can't buy loyalty, yet it is this that is the mark of a successful leader.

Forget all this talk of "human capital" - if you treat your people as dispensable units then they will behave like them: costing you more and achieving less in the process.

However, good leadership is only possible if one knows where you are leading people.  In a battle, soldiers and officers can only be sure their actions are productive if they know and understand the goals of their commanders.  

However, there is often disagreement between different parts of the business over key aspects - for instance the failure to take seriously compliance and risk functions at many banks caused their catastrophic demise.

In fact, I have often noticed that the military shares far more information and is far less "command and control" than many businesses, especially banks.  Too many banks have authoritarian structures where those at the top control every function beneath. This can rob people of their purpose, damaging morale, as well as their ingenuity, taking the possibility to bring their full ability to their roles.

These are not alien to IT directors in banks, whether running their own team or helping to run the whole bank as part of the senior leadership team. What is new in the current lethal environment is that these skills can be the difference between success and failure.  IT directors who create focus for their department and employees alike, provide space for employees to succeed, and protect them as far as possible, will emerge with a strong loyal team that positions him (or her) and their bank for success as wartime reverts to peacetime in the banking sector.