Summary: In this episode of CIO Playbook with Jeffrey Hurley I will be discussing the potential for CIOs to become COO or CEO. The origin of the idea of CIO to CEO appeared to dominate the technology media for a brief period of time and I will reference two such articles in this week’s discussion. In Tina Fey’s best selling memoir, Bossypants, Tina shares lessons she learned as a writer for Saturday Night Live and one of those lessons stood out to me, “The show doesn't go on because it’s ready: it goes on because it’s 11:30.” Despite all the effort we may put in to make the perfect solution there are circumstances when time commitments force us to put forward work that we know is not our best. Tina said that she had to learn to let go “You can’t worry about it. As long as you know the difference, you can go back to work panning for gold on Monday.” As leaders we have to release our desire for perfection and let mistakes go, learn from them, and then move on. The CIO association of Canada and Ryerson University sponsored a white paper titled, “CIO to CEO” by Kenneth A. Grant and Gabriela Urbanik. As a leader moves up the organizational ladder behavioral skills become a more important driver of leadership success. Many CIO’s often tend to battle negative technology stereotypes Technology is becoming a key to strategic conversations and IT leaders are getting a seat at the table for these discussions. To achieve the CEO level role, CIOs will need to choose action of analytics. Releasing the desire to explore the what-if scenarios associated with software development and set the course for the team and communicating the direction effectively. Korn/Ferry research shows that: Behavior style, rather than intellectual ability, prevents many CIOs from becoming COOs or CEOs The lack of key, specific behavioral skill most often thwarts the ambitions of CIOs hoping to achieve promotion The difference maker in getting the top roles boils down to two main factors: business focus and good at technology organization basics. Business Focus This is not just understanding the business, but being viewed as a partner to the business. Someone who can actively participate in the conversations speaking the business’ language rather than technology language Competitive, market driven, market value, return on investment, customer retention, profitability, drive sales and revenue Good at technology organization basics Being able to run your organization smoothly is an important measure of success. This is more than just being able to manage staff. It is demonstrated ability to deliver technology, reduce costs, and develop your internal talent. Taking calculated risks in the technology space with the newer technologies. Being willing to fail on occasion for the right reasons and when failure happens managing it well. There are a set of competencies listed: Ability to communicate at the executive level Effective Relationship Builder Able to develop your people Building of successful teams, succession planning IT Governance Good governance structure is a sign of organizational maturity and how external parties will view your organization. This includes exposure to the board of directors of your organization. It is managing the strategic view vs the necessary evil. IT is a tight tightrope being walked as a leader of technology with ambitions for greater responsibility Change Leadership Technology is at the genesis of much of the organizational change. The leader seeking a larger role will first assume the change agent role and manage organizational change not just the technology portion of change. What is your action plan for CIO career progression? First you must take responsibility for your career to advance beyond your role. Taking challenging high visibility projects outside of your comfort zone. You must become a “connector” The white paper outlines a multi-credibility building process
