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CIOs Need To Think More Like CEOs
From: audrey () riskbasedsecurity com (Audrey McNeil)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 19:32:19 -0600
http://associationsnow.com/2016/03/cios-need-think-like-ceos/ At times, the chief information officer is the leadership role that feels like it gets no respect in the organizationâeven though its skill set is often more diverse than those of other C-suiters. So, whatâs the problem? It may come down to soft skills. Associations ask a lot of their chief information officers (CIOs), who often have a more diverse set of operations to manage than do some of their fellow C-suiters. So, why donât they get the level of respect of their executive-level peers? A recent study by Ernst & Young suggests that CIOs often struggle to break out of the technical niche created and mandated by the role. And, while the work that CIOs do tends to be highly valuable, it also tends to not be seen at the same level as that of their executive-branch peers, with four in 10 CIOs citing a lack of support from the C-suite as their biggest challenge. âToo few CIOs are currently regarded as true members of the executive management team,â the study states. âThis limits their potential for change. Many CIOs nowadays appear to be C-level in title only, and this rank is not necessarily reflected in how they are perceived in the leadership team.â The question, then, is this: Is CIO the ceiling for technical employees, or is there room for something higher? The answer: Itâs possible, but youâll have to show off that your skills as a business leaderâskills that branch out beyond the technical. Thatâs a hard task (as highlighted by this pessimistic ZDNet headline), but it can be done. Perhaps the best example of someone making the leap from IT to the top of the executive ranks is Dawn Lepore, the CEO of Drugstore.com. Before Lepore jumped to her current company, which she has been leading for more than a decade, she was the CIO of Charles Schwab, leading that company during a period in which it was an early mover on internet-based stock trading. Leporeâs ability to make the leap to CEO from tech leadership was perhaps made easier because she approached her role with Schwab like any other business-world position. âI was never a particularly technical CIO. I had some technical training, but I didnât have a computer science degree. I was actually a music major,â Lepore said in a recent Wall Street Journal interview. âSo the business aspect of it was always more interesting to me. I was always drawn to that. So, if thatâs the case, itâs probably a little bit easier to be viewed as a business person.â Itâs this balance of the technical and communicative that might have helped Lepore break through. Itâs not nearly as common as it should be. Ernst & Youngâs study notes that the most important traits for CIOs, above any technical skills, are leadership (which 81 percent of CIOs said was important) and communication (which tallied 79 percent). âAlthough CIOs have acknowledged for well over a decade the need to develop their softer skills, not enough progress is being made,â the study says. And a recent Deloitte University Press survey on CIOs pointed out that both leadership and communication were among the important elements that define the roleâbut that 91 percent of respondents said they were lacking in at least one key element in their own CIO abilities. Thatâs a problemâone so serious that not only does it kill the chances of an eventual jump to the CEO role, but it also raises concerns about whether CIOs can remain effective in their current roles. LETâS TALK SOFT SKILLS By sheer luck, the good folks at the association consultancy Delcor spotted this symptomatic trend around when I did, and they had a good diagnosis for itâa fun thing called soft skills, or emotional intelligence (EQ). Delcor Managing Consultant Kathleen McQuilkin, PMP, notes that a communication gap exists between the C-suite the IT department that enables all the tech initiatives that drive associations forward. The IT department canât just be seen as the part of the organization that puts new laptops on the desks and fixes ugly cases of ransomware when they arise. Instead, the IT department has to be seen as a key gatekeeper for important business initiatives. Because, letâs face it: It is. âThe IT team must be able to talk about technology in terms of the business value it brings to the association,â McQuilkin wrote earlier this month. âStrip any technical jargon out of your conversation, especially with executives.â In so many ways, CIOs are just like their executive-level peers. Theyâre all trying to sell what matters to the association and persuade the right people that this is the direction in which to move. But CIOs are asked to do all of that plus be adept at what is assuredly the most technical part of the business: They have to understand both the high level and the nitty gritty, while communicating both. Thatâs not an easy task, but, for those who can pull it off, the reward for both the CIO and the organization is high. âWhether through intention or happenstance, every CIO is creating a legacy of one kind or another,â the Deloitte study states. âHow your legacy gets defined is largelyâbut not exclusivelyâup to you. The circumstances in which you find yourself operating have a big influence on what you need to accomplish todayâand what you should prepare for in the future.â Thereâs a reason there arenât more Dawn Lepores out there. Itâs not because Dawn Lepore has a unique set of skills that could never be replicated. Rather, itâs because in some ways, the CIO role is one of the hardest to perfect. But if your associationâs CIO can figure out the balance between communicating and executing, that person might be hard to stop. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/pipermail/breachexchange/attachments/20160329/1e3b6fff/attachment-0001.html>
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