5 Characteristics of an Excellent CIO

As the world continues to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, many workplaces have opted to continue working from home in some form. As a result, CIOs have found themselves at the forefront of a ‘new normal’, tasked with developing remote working systems, dealing with an explosion of online requests and tackling rising cyberthreats. Doing all that from the confines of your home office can be quite the challenge.

Even if your organization isn’t working from home, the expanding role of technology makes it clear that an excellent CIO is vital to the success of any business going forward. But what skills do you need to become an excellent CIO?

1. Trust

Trust is a two-way street, and the ability to build trust within a team is vital for any leader. When workers feel like their work is important and their opinions valued, they work harder and a bond of mutual trust is developed between employer and employee.  As a CIO, you need to be able to delegate effectively, and giving your team the trust and support they need to make their own decisions will engender feelings of appreciation and recognition, which has been shown to inspire increased productivity.

Trust is the cornerstone of any successful team. It takes time to build it effectively, but it’s worth investing that time in getting to know your team members so you can help them play to their strengths.

2. Communication

This is applicable to any role within management, but effective communication is especially important in IT. There’s a huge emphasis on CIOs to be able to explain projects, targets or strategies in a succinct manner, because doing so increases the chances of success. A great leader can communicate complicated ideas in a simple way, and there are lots of complicated ideas in IT.

You can do this by verbal or non-verbal means, such as listing clear instructions for the completion of a task or taking the time to demonstrate it yourself so that your team can complete it themselves when you’re not there. 

3. Creativity and innovation

Great CIOs must often take calculated risks in order to stay ahead of technological advancements. It’s hard to take that first step into the unknown, but when employees witness leaders bringing new ideas to existing problems, they’re inspired to do so themselves. This fosters a culture and ethos of innovation, which in turn creates a virtuous cycle because inventive organizations attract the best talent.

By maintaining a deep knowledge of your industry, you can build a platform that allows you to lead by example by taking risks to push your team forward.

4. Transformation

Digital technologies have transformed the way customers do things in their personal, day-to-day lives, and organizations need to react by transforming the way they do business. As such, a great CIO needs to be adept at executing fundamental strategic change in the IT environment.

Breaking silos between and within departments and processes to create end-to-end solutions is the first step to transforming legacy systems, and it’s also important to establish data-driven decision-making, which puts your customers at the core of your operations.

5. Integrity

This one comes from successfully building trust and communicating consistently, which we’ve already covered, but integrity inspires loyalty in the long-term and lays the groundwork for continual progress.

Demonstrate integrity by developing a system for honest, constructive, two-way feedback. Act on this feedback in a consistent and transparent way and facilitate the development of your team by encouraging access to further training.

This goes for your interactions with customers and business partners, too. When they see you acting in a consistent and transparent manner, they’ll believe in you, and be more likely to stick with you as your organization continues to evolve.

CIOs need to strive for continual improvement

The above characteristics are a handful of traits that can help you succeed as a CIO. However, as anyone working in technology will attest, things are constantly changing, and you can’t stand still. The world of IT is so dynamic, that the average tenure for a CIO, is just 4.6 years.

So how can you ensure longevity as a CIO? In short, you need to be able to effectively manage change. To achieve this, it’s important to develop both short and long-term goals and devise a strategy to achieve them. Pursuing quick wins – such as easy, cost-saving measures – will endear you to the business, while the ability to implement long-term transformations will show your ability to adapt to change.

Other ways you can stay ahead of the game are to take leadership courses, observe other leaders and listen to feedback from employees, peers and employers alike. It can also be helpful to join industry organizations so you can build relationships and stay abreast of the latest developments in your area of expertise.

The traits of a great CIO are the traits of a great leader. It goes without saying that you’ll have great technical knowledge but having long-term success at the head of an IT department will require a little more. If you’re able to adapt to nurture these characteristics, you’ll be well-placed to buck the short-tenure trend and succeed as a CIO well into the future, no matter how uncertain it seems right now.