Lessons in IT Transformation: Technology Expert to Business Leader

The CIO as a Business Leader, Not Technologist

By now, hopefully you have gotten the message that your role is to be a business leader, not a “propeller-head”! Even the most savvy and experienced CIOs can fall into traps and ruts along the way. In order to avoid this, I suggest a little exercise that you should perform on an ongoing basis. Ask and answer the following three simple questions:

1. Who are you talking to? This is a very basic litmus test. There are several groups of people you should engage with on a regular basis. You should be speaking with:

• External consumers of your organization's services or products
• Internal clients of your services
• Your staff
• Your key partners and vendors
• Your key business unit executives
• Your management
• Your board of directors
• Your peers in the industry and other subject matter experts

  It's very easy to get caught up spending all of your time with the one or two groups that you feel most comfortable with. For many people, that is usually members of your own staff. While it is important to spend some inward-facing time, this needs to be one small piece of the puzzle.

2. What are you talking about? The kind of leader you are is easily evidenced by what you are focused on. Are you focused on mission-related objectives such as driving new revenue, acquiring new customers, improving business processes, or rationalizing costs? These are the areas of focus for business leaders. By contrast, do you spend most of your time discussing issues of reliability, ...