Things certainly have gotten rougher for corporate IT professionals. Network-security threats abound, critical software patches rain down on us, and if E-mail goes down for five seconds, it's hell on earth. Throw in budget and business-alignment issues, regulatory compliance, and disaster-recovery planning, and it's tempting to say that CIOs are indeed stretched thinner than ever. I mean, come on, we're too busy just keeping the engine running to bother with harnessing technology to gain a competitive advantage, right? Not at all. To me, that's a victim's approach to the position, and I believe that not becoming a victim is part of what being a CIO is all about. The IT department should be reliable, scalable, and flexible enough so that the CIO can focus on leveraging technology, not just keeping it stable. If the organization's technology isn't there yet, getting it to that point ought to be job No. 1. In 2004, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) completed a $425 million building project, which entailed a total rebuilding of the museum with expanded and enhanced facilities for exhibitions, education, programs, and staff. From a technology perspective, it was a clean-slate opportunity in every sense. An exhaustive requirements process ultimately led us to decide that the best use of this opportunity was to put ourselves in a position to succeed for years to come. Therefore, we resisted the temptation to implement flashy, risky, museum-specific technologies and instead focused our budget and efforts on the foundation. We now have a fully redundant data center, all new servers and cabling, and wireless access throughout public and staff areasa sturdy backbone for the future. With this infrastructure in place, we can focus our technology resources directly on the museum's mission without being overburdened by the costs and problems of unreliable legacy systems. The team that surrounds any CIO is key. Strong leaders who take the initiative and operate with minimal direction give the CIO more time to partner with and understand the goals of business-unit leaders. Without this support system, the CIO is probably spending too much time on the wrong things and losing valuable bandwidth along the way. No CIO should have to go it alone. Process is another mechanism that can stretch a CIO's reach. In the dynamic and fast-moving environment all organizations now face, the typical IT department is bombarded with needs and initiatives that strain limited resources. MoMA is no exception, and we're addressing the situation in a way that's becoming more common: We formed an IT Initiatives Committee that coordinates and vets prospective IT initiatives, taking into account the museum's strategic priorities and available resources. Composed of department heads and other key stakeholders, the committee is co-chaired by IT and finance. A key benefit of this approach is less time spent pursuing or rejecting projects that don't pass muster. It also facilitates collaboration, pools expertise, and fast-tracks buy-in for choice initiativesall valuable tools that give CIOs a leg up and some extra resources. While technology can make a critical impact on any organization, only by immersing themselves in the business can CIOs succeed. Requiring a CIO to be an expert in both IT and business isn't asking too muchthat's exactly what the position calls for, and it's what separates the CIO from the ordinary IT manager. Moreover, recognizing this difference and supporting a CIO is what separates innovative and nimble organizations from those that lag behind and flounder. Steven Peltzman is CIO of the Museum of Modern Art, where he leads technology strategy and operations in areas that include infrastructure and applications, Web sites, multimedia displays and exhibitions, and business development. Tell us your views about the CIO's multiple roles and demands at our blog.
Are CIOs Spread Too Thin?
As the world becomes more electronically connected, the role of corporate IT is transforming from an internal support function to an external growth engine. In many ways, IT is the essential source of connectivity in a rapidly expanding world of commerce. As such, it represents a new source of competitive advantage for many corporations.
Although IT professionals are committed to meeting the growth challenges, many CIOs are spread too thin and are pulled in too many directions as they work to meet both internal business needs and their customers' high demand for technology. They're not only expected to understand the intricate details of their company, the regulations of their industry, and the specifications of every new technology on the market; they're also required to have leadership experience, as well as financial prowess and expertise. It may be too much to ask.
A prime example is a publishing-company CIO I coached. While recognizing that her role required her to step up to new challenges, the CIO never expected these challenges to be so deep and wide. Each business-unit leader was shaping strategic plans with an accelerated role for the CIO and her team. When the strategic plans were finally rolled up, her IT resources and multiple leadership demands were never going to meet the expectations of internal customers. Failure was inevitable.
Given the tremendous reliance on technology as the linchpin of strategic growth, many CIOs are overextended. They often lack the basic skills to become strategic partners with business units, or to facilitate the innovation process so necessary to incubate and ignite business productivity.
Enterprises must recast the CIO's role in broader terms and build partnerships that create a web of support to help them succeed. Additionally, I've identified several key leadership competencies that can help CIOs better manage their multiple roles. Here's my advice:
Be more consultative with customers, facilitating dialogue at all levels, particularly to set the stage for partnering. Learn to ask more questions.
Listen in deeper ways. Rather than confirm what you know, listen for unexpressed needs.
Act on the vision, and keep the dialogue going. Find out what's working and what's not so that the opportunities for innovation can emerge.
Collaborate across boundaries to break down silos inside the enterprise and spur interdepartmental conversations that lead to innovation.
Realize you're in the service business and need to enhance your relationships with customers.
Help people let go of the past, and generate a feeling that everyone is working toward a common purpose.
There's no simple solution, but by developing these competencies, CIOs will be better equipped to take on their new enterprisewide responsibilities. Even the struggling publishing executive mentioned above benefited from these skills. With effort and support, her budgets and staffing challenges were addressed over a six-month period, and through well-architected conversations, she regained the confidence and support of her business units to mutually achieve the enterprise's goals.
No cookie-cutter formulas to success will work for all CIOs, and CEOs should continue to seek out those with blue-sky thinking, and the desire and willingness to engage with clients in transformative business conversations. Then, these CIOs must be given the support and training necessary to develop their competencies to meet corporate demands.
Judith E. Glaser is an organizational and executive coach and CEO of Benchmark Communication Inc. Her most recent book is The DNA of Leadership (Platinum Press, 2006).
Things certainly have gotten rougher for corporate IT professionals. Network-security threats abound, critical software patches rain down on us, and if E-mail goes down for five seconds, it's hell on earth. Throw in budget and business-alignment issues, regulatory compliance, and disaster-recovery planning, and it's tempting to say that CIOs are indeed stretched thinner than ever. I mean, come on, we're too busy just keeping the engine running to bother with harnessing technology to gain a competitive advantage, right? Not at all. To me, that's a victim's approach to the position, and I believe that not becoming a victim is part of what being a CIO is all about. The IT department should be reliable, scalable, and flexible enough so that the CIO can focus on leveraging technology, not just keeping it stable. If the organization's technology isn't there yet, getting it to that point ought to be job No. 1. In 2004, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) completed a $425 million building project, which entailed a total rebuilding of the museum with expanded and enhanced facilities for exhibitions, education, programs, and staff. From a technology perspective, it was a clean-slate opportunity in every sense. An exhaustive requirements process ultimately led us to decide that the best use of this opportunity was to put ourselves in a position to succeed for years to come. Therefore, we resisted the temptation to implement flashy, risky, museum-specific technologies and instead focused our budget and efforts on the foundation. We now have a fully redundant data center, all new servers and cabling, and wireless access throughout public and staff areasa sturdy backbone for the future. With this infrastructure in place, we can focus our technology resources directly on the museum's mission without being overburdened by the costs and problems of unreliable legacy systems. The team that surrounds any CIO is key. Strong leaders who take the initiative and operate with minimal direction give the CIO more time to partner with and understand the goals of business-unit leaders. Without this support system, the CIO is probably spending too much time on the wrong things and losing valuable bandwidth along the way. No CIO should have to go it alone. Process is another mechanism that can stretch a CIO's reach. In the dynamic and fast-moving environment all organizations now face, the typical IT department is bombarded with needs and initiatives that strain limited resources. MoMA is no exception, and we're addressing the situation in a way that's becoming more common: We formed an IT Initiatives Committee that coordinates and vets prospective IT initiatives, taking into account the museum's strategic priorities and available resources. Composed of department heads and other key stakeholders, the committee is co-chaired by IT and finance. A key benefit of this approach is less time spent pursuing or rejecting projects that don't pass muster. It also facilitates collaboration, pools expertise, and fast-tracks buy-in for choice initiativesall valuable tools that give CIOs a leg up and some extra resources. While technology can make a critical impact on any organization, only by immersing themselves in the business can CIOs succeed. Requiring a CIO to be an expert in both IT and business isn't asking too muchthat's exactly what the position calls for, and it's what separates the CIO from the ordinary IT manager. Moreover, recognizing this difference and supporting a CIO is what separates innovative and nimble organizations from those that lag behind and flounder. Steven Peltzman is CIO of the Museum of Modern Art, where he leads technology strategy and operations in areas that include infrastructure and applications, Web sites, multimedia displays and exhibitions, and business development. Tell us your views about the CIO's multiple roles and demands at our blog.
Things certainly have gotten rougher for corporate IT professionals. Network-security threats abound, critical software patches rain down on us, and if E-mail goes down for five seconds, it's hell on earth. Throw in budget and business-alignment issues, regulatory compliance, and disaster-recovery planning, and it's tempting to say that CIOs are indeed stretched thinner than ever. I mean, come on, we're too busy just keeping the engine running to bother with harnessing technology to gain a competitive advantage, right? Not at all. To me, that's a victim's approach to the position, and I believe that not becoming a victim is part of what being a CIO is all about. The IT department should be reliable, scalable, and flexible enough so that the CIO can focus on leveraging technology, not just keeping it stable. If the organization's technology isn't there yet, getting it to that point ought to be job No. 1. In 2004, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) completed a $425 million building project, which entailed a total rebuilding of the museum with expanded and enhanced facilities for exhibitions, education, programs, and staff. From a technology perspective, it was a clean-slate opportunity in every sense. An exhaustive requirements process ultimately led us to decide that the best use of this opportunity was to put ourselves in a position to succeed for years to come. Therefore, we resisted the temptation to implement flashy, risky, museum-specific technologies and instead focused our budget and efforts on the foundation. We now have a fully redundant data center, all new servers and cabling, and wireless access throughout public and staff areasa sturdy backbone for the future. With this infrastructure in place, we can focus our technology resources directly on the museum's mission without being overburdened by the costs and problems of unreliable legacy systems. The team that surrounds any CIO is key. Strong leaders who take the initiative and operate with minimal direction give the CIO more time to partner with and understand the goals of business-unit leaders. Without this support system, the CIO is probably spending too much time on the wrong things and losing valuable bandwidth along the way. No CIO should have to go it alone. Process is another mechanism that can stretch a CIO's reach. In the dynamic and fast-moving environment all organizations now face, the typical IT department is bombarded with needs and initiatives that strain limited resources. MoMA is no exception, and we're addressing the situation in a way that's becoming more common: We formed an IT Initiatives Committee that coordinates and vets prospective IT initiatives, taking into account the museum's strategic priorities and available resources. Composed of department heads and other key stakeholders, the committee is co-chaired by IT and finance. A key benefit of this approach is less time spent pursuing or rejecting projects that don't pass muster. It also facilitates collaboration, pools expertise, and fast-tracks buy-in for choice initiativesall valuable tools that give CIOs a leg up and some extra resources. While technology can make a critical impact on any organization, only by immersing themselves in the business can CIOs succeed. Requiring a CIO to be an expert in both IT and business isn't asking too muchthat's exactly what the position calls for, and it's what separates the CIO from the ordinary IT manager. Moreover, recognizing this difference and supporting a CIO is what separates innovative and nimble organizations from those that lag behind and flounder. Steven Peltzman is CIO of the Museum of Modern Art, where he leads technology strategy and operations in areas that include infrastructure and applications, Web sites, multimedia displays and exhibitions, and business development. Tell us your views about the CIO's multiple roles and demands at our blog.
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