*Charting your course: A road map for transitioningto the CIO role*
By Deloitte Experts, Lou DiLorenzo Jr, Khalid Kark, Charles Dean, Anjali Shaikh and Natalie Andrus
(This article is a concise summary of the full article ‘Charting your course: A road map for transitioning to the CIO role’ published by Deloitte)
As the Chief Information Officer’s role evolves from technical to strategic, CIOs should not just transition to their new responsibilities quickly, but also lead agile teams to deliver business results.
As technology becomes more integral to the success of every business, the role of the CIO may be evolving into that of a critical strategic leader responsible for delivering tangible impact and competitive advantage. With these increased expectations and expanded scope, those moving into new positions often find their transitions complex and challenging. CIOs should be able to quickly come up to speed, understand the technology and business landscape and add value quickly.
Five years ago, CIOs found themselves occupied with technologist and operator responsibilities as they spent time understanding the IT environment and stabilising core IT operations. Today, those responsibilities seem to have shifted, with CIOs spending 11% less time as operators and 21% more time as strategists when first starting their roles. While there are many causes for this shift, part of this could correlate to the growth of on-demand infrastructure and software-as-a-service. If this trend continues, it may be increasingly more important that CIOs demonstrate the ability to shape strategy as a capability versus demonstrating technical prowess. Expectations of the role are seemingly shifting from driving operational effectiveness to demonstrating enterprise value, growth and revenue generation.
Understanding the organisational dynamics and culture, budgets, operating model and the level of influence you have as CIO is more important today than ever.
Understanding the organisational dynamics and culture, budgets, operating model and the level of influence you have as CIO is more important today than ever. While CIOs may view their remit to include emerging tech, data strategy, end-consumer technologies and aligned strategic technology investments, having too many tech chiefs could fracture accountability and create organisational conflict and confusion.
CIOs may benefit from staying curious and adapting a lifelong learner mindset.
Deloitte’s 2023 Global Tech Leader Survey of more than 1,150 CIOs and tech leaders shows that 54% of those surveyed cite ‘soft’ leadership traits such as ability to inspire, communication skills and executive presence as the most important qualities within the technology function in the next two years. That’s three times the share of respondents (18%) who said software engineering capabilities are a key quality for technology leaders. Respondents have felt demands on the CIO have multiplied, so much so that it’s no longer enough, or even necessary, for a CIO to be a technology specialist. What’s more important to a CIO’s long-term success are softer skills, like being a transformational leader, ability to monetise tech assets, problem-solving and collaboration, according to those surveyed.
A key to long-term success: Staying curious
Technology and the role of the CIO are seemingly continuing to increase in importance to an organisation’s overall success as tech executives are now responsible for much more than just overseeing IT systems. It can be essential for CIOs to be able to come into a company, get the lay of the land, adapt to the new culture and seamlessly transition so as to not disrupt the business and start adding value as soon as possible.
Tech leaders should make their organisations more agile, iterative and experimental to stay relevant.
CIOs may benefit from staying curious and adapting a lifelong learner mindset. Technology leaders should demonstrate flexibility and agility in supporting organisational needs.
Technology skills can become dated or obsolete in as little as 2.5 years. As a result, successful tech leaders should make their organisations more agile, iterative and experimental to stay relevant. Creativity, problem-solving and other human skills are greater differentiators for tech talent than ever before. CIOs should help the organisation understand and commit to these changes.
As the role of technology changes within organisations, so do the challenges new CIOs face, such as a proliferation of technology-related C-suite roles, adapting to corporate cultures, managing competing priorities, addressing tech talent and navigating complicated stakeholder relationships. CIOs should consider adjusting to these changing expectations as they help develop and empower agile teams that are accountable for delivering business results.
