This morning we stumbled across an excellent article from CIO Magazine. While it focuses primarily on Application Developers, we believe it applies to IT across the board. We’ve seen these so-called “9 Reasons” violated at many an organization, much to their detriment and dismay.

A few excellent examples from the original CIO article:

3. The CIO gulps vendor Kool-Aid.
   Did you know that there are more than 34,750 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., for just 435 representatives and 100 senators? That’s 64 lobbyists for each congressperson. I wonder how many vendor account managers there are per CIO. You are smart enough to know that vendors are trying to sell you and you won’t be fooled wholesale. Yeah right. Their influence can eat away at you without you even realizing it. Be even more skeptical than you are now. Just say no.

I’ve seen CIOs and IT Directors fall into this trap on many occasions! While it’s acceptable (and part of the job) to be aware of what new technology is about to befall the sector, it’s not acceptable to let your budget become your license to spend.

One of Bradman Group’s core competencies is vendor relationship management. We have inside contacts throughout the technology industry and wield them with great success for our clients. We are skeptics and never, under any circumstance, swayed by vendors out to raid our clients’ coffers. This goes for value-added resellers (VARs) as well.

4. The CIO is a technical dinosaur.
   Unless you are running for president of the United States, experience does matter. Technology has changed since you were writing RPG on the mainframe umpteen years ago. And for you younger guys who made your bones writing VB or Java Web apps, make sure you know why there is so much buzz about Ruby on Rails and multicore programming. Your ability to talk tech will go a long way to earning the respect of application development professionals.

If I had a penny for every time I’ve seen this one in practice…

Just last month I met with a prospect who made the mistake of having me meet with their IT Director. The individual in question was leading a highly technical team of people, yet his IT background was from the 1970s. He is used to working with soldering irons and 1980s-era embedded systems.

The CIO needs to be on the ball, at all times, when it comes to current technology and be able to put that technology into a practical context that both the business and technology components can understand. As I’ve said before, knowing how to operate an iPod does not qualify you to be in executive management nor do your years plugging away on a TRS-80.

If a CIO can’t speak the language of technology, then they is doomed to be derided and disrespected by the technology team at their command. That is by definition a true leadership problem.

7. The CIO doesn’t know the difference between resources and talent.
   The fastest way to lose respect is to put clueless managers in charge. Clueless managers equal clueless CIOs. Can you ever imagine Doc Rivers, coach of the 2008 world champion Boston Celtics, talking about player resources like they were interchangeable? “I need two guard resources.” “I need a center resource.” No. Talent and teamwork make winning teams. Talent matters. Don’t pay lip-service to talent. Find a way to locate and use the talent in your organization. You will only be as good as the team you assemble.

This one stems from CIOs who fancy themselves as glorified project managers. The PMs that I’ve worked with in the past regard everything as a resource. From a functional perspective, this makes a tremendous amount of sense. But without leadership that can appreciate the subtleties and nuance of the project, a PM will do nothing but irritate everybody involved. Especially IT people, whose minds are constantly churning with subtlety and nuance.

Indeed, part of the CIO’s role is to provide that type of leadership. The CIO should instinctively be able to understand who has genuine talent and foster that talent, encourage it, and channel it. At the same time, they should be able to take definitive action when and if it is necessary with under-performers.

The role of a CIO is valuable to any business, but in order to be effective he or she needs to effectively build a bond with technologists and the business leaders. Bridging that communications gap will tremendously increase the efficacy of technology in its role of supporting the enterprise and building its overall value.

For more information, check out:
What is a CIO?
The Virtual CIO Advantage

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Tags: cio, management principles, Virtual CIO

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