Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

What It Takes for a CIO to Be a CEO

With help from the CIO Executive Council, we tap into research about successful executives. Read on to learn more about the competencies CIOs need to develop to take the corner office, where CIOs fall short — and what CEOs expect from CIOs
Page:

Do you know your Executive Quotient (EQ)? By figuring your EQ, you can determine how well you're positioned to be the strategy-oriented CIO that businesses are demanding.

Your EQ can be measured across a set of executive leadership competencies that are essential for any well-rounded C-level executive — including IT leaders who want to move beyond the limits of Function Head and its focus on operations, alignment and order-taking. It's also a success indicator for CIOs who are taking on formal or informal responsibilities in non-IT aspects of the business or moving up to the CEO role. (To measure yourself, see this link at the CIO Executive Council.)

Your CEO sets the benchmark for performance across all executive competencies. The good news is that the best CIOs stand up well against their bosses and even outperform them in many competencies. The bad news is that they underperform significantly in competencies unique to strategic business leadership. This gap defines the development goals IT leaders need to set in order to advance their individual EQ, their careers and the CIO profession as a whole.

All About Competence
Helping the CIO profession fulfil its desired and necessary strategic role is the reason the CIO Executive Council developed its Future-State CIO program, of which the EQ competency assessment is the heart. The Council partnered with global executive recruiting company Egon Zehnder International to adapt its competencies and assessment model to gauge CIO EQ. In 40 years of assessing executive talent, Egon Zehnder chose this set of competencies because of its predictive value in identifying top-performing executives. These are the behaviours that differentiate good executives from great executives, says Stephen Kelner, global knowledge leader of Egon Zehnder's talent management and management appraisal practice group.

Kelner describes the competency of Market Knowledge in detail to illustrate the range in performance levels. The Market Knowledge score indicates how well an executive understands the marketplace, including customers, suppliers, competitors and regulators. "Level 1 CIOs are doing their basic job," says Kelner. "As they move to Level 2, CIOs can describe what the industry is doing and the basic forces of the market, including typical customers and obvious competitors." At the higher levels, CIOs know their market well enough to spot, anticipate and capitalize on trends. The highest performers make an impact on the marketplace by creating new businesses or new products through their understanding of technology, customer needs and market trends. Unfortunately, Market Knowledge, according to Kelner's six years of accumulated data, is, compared to CEOs' competencies, a weak spot for CIOs.

Page:

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: AMP, Egon Zehnder, Egon Zehnder International, Leader, Leader Computers, Northern Trust, Pilkington, PLUS, Rose, Sara Lee

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Justifying Business Intelligence Applications
    This white paper explores the decision criteria used in a build vs. buy scenario when considering the Oracle BI Applications. The major benefits of the BI Applications will be discussed in the framework of an overall buy vs. build argument.
    Learn more »
  • How will CIOs meet growing Security Threats?
    The growing complexity and prevalence of security threats, enabled by consumer IT and mobility, sets the stage for ever more sophisticated attacks. Security must be proactively front and center in all IT deliverables, but CIOs and CSOs must work in concert to succeed in these efforts. In this interactive white paper from CIO Magazine and EMC, learn how tightening the relationship between CIOs and CSOs will help create trust, the foundation of business relationships today. Embedded videos feature Art Coviello, Sanjay Mirchandani, and Dave Martin, and a quick survey provides benchmarking between CIO peers.
    Learn more »
  • Oracle Exadata Database Machine Warehouse Architectural Comparisons
    Exadata is Oracle’s fastest growing new product. Much of the growth of Exadata has come at the expense of specialized data warehouse appliance vendors. These vendors have published competitive comparisons to Exadata, claiming: Architecture is what really matters for performance, Purpose-built data warehousing architectures perform best, They see architecture as an end in itself rather than as a means to an end. Read on.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments