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.

In most industries CIOs concentrate on internal stakeholders and have not had much need to interact with external customers

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.