The final CIO Paradox column examines three of the biggest contradictions that leaders in the CIO role face.

To lure top tech students into the enterprise, CIOs must sell youth on the idea that Silicon Valley isn't the only place where IT is fun.

How CIOs are meeting the challenge of a small high-tech pool by making the most of the teams they have

Welcome to IT MythBusters, where we take your most cherished beliefs about IT and rake them over the coals. In this edition, we feature Jeanne Ross, director of MIT's Center for Information Systems Research and co-author of books on enterprise architecture, governance and IT value. Enjoy.

The widespread glee over consumer technology has created your most demanding customers yet. The ease with which business leaders can adopt Cloud services means less clout for your centralized IT structure. And the aging IT workforce means fewer bodies to do the additional work. Masochist that you are, no doubt, you love these new challenges, but you still need tools for dealing with them.

When I interview candidates for positions I've been hired to fill, I typically ask them to whom they currently report. I cannot tell you how often they respond, "That depends, what day of the week is it?" IT professionals are as likely as anyone to invest a tremendous amount of meaning in their titles, their headcount and their reporting lines, and CIOs who reorganize too often (or poorly) are in danger of losing talent. The CIOs below have found ways around that.

Here's a paradox for you: Successful acquisitions involve IT early, yet IT is typically brought in too late. Here's another: People are critical to a smooth acquisition, yet M&A teams often pay scant attention to employee communication. And finally: Leading an acquisition is a significant career opportunity for CIOs, yet many fail to live up to the challenge.

There are many contradictions in the CIO role: You are intimately involved in every aspect of the business yet are often considered separate from it. You are the steward of cost containment, yet you must also drive innovation. Technology is critical to your company's success, yet its value is difficult to demonstrate. In other words, it's a wonder IT innovation happens at all.

As CIO, you are out in front of your company, thinking through trends in market conditions, technology innovation and customer behavior. Sales and marketing leaders are out there with you. But unlike them, you are tethered by the cement footprint of data center, hardware and software choices made in a different computing age. Those decisions weigh heavily on how flexible, scalable, innovative and cost-effective you can now be.

The right candidate needs to have some expertise in every layer of the technology stack, a keen understanding of the business, the ability to manage a matrixed (and peevish) group of siloed technologists, and the je ne sais quoi to sell concepts like service-oriented architecture to uninterested business executives.

If you asked a random employee which organization embodies your company's culture, what would she say? Marketing? HR? Sales? I'll bet you my entire shoe collection she wouldn't say IT. In most companies, IT is so far removed from the heart of the company that it is often housed in a separate building.

Just when I think I've accounted for every CIO paradox, a new one rears its head. For example: You have accountability for all internal systems, yet you must spend more time with external customers.

For the last several decades, you've dealt with a business community that had trouble seeing the value of IT. Now your partners have a deep appreciation of IT. Your job must be much easier! If it isn't, then you've discovered the same CIO paradox that I have: The business is getting smarter about technology, but your job is getting harder.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard CIOs say that they need to educate the executive committee about the value of IT. While I tend to nod and agree, the idea has always struck me as odd.

Funny thing about the word "and." You would think it would function as a connector, a word that implies the togetherness of two entities, like "stars and stripes" or "franks and beans." Yet the phrase "IT and the business" does not work that way. Rather, it connotes separateness and difference, creating an "us and them" perception that belies the actual embedded condition of IT.