Stories by: Martha Heller

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.

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.

When I ask CIOs about their successor, I get one of three answers: Fifty percent tell me, "I am grooming two people, but they still have some development ahead of them." Roughly thirty percent say, "I have someone who could be CIO tomorrow." The rest of the time I hear, "Not by a long shot." Despite the fact that most CIOs have a successor in mind, I would wager that fewer than 10 percent of today's large-company CIOs have been promoted from within. Hence the paradox: You develop successors, yet the CEO almost always goes outside for the next CIO.

Last month, I introduced the concept of the CIO paradox, a set of pernicious contradictions that permeate the core of your role. I also issued a challenge to make that paradox a thing of the past. To be sure, what I propose is a marathon, not a sprint. The paradox has been around since the dawn of IT. But by using professional associations, forums and events, you can put together a long-term plan of attack. If you do nothing, these contradictions will continue to undercut you and block your successor's path to the Future-State CIO.

Ten years ago, I started asking CIOs a question: When you walked into your job, what did you find? The answer, roughly 90 percent of the time: "I inherited a mess. The IT organization had major delivery problems and no credibility with the business." A decade later, I am getting the same answer. How can this be? Is every CIO I have ever spoken to an idiot? Or, more plausibly, is there something so inherently problematic about the CIO role that even the most talented and experienced leaders have trouble making it work?

When my editor called to ask why my column was late, I said, "Column? What column?" With limited time to produce a draft, I rushed to my CIO network in search of help. Within 48 hours, I was the grateful recipient of a wealth of information from successful CIOs about their approach to relationship building.

From 2005 to 2008, my approach to business development was simple. I would walk into my office, put my feet up on my desk, throw open the window and smile as bluebirds flew in with juicy search projects in their beaks. I was a bull market executive recruiter.