Running IT like a business. According to Accenture CIO Frank Modruson, this is more than sitting in on business strategy meetings and learning to speak in business terms. "We are a service provider and need to act like one. If you do things like presenting IT as a menu of products and services from which the business heads choose their service and pricing, you will create a real partnership with your business peers."

Financial acumen. It all starts and ends with financials. "You need to understand the revenue stream of the company and where IT fits into it," says Modruson. "Every IT investment should have an ROI."

Accountability. Delivering on your promises and owning up when you cannot is key to establishing the credibility to succeed as CIO. "I've seen time and again where IT projects are late and CIOs neither accept nor enforce accountability," says Campbell. "If you do not have the courage to hold your people accountable and deal out the consequences, you will not be successful."

Risk management. Every new technology investment brings an element of risk — in security, availability and change — to an organization. Yet companies that avoid risk entirely may miss out on critical technology innovation. "I used to think that we needed to be better systems engineers so that we could prevent any possibility of risk," says Rhoads. "But with today's pace of innovation, we need to focus just as intensely on responsiveness and adaptability. It's not just working to prevent risk, it's learning to deal with it."

Learning. Technology and its application to business are in constant flux. A CIO needs to learn from each new experience and embed that learning into the IT group. "Today's iterative nature of cutting in new technologies and layering innovation on top of innovation necessitates that we build an organization that is constantly learning," says Rhoads. "If we are not always learning from our successes and mistakes, we cannot exploit new technologies in the best interest of our companies."

Core knowledge of IT. For Campbell, "This is the price of admission. CIOs who grew up in technology have already mastered this skill, but new CIOs — 40 percent of whom now come from the business — need to surround themselves with people who have that deep domain knowledge. They need to learn the core technology issues and not fall for smokescreens."

If you can place a check mark next to each item, you're ready for a new career opportunity. But before taking that next step, says Raytheon's Rhoads, "stay in a CIO role long enough to make a significant contribution to the organization and to acquire all of the experience and learning that the role has to offer. You are going to rely on it again someday."

Martha Heller is managing director of the IT Leadership Practice executive recruiting firm ZRG. Reach her at mheller@zrgroup.com