Everybody has a few New Year’s resolutions for 2012 and CIOs are no exception. An old chestnut: Time management.

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.

Business leaders who struggled through the GFC may be in for a rude shock when CEO contracts come up for renewal this year amid a climate of tougher shareholder expectations.

Debates about how CIOs can earn a "seat at the table" have been going on for so long now that the phrase itself has become a tiresome cliche.

CIOs who focus on business strategy are surprisingly similar to CEOs. Although most CIOs profess no interest in running a company, thinking more like the CEO can only strengthen the CEO-CIO partnership and sharpen the strategic impact of the role.

While they are not Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, a company's CEO and CIO can at times make a fairly odd couple. Differing agendas create significant challenges from the outset. At the same time, we all understand it is critical for the CIO to engage the CEO and senior business leaders in discussions of IT investments. Considering those somewhat contradictory points, what exactly is the state of the union between business and IT leaders?

The evolution of the influence of the CIO is leading to a juggling act; there are now three pairs of roles that a CIO must fulfil in order to drive business forward and continue to maintain operations.

CIOs who don't present well or fail to engage their board of directors are at serious risk of derailing their career. Here's how to get board presentations right.

CIOs are from Venus. CFOs are from Mars. And nowhere is this more obvious than at budget time.

Let’s face it. As a CIO, there are some things you should just NEVER do. . .