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Ten Essential Skills for an effective CIO

Sparked by observing a discussion about how universities can provide appropriate education for Senior IT managegment, I decided to put together my list of ten essential skills for a CIO. I wonder how they match your view?

Here is my list – it is not exhaustive, includes some attributes, and is in no particular order of importance:
index poster by network osaka on flickr

  1. Thorough understanding of technology
  2. Business acumen/ acuity
  3. Intellectual capacity
  4. Patience
  5. Diplomacy, influencing and negotiating
  6. Relationship building and sustaining
  7. Effective decision-making
  8. foresight and Strategic Awareness
  9. Mentoring and team-building
  10. Commitment to learning

OK, I cheated and squeezed in more than ten. But as I said, my list is not exhaustive and I am sure that there are many other skills and attributes. Perhaps you could suggest some that aren’t on my list? :mrgreen:

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  • Jan Buijvoets

    Hi Colin,

    I believe you have put some management skills together which are important to have for each manager. Since you are talking about the CIO of the company it is interesting to know what you are thinking of the leadership role he should play.
    I think that giving direction to the “IT team” is the main focus.
    Therefor it is important to know following:
    -What role should information have within the company and how should it be applied and/or supplied.
    -How does this information support the companies strategy and how should the strategic goals be formulated.
    -Are these goals carried within all layers of the organisation or are they applied top-down.

    In general it is important for the CIO to have a good understanding of the position of the company it is in now, how it came to this position. The CIO should have a clear perspective for the future needs for the company and therefor following points are important:
    - Good understanding of the company where it stands at this moment and where it came from.
    -good knowledge of the available executing tools within the company and in the market.
    -good knowledge of the resources that are available in the company.
    -a vision what can be achieved (or in some cases not achieved) with certain information available or released at a certain time to a defined person or group of persons (for a CIO this is one of the most important factors, that can hardly be learned but should develop over time).

    Further I have the impression that a top ten list doesn’t have such high value for a CIO.
    A CIO will mainly base his tactics and strategy on the needs for the future and the momentum he can make use of. Together with the information he/she has at hand this is often a matter of “Fingerspitzengefuhl”.

    Jan G. Buijvoets

  • http://preferisco.blogspot.com Nigel Thomas

    With the debatable exception of “Thorough understanding of technology”, the items in your list would apply to any C-level, and in fact to any senior manager.

    In line with your campaign, I would think “Thorough understanding of information” should be in there somewhere.

  • http://www.colin-beveridge.com colinb

    a couple of excellent points that I would like to pick up from the comments by Jan and Nigel.

    Firstly Fingerspitzengefühl is explained at wikipedia and is extremely relevant to an effective CIO. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerspitzengefühl

    Secondly, understanding information properly, is of course an absolute essential for an effective CIO.

  • http://www.sixfigures.com.au Kelly Magowan

    Hi Colin,

    Thank you for the list. Two that I think need to be included here is both leadership and management. Without great leadership and management skills you will not be able to inspire and lead your team to achieve the businesses objectives. Therefore everything else becomes defunct.

    This is one that I think applies to any C-Level or Senior position where are you have staff. Often it is a forgotten skill or one that too many people in these roles have failed to develop to a valuable level.

    Kelly
    CEO
    Six Figures, http://www.sixfigures.com.au the Executive Job Site for $100K+ jobs

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  • http://www.techtionary.com tom

    I would add Global-Geo Political Strategy/Scope as no company today is not global.

  • Prem Alvares

    Communication.

    Since a CIO needs to address different workgroups, he needs to be an effective communicator with a bit sales flair as well.

  • Justin de Vlieg

    Hi Colin

    I think IT security should probably be it’s own item. I know you could bundle it under “understanding technology”, but from a business risk perspective, I think it may warrant a place on the list.

  • Praveen Sengar

    Hi Colin,

    Most of skills mentioned are required for any c level executive and apply to any CIO who is a critical link between business and IT,part of the top management team. Depending on CIO definition ( roles and responsibilities) the attributes/ skills set required will vary. However going to the skills mentioned, some of them are linked to one another like business acumen and decision making. Patience , Relationship building are skills set can be merged into effective business manager. Intellectual capacity is the basic given attribute. So I feel the top 10 should be
    1. Effective Manager ( Patience, Team Building, Relationship Building, Commitment to learning)
    2. Good understanding of technology ( Dont expect them to know every technology in detail)
    3. Business acumen/ acuity
    4. Negotiation skill
    5. Effective decision-making ( Identification of priorities,selecting the right one for maximum oraganization impact)
    6. Understanding business , its evolution , future strategy, competition in industry , Role of Information , how information can be leveraged by different business process and at different levels
    7. Communication ( It is required to get buy in at all levels)
    8. Risk and compliance
    9. Leadership skills
    10. Ability to take Risk ( as CIO tend to be risk aversive and go by safest options, essentially not the best ones)

  • http://www.linkedin.com/in/annievmuller Annie Muller, PMP

    A few worth adding:
    1 – check your ego and title at the door, there’s not enough room at the inn
    2 – recognize good talent/capabilities of others and surround yourself with people who are smarter/better than you and leverage them to succeed.
    3 – don’t forget – leadership means serving others, not the other way around. Value and respect your teams contribution.
    4 – Face the truth negative or otherwise and then take courage to make the right decision through the team and others
    5 – give credit where credit is due – recognition to your team
    6 – don’t sell the soul of your team to the devil. walk in the fire with your team and they will follow you to hell and back sell them to the devil and you loose everything
    7 – be ready to adapt
    8 – do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.
    9 – question your motive
    10 – play chess. manuevering rough waters is like a chess game, anticipating the next moves/events and counter measures.some things like instinct simply can’t be taught.

  • Ashok Cherian

    Hello All,

    I think we have great points already here. Just to bring in probably a more perceptible well roundedness to the thoughts here, I suggest the following skills also:

    1. Change Management Skills :- To ensure Motivation and Ownership levels across Business Leadership.
    2. Catalyst Angle :- Proactively bring in not only technology but also process to facilitate Strategy challenging status quo. The catch is being a leader in this space and being a leader and not be a follower or doer.
    3. Business Engagement :- Strategize and implement a clear game plan to measure and improve the Engagement levels of Business with IT.
    4. Talent Management :- Not just having and encouraging good talent, but also keeping a healthy talent pipeline and rotation/succession plans.

  • http://www.marksamuels.co.uk Mark Samuels

    Hi mate – only just seen this. Interesting post, interesting list… We’ve just done some research on this topic at CIO Connect and virtually everyone thought ‘leader’ was the defining characteristic of a successful CIO.

    Something you’ve missed – I think – which seemed crucial to a lot of our CIOs was ‘communicator’.

    All CIOs should be leaders. But my belief is that communication is what differentiates good and great CIOs.

    • http://www.colin-beveridge.com Colin Beveridge

      Mark
      thanks for your input, leadership and communication are doubtless essential skills for an effective CIO.

      However, my purpose in selecting another ten such skills for this post was very much to present a list with gaps which encouraged readers to suggest additional items.

      There are quite a few other posts on this blog that address the CIO role. You might like to check out the Leadership Myth.

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