CIO Career Management

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by

results not attributes. Peter Drucker

About us

Over 200worldwide partners

Over50offices in 29 countries

1UK search leader

No.6globally

About us in TEC and CTO/CIO

Over 35worldwide partners

Over50offices in 29 countries

2 UK search

leader

No.3globally

Offices: Worldwide

Latin America

São Paulo

North

America

Boston

Calgary

Chicago

Dallas

Halifax

Montréal

New York

Ottawa

Toronto

Vancouver

Europe

Amsterdam

Barcelona

Birmingham

Brussels

Cardiff

Copenhage

n

Frankfurt

Glasgow

Hamburg

Helsinki

Istanbul

Leeds

Lisbon

Ljubljana

Africa &

Middle East

Cape Town

Dubai

Johannesburg

Asia Pacific

Beijing

Canberra

Ho Chi Minh City

Hong Kong

New Delhi

Shanghai

Singapore

Sydney

Tokyo

London

Lyon

Madrid

Manchester

Milan

Moscow

Munich

Oslo

Paris

Rome

Stockholm

Vienna

Warsaw

Zürich

Aegis plc Global CIOVirgin Atlantic CIOJaguar Land Rover CIO & CTODWP CIOGoCompare CIOConde Nast International CTOHuawei UK CTOAl Futtaim CIOThe UK Government CIO

Typical CIO/CTO engagements

Based on the job specifications from all 2011/12 CIOsearches including both commercial and public sector profiles.

Technical acuity at an appropriate level.Commercial instinct/prescience/strategic insight.Stature & gravitas.Board level communication skills.Refined leadership and team ethos. Team builder (people skills).Stakeholder management and influencer.Tendency to action and results – output focussed.Intellectual horsepower to stay ahead of the Board.Innovation and creativity.Capacity to deal positively with change and ambiguity.

21st Century CIO attributes

None, repeat none are measurable, not without significant psychological profiling.In the market therefore they all have to be inferred or deduced by interview, but are vital to establish.There is nothing you could write in your CV to convince us you have these attributes without meeting you.So how do you know how good you are?

You start with what you have achieved?...........

The common link between attributes

Should always be couched “What did I do, how well did I do it, and what did it do for the business” and always use numbers. Always.How about the following achievements?Implemented SAP in 6 months and retired three legacy applications?Restructured the IT team to be more customer facing?Managed a £60 million budget?Worked with the Board to develop a five year rolling investment plan that exactly dovetailed with the business plan?

Achievements and results of the CIO

None of the aforementioned really make any impact.What would is;“Moved 500 users off legacy MS apps to Google cloud services at a cost of £250,000, at an estimated annual saving over 5 years of £3million in license costs alone, whilst improving service levels and availability by 5%. Project completed on a tight 6m timetable and 10% under budget.”What did you do, how well did you do it, what did the business get?Numbers.

Achievements and results of the CIO

Collect the top six achievements from the CV.Put them in a column on the left hand side of a blank page.Get your list of CIO attributes (no more than 15-20) on a separate page (leadership, stakeholder management, strategic thought..).Put the 3 or 4 attributes you used to deliver each achievement next to the achievement in the right-hand column.Some attributes will repeat…your strengths probably.Some will not appear…the things you need to secure in your direct reports as you do not major on them.

Self-analysis – data to personal attributes

The attributes you don’t use or have need to be developed or at least recruited into your team.The experiences you have detailed show the value you have added to organisations over time. Why not run your team by value add measures? The best teams set monthly “what value have we added” measures to their performance targets.It is no longer viable to say – our culture does not want or demand such insight. You should lead the change. If you want a Board seat you will have to.Scout for ways to add value by changing what you have, building new, retiring old. There is no value add in stasis.Make sure your CV reflects the value you have added BUT don’t harp on about your attributes – nobody will believe them UNTIL they meet you. Talk them into your interview, they are pointless by themselves on your CV.

Turning insight into action

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by

results not attributes. Peter Drucker