Mark P. McDonaldGood question, tough answer. Jim Collins provides ideas regarding the differences between good and great. He discussed them at these years Gartner Symposium CIO Program in Orlando. Collins, the best selling business author and advisor, has studied the differences between good and great companies and leaders for more than twenty years. His books Build to Last, Good to Great and How the Might Fall shape executive thinking about themselves and their company.
Collins work is a place to start in answering this question. Collins in fact invited CIOs to assess their leadership skills and get materials from his web site http://www.jimcollins.com. There you will see the characteristics of Level – 5 leadership which are essential to any executive and probably more so for the CIO.
No one can know if a CIO has gone from good to great without working with him or her in depth and seeing their track record. All of us are great for time-to-time, but sustained greatness is something different. Building on those thoughts here are a few others more around signs that are indicative that a CIO might be great in no particular order:
Great CIOs have great teams. This is often the last thing mentioned in lists comparing good to great, but it should be the first thing.
Great CIOs are business leaders and see business results. How you introduce yourself says much about your focus and self-identity.
Great CIOs understand IT’s leverage points in their business model. They describe their company in terms of its fundamentals, the things that drive earnings per share, market success and customer choice.
Great CIOs communicate clearly. They take complex issues and speak about them without over simplification.
Great CIOs ask good questions. They recognize that they do not have all the answers and that every answer or plan can be strengthened with good questions.
Good CIOs have many of these same characteristics, but there is something different about the ones who are great.
Greatness in a CIO is not a function of the company they work for, the salary they earn, the size of their title or other factors. There are great CIOs at small companies and not so great CIOs at big companies.
The points raised above require some additional explanation and therefore the subject of additional blog posts. However, to get the conversation started. What else makes a great CIO?
Category: CIO Leadership Personal Observation Tags: CIO, CIO Leadership, IT Leadership, Personal Observation
14 responses so far ↓
1 Tweets that mention What makes a good CIO great? -- Topsy.com November 20, 2009 at 8:32 am
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2 Per Olsson November 20, 2009 at 8:38 am
Interesting post!
3 uberVU - social comments November 20, 2009 at 8:48 am
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4 Abbie Lundberg November 20, 2009 at 9:01 am
I agree with your points — especially that great CIOs understand IT’s leverage points in their business model. This to me is what really distinguishes a great CIO from other successful executives.
5 Joanne Moretti November 20, 2009 at 9:12 am
The other thing, and its mission critical, is smart decision making. Knowing her environment inside out, to the penny and then being able to make wise choices about projects, resources and supply sources are key. Sifting through Demand, sorting through Supply and then picking or consulting the business on the optimal actions will certainly bring the CIO to a different level in the business’ eyes.
6 David Deans November 20, 2009 at 2:21 pm
IMHO, it’s the ability to focus on business technology-enabled outcomes — not where the technology is physically deployed. That requires a willingness to out-task the IT utility operations drudgery to a service provider, so that the internal talent can focus on business impactful activity.
7 Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist November 20, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Nice post. Great list. Especially the second and third. I love when the word “business” is used in any IT conversation.
I will add one:
Great CIOIs foster great decision-making. They maintain the optimal manifestation of governance and associated process to enable stellar decision-making that fosters possible and practical work practices and benefits realization.
Steve Romero, IT Governance Evangelist
http://community.ca.com/blogs/theitgovernanceevangelist/
8 Gartner Blog Network — Gartner Blog Network November 21, 2009 at 9:19 am
[...] What makes a good CIO great? November 19th, 2009 · by Mark McDonald · 8 commentsGood question, tough answer. Jim Collins provides ideas regarding the differences between good and great. He discussed them at these years Gartner Symposium CIO Program in Orlando. Collins, the best selling business author and advisor, has studied the differences between good and great companies and leaders for more than twenty… Read more… [...]
9 Gartner Blog Network — Gartner Blog Network November 21, 2009 at 9:19 am
[...] What makes a good CIO great? November 19th, 2009 · by Mark McDonald · 9 commentsGood question, tough answer. Jim Collins provides ideas regarding the differences between good and great. He discussed them at these years Gartner Symposium CIO Program in Orlando. Collins, the best selling business author and advisor, has studied the differences between good and great companies and leaders for more than twenty… Read more… [...]
10 Links for November 22 2009 | Eric D. Brown November 22, 2009 at 12:13 pm
[...] What makes a good CIO great? by Mark McDonald on The Gartner Blog Network [...]
11 What is the difference between a good CIO and a great CIO? September 22, 2011 at 10:37 am
[...] What makes a good CIO Great? (Post with links to other posts) [...]
12 Pearl Zhu September 23, 2011 at 5:00 pm
HI, Mark, excellent post, I like your five great point, if adding anything to predict IT leadership trend, it could be:
Great CIO is the great influencer: Gartner defined the highest level five IT maturity is based on IT as the game changer to both invent business model and shape industry, the great CIO lead by influencing.
The question could be: Why do you think more CIOs in startup are greater than the one in largest organizations?
thanks
13 Michele Colangelo September 28, 2012 at 9:37 am
I think a great CIO have to not only support business with IT service but promote new business leveraging technology opportunities
14 The leadership traits CIOs see as significant for success. One of the ‘one’ questions you would ask of CIOs. February 6, 2013 at 11:59 am
[...] What makes a good CIO great? [...]
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