Eight secrets of the hottest CIO leadership

Eight secrets of CIO leadership

CIO needs to cultivate eight kinds of talents. Once equipped, these managers will stand out from a mediocre generation and become great leaders

the performance survey of chief information officers (CIOs) launched by optimize magazine provides CIOs with a horizontal comparison with their peers to measure their own performance. "2007 analysis of CIO performance" is an analysis and summary based on the survey. The following is the third article of this group. The last article described the invisible expectation of CIO work outside the enterprise. The next article will introduce the future evolution direction of the multiple functions played by CIO

most people who aspire to become chief information officers (CIOs) understand that only digital displays with chart reading are often not used. After this reason is eliminated, top technology cannot sit firmly in this position. Objectively speaking, there are many factors that determine that you must first think of yourself as a business leader, followed by a technical expert

but what does this mean? How can you cultivate yourself to become a business leader? Bookshelves are full of works on improving leadership, many of which are useful and insightful, but often incomplete. Through long-term and careful observation of many enterprise leaders, especially those who have been involved in various industries and positions in their career, I finally understand how to understand leadership. For example, I was lucky to know and observe Jack Welch of General Electric, Jim mcnerny of Boeing and Ivan Seidenberg of Verizon before they became CEO. I also carefully observed many enterprise leaders who were not as well-known as the above three. Some of them were very successful, and some of them eventually lost their careers

I am not the first person to try to prove the importance of CIO leadership. But what distinguishes my view is that I think this conclusion has urgent practical significance. From a certain point of view, the whole enterprise is too complex for individuals (even CEOs) with decision-making power. They should not make decisions only based on the information and views obtained from a certain functional department. In order to maintain the leading edge, different functional departments must coordinate well, and they must reach a compromise quickly and fairly, while making their own gains and losses, advantages and disadvantages fully transparent. Department leaders such as CIO have to actively work for the rights and interests of their departments when necessary, but they also need to understand the overall objectives, various restrictions and issues related to the overall enterprise. In this way, they can understand how their department should serve the enterprise. Then they will regard compromise and sacrifice as their duty, and always pay attention to coordinating the business of their department with the work of other departments in the organization. By broadening your overall view of the enterprise, you can play a more constructive role in any formal or invisible team

cio must first be a business leader, not only for the needs of cross departmental collaboration within the company, but also for an important reason: think of those subordinates who report directly to you. You have to set the direction of action for them and stimulate their talents, so that "individuals do their best, everyone is full of vitality, and everything is united and cooperative."

as a CIO, don't forget the ultimate reason for making yourself better: to continue to grow and learn, so as to gain greater satisfaction in your work. Who knows? You may develop potential leadership talents, which may make your career development no longer limited to the technical level. We often see the CFO change into the CEO; But the case of CIO promoted to CEO is much less common. CIOs often neglect self-improvement, so they are unable to expand the talents of their business leaders

don't be intimidated by the mysterious aura of "business leadership" or the argument that "excellent leaders are born". Through decades of research, I found that leadership is not as mysterious as you think. Even though some people are born with self-confidence, affinity, charisma or other personality traits related to business leadership, they also need to hone their talents - just as talented athletes and musicians must constantly practice, practice and practice, in order to improve

8 necessary tricks

after excluding those uncontrollable factors related to success or failure, I found eight skills that all leaders must gradually master. These skills, which I call know-how, are obvious to those who master them. Once you understand the key, you will certainly be confirmed by the leaders you admire

more importantly, you can master these skills yourself. Just use them as a guide for your personal leadership development; Carefully consider which skills you are cultivating now and which skills you want to practice in the future; Through conscious efforts to make good use of these skills and realize how your personality affects these skills, you can become a better leader and an excellent technical expert, and you can also help others cultivate these talents

find out the profit orientation of the enterprise. What is the difference between Wal Mart and target? Most people can sum it up in one sentence: the former provides consumers with extremely cheap products in a simple shopping environment that only provides necessary services every day; The latter's product grade, sales price and purchase experience are slightly higher than the former. Any enterprise's clear, concise and special core business philosophy (central idea) comes from its leadership. Only a few leaders can master this skill: that is, while ordering those who are good at planning ideas to launch simple core ideas, they also require the company to focus unambiguously on the business that can attract customers. Of course, the business must also be profitable. The key to the success of all enterprises is the know-how of "finding the right profit orientation", which is the same with Wal Mart and target

due to the increasingly fierce market competition and the deepening and frequent changes, business leaders must ensure that the "core business philosophy" of the enterprise is determined to continue to play a role in customers. At the same time, they must also track the basic situation of the profit link: cash, gross profit, sales growth, capital turnover and return on investment, in order to capture those early warning signals, which indicate that enterprises are beginning to lose their advantages

too many bosses hesitate too long to miss the opportunity to adjust the enterprise strategy. Some leaders can't figure out how to make profits, and then become indifferent to the external environment. How long did Microsoft wait and see before it found a new position for the enterprise? If Kodak waited too long to transform, I believe no one would object. In today's highly competitive business environment, any hesitation or delay in strategy may lead to disastrous consequences

in your career, the enterprise you serve is likely to need to transform 4 ~ 5 times. Even if you are not the one who has the obligation to find out the core business philosophy, if you have a hawk like insight into the basic rules of profitability (you don't need to be a financial analyst to understand these rules first), you may be the first person to find that the positioning of the enterprise has been fundamentally flawed; You may also take the lead in urging senior leaders to have a sense of urgency; It is more likely to use technology for new positioning first

summarize the patterns of external changes. This trick will help you grasp the opportunity to reposition the enterprise before your competitors so that it can continue to be profitable. Those who master this know-how, such as Seidenberg, let weilizhong constantly take offensive in a rapidly changing and complex industry. It would be too late to wait for others to tell him how the industry is developing. He has to grasp the development trend of the industry by himself, and refine and distinguish among the dizzying various factors and sometimes contradictory information. Changes in consumer habits have even led Wal Mart to doubt its core business philosophy, which has always been successful: This is the problem that currently plagues h. Lee Scott. The company is trying to adopt a new concept of product promotion. Scott is the CEO of the company

by broadening your horizons, you can also master how to recognize major changes early - even if you are not the boss. Carefully observe the external world far beyond your department, enterprise, industry, economic environment or country, and then pay attention to which emerging trends in those places may affect your business. Will there be some trends that may combine to create a new industry, or make your profit model fail

you may have started to track new trends in the use of technology. Use your imagination to guess how trends and times that have no common ground on the surface will be combined (or what are the organic connections)? Then break through the shackles of technical thinking and think: in a broader range, what changes have taken place in competitors and the whole business world? If there is a gap between these realities (or changes) and your understanding, look for relevant information to fill this gap. Paying attention to external changes is not only to prevent threats, but also to explore potential opportunities - perhaps some of which can be grasped through technological progress

no matter what level of leader you are in the enterprise, you need others to do things and achieve results. Three different tricks will help you build the abilities needed by your team: discover and develop leadership skills, cultivate a team that reports directly to you, and manage collaborative systems

find and cultivate employees with leadership potential. If your company is more closely connected with the external environment now than at the beginning of your appointment, then you will know that you are a good leader. There is a way to enhance your leadership skills after taking office, that is to cultivate other leaders in the team. You have to take a proactive attitude to find the talents of your subordinates and create opportunities for future leaders to improve and grow

first of all, accurately find the absolutely necessary conditions for a work to be done now and in the future - these are indisputable standards in work handover. Next, take some time to clarify the talents of others. Only by doing this first can you match the leader with the work he needs to take over and help the employee grow

although you are bold in judging your subordinates, you should not be emotional. Carefully observe everyone's decision-making and behavior patterns, but don't limit your observation to technical knowledge. Some people may have the potential to become excellent leaders. See if you can discern talents and cultivate them - the sooner the better, so that they can get the experience they need to be leaders

shape your leadership team. Building a team of managers may be a particularly difficult challenge, but it is necessary when these people have deep experience in a specific field. You certainly hope that their experience