CIOs often face challenges in their efforts to communicate with CEOs and other high-ranking company executives. Interviews with C-level executives and management experts reveal two interrelated elements for successful communication:
- CIOs must reach out and create alliancesâ€"with the CEO and others who report to the CEOâ€"to play an active team role.
- CIOs must speak to the goals of the business in terms that a CEO and other executives can easily relate to. Focusing narrowly on the concerns of the IT department is counterproductive.
These are two of several tasks that experts said CIOs must focus on to improve communication and relationships with the CEO and executive colleagues.
Walking the walk
Many TechRepublic members, when asked about CIO shortcomings, cited personality issuesâ€"a factor that is likely the hardest to change. Others listed management abilitiesâ€"actually the lack of strong direction. One security consultant who served as a CIO related a situation in which her CEO summarily changed the company's business direction based on published monthly articles. The IT executive, who requested anonymity, was then charged with carrying out the revamped strategies.
-The employees would call it the vision du jour," she said. -I had to deal with him and the tech staff without losing them, because they thought he was an idiot."
The ex-CIO tried to use some of the CEO's own words in creating a vision that made at least -some sense" to the IT department. Her interpretation didn't go over well with the CEO, and he quickly relocated her to open a remote company office. Soon after, she quit.
-I think that particular situation was unwinnable," she said. -I was trying to make it winnable, but it wasn't going to happen."
At another organisation, the ex-CIO found that her approach was wanted because the CEO was savvy enough to accept coaching on what to say at board meetings and other appearances.
-She was well aware that she didn't know or understand the technology and didn't want to know," said the consultant. -You can work with this type of person."
The bottom line when it comes to executive communication is that there has to be a willingness to communicate from both sides.
-It comes down to their egosâ€"whether or not they are willing to say, 'I don't know anything about this and have to find somebody who does,'" she said. -The CEO or anybody at the C-level who is willing to leave their ego outside the door will hire the person who knows the most and can get them the farthest."
The tough tasks
Matching IT strategies to a CEO's worldview and working with unique personalities are easier than succeeding at what many believe is the CIO's toughest communication taskâ€"focusing on the company's overall success and not just targeting technology initiatives.
-Eighty percent of the companies I worked at, there has been a complete disjoint of the IT plans from the business goals," said Chuck Foley, CEO of InfiniCon Systems, makers of high-speed I/O devices. The CEO described an ideal CIO as a leader who not only sees ways to cut expenses and increase efficiency in IT, but can offer insight into savings or better efficiencies that can best benefit the business.
Another communication hurdle is that the CIO role hasn't been at the board table for years, like the CFO or COO. That's a main reason CIOs experience difficulty in being heard and brought into the corporate fold. Modern IT just hasn't been around as long as finance, sales and marketing, manufacturing, and other departments.
-IT didn't grow up" with these other groups, explained Faisal Hoque, founder, president, and CEO of Enamics, a business management firm.
It's analogous to someone moving into a new neighbourhoodâ€"many CEOs who come through the sales ranks are already well versed in relating to COOs, CFOs, and other department heads. CIOs generally come up from the technical ranks and speak a jargon-filled language that can be indecipherable to many CEOs and other executives. You to work hard to avoid feeling, and being treated, like second-class citizens in the boardroom.
-In order to lead the process along with the senior management team, they first have to have equal footing, a seat at the table with the rest of the organisation to start making that happen," Hoque said.
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