HBR recently released a report (sponsored by Red Hat as part of The Enterprisers Project), on the changing roles and landscapes of Chief Information Officers (CIOs) leading organizations through digital transformation.
The goal? Resilience.
Specifically, resilience in an organization’s people, business processes, and tech infrastructure.
But don’t get too caught up in the tech just yet. As UC Dublin business professor Joe Peppard is quoted in the report, “digital transformation is less a technology challenge and more a leadership one.”
HBR shares how CIOs can step up to the plate with leadership that fosters resilience amidst digital transformation:
Adaptability for CIOs and the organizations they lead
Digital transformation is a response to change, whether that change is innovation, customer demands, or industry trends. Today’s CIO must prepare their organizations to adapt to those changes, specifically:
- Adapt new processes to speed up product development
- Collaborate to create new business models
- Respond faster to client demands
- Experiment and pivot quickly
- Attract and retain IT talent
To achieve all that, the role of CIO has quickly expanded its job duties. Indeed, 89% of CIOs feel their role has become “more important,” the report found, while 88% agree their role is the most “critical component” of their organization’s sustenance.
What do these expanded duties look like, apart from leading adaptable organizations? The CIO is an educator, coach, strategic adviser, entrepreneur, relationship builder, and change agent. HBR even includes “evangelist” in the mix.
Managing expectations, relationships, and talent
Communication and relationship building are increasingly important, even in a tech-dominated industry. HBR cites an IDC statement that CIOs will even out inflation, shortages, and other economic changes through negotiations and relationship building.
Of course, that communication is vital internally as well. CIOs need to lead staff, managers, and executives through pivoting plans, unpredictable results, and changing expectations. How? Through empathy, a vital component in supporting a successful organization and successful professionals within one. This also includes fostering safety, diversity, personal growth, inclusion, and autonomy for experimentation, and learning from failures.
Finally, there comes the talent — starting at recruitment, all the way to career development and flexible work arrangements for IT staff.
Making tech more agile
CIOs can’t do this on their own. However, they can embrace transformation tools and support their organization using them. HBR cites a PwC study on strategies for adapting to new tech tools, including:
- Making an IT strategy more agile
- Using infrastructure investment to move to the cloud
- Leveraging data and analytics to inform strategic decisions
CIOs aren’t just responsible for securing the new tech. They also need to strategically and operationally decide how to best harness each tech’s capabilities. The answer comes from the entire organization, as business operations and IT become unsiloed to support better collaboration.
Read the full report.
