TechRepublic has a little guide to the seven habits of wildly unsucessful CIOs. The article's worth a read, especially if you might want to anonymously send it along to someone you know. The defective habits (and my comments on them) are:
- Acquire technology simply because it's new - [But everyone likes bright, shiny new things.]
- Exhibit a knee-jerk reaction against open source - [I would change this to exhibiting a knee-jerk reaction to any viable solution alternative.]
- Create solutions in search of a problem - [The unfortunate practical downside to a limitless desire to solve problems.]
- Eagerly reach beyond competency level - [This usually is found in a CIO getting into a deeply technical matter when they have risen the ranks because of their skill as a generalist.]
- Act as CMOs—Chief Marketing Officers - [Although I have had clients that would not have been harmed by someone, anyone, taking on this role.]
- Fail to understand relationship between technology and business - [The ultimate blames here lies with the one who promoted this defective CIO into the executive ranks.]
- Don't communicate well with nontechs - [a.k.a. Don't communicate well with the vast majority of humanity...always a problem.]
I would also add:
- Exhibiting blind faith in a package vendor's silver-bullet solutions
- Weak management skills
- An inability to involve the business in technology initiatives.
I am certain we could all come up with more, but this is a good start. CIOs who exhibit one or more of these traits are quite common. If you're in IT management, check yourself. If you're on the business side and see this behavior, there is value in further expanding your own knowledge of IT for your organization's benefit.
If you have comments about this topic, suggestions for future topics, or questions related to the governance of the IT function or the business-centric use of technology, feel free to e-mail me at eyetoIT@gmail.com.
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