With a little luck, every CIO realizes that they are only as good as the people that they have working for them. What this means is that they need to be a good boss if they want to be successful. This leads to a critical question: how good of a boss are you? It turns out that most of us seem to think that we’re a better boss than we probably really are…
The Survey
The good folks over at the consulting firm Development Dimensions International, Inc. have just completed a study of 1,100 front-line managers (you know, the folks that CIOs eventually get chosen from). The results are not what you’d hope for.
What would you hope for? Well, you’d like this collection of mangers to realized that they don’t know it all. You’d want to hear some self-doubt and you’d especially like to hear that they realize that they’ve got a ways to go in order to become truly effective managers. That’s not what DDI found.
Instead, what their survey showed was that most managers, and CIOs, tend to over-estimate their management skills. On top of this, they seem to have very little self-doubt. Hey, I’m all for self confidence, but it sure looks like the CIO pool is just a little bit too confidant.
Two of the questions that DDI asked in their survey really drove this too much self-confidence issue home. One question asked if during their first year the mangers ever regretted being promoted – a very natural feeling. A whopping 74% said no. The next question asked if during the first year the new manager ever questioned their ability to lead others. Once again, 72% said no. Ouch! We seem to be just a little bit too full of ourselves here.
What Makes Someone A Good CIO?
It’s the rest of DDI’s survey that really provides the interesting information for CIOs. DDI has broken the job of being a CIO down into 10 different skill sets. As you take a look at this list, you’ll be able to see how each one of them is a critical CIO skill:
- Setting work standards
- Planning and organizing
- Decision making
- Communication
- Technical and professional skills
- Initiating action
- Adaptability
- Coaching
- Gaining commitment
- Delegating
The survey showed that CIOs and managers believe that they do a good job of setting work standards along with planning and organizing. Although they think that they do a good job here, it doesn’t always show. It would have been interesting if the survey had included feedback from the staff that is being managed!
Somewhat not surprising, the areas that CIOs feel that they need to work on the most include many of the soft skill areas. These include such management tasks as delegating and getting commitment from their teams. CIOs have their technical skills down, it’s the people skills that still need the most work.
What All Of This Means For You
What the results of this survey show us is that most of us have an over inflated view of our ability to manage an IT department. It appears as though this belief is with us when we first become CIO and it doesn’t seem to leave as we advance in our career.
It turns out that there are 10 different skill sets that we need to have as a CIO if we want to do a good job of leading our department. We believe that we do the best job of setting work standards and we need the most assistance in the area of delegating.
This information is critical for us as CIOs to study and understand. None of us are perfect; however, by understanding where we are weakest we can focus our efforts to become better.
- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills™
Question For You: What do you think CIOs should do during their first year to become better managers?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
Ok, admit it – cloud computing is here to stay. If you haven’t already signed up for a cloud then you will be doing so shortly. However, before you start writing the check, you really should know what you are buying. Everyone likes to talk about how good / bad cloud computing is; however, before now nobody has ever taken the time to talk about what you should be looking for when you go cloud shopping…
