The New CIO - Leader first, technologist second

I’ve been writing about the “New CIO”  for almost 5 years and I finally feel like there’s some real change coming to the CIO role and subsequently, to the world of the IT Pro.

For example, Dion Hinchcliffe recently outlined his thoughts on The New CIO Mandate.  In that post, he describes his ‘Five Elements of the New CIO’ as:

• Lead the business from the front.
• Re-invent the business for next-generation digital.
• Create new and highly engaging digital workplace, customer, and business partner experiences.
• Enable emergent, decentralized tech change in the organization.
• Don’t constrain IT, fundamentally empower.

All good elements for CIO’s to focus on.

You’ll notice that there’s nothing in there about technology specifically. There’s nothing in there about ‘buzzwords’ and ‘trends’.  There’s nothing there about ‘process’ or ‘cloud’ or ‘big data’.

These five elements are focused on leadership.  Pure and simple.  The New CIO is a leader. Not a technical leader….just a leader.  Obviously, a good CIO will need to understand the high-level aspects of their team and the systems and processes they use, but the focus of the New CIO has to be on the business and delivering business value.

I’m happy to see other folks out there talking about the ‘new CIO’ and the need for the CIO to move into a real, proper leadership role.  Now…its time for CIO’s to heed the advice and step up and lead.