- As a CIO, you are currently operating in a stable and trusted IT environment, but you would like to advance your role to strategic business partner.
- CIOs are often overlooked as a strategic partner by their peers, and therefore face the challenge of proving they deserve a seat at the table.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- To become a strategic business partner, you must think and act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business.
- Career advancement is not a solo effort. Building relationships with your executive business stakeholders will be critical to becoming a respected business partner.
Impact and Result
- Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy to accelerate your career and become a strategic business partner. For a CIO to be considered a strategic business partner, he or she must be able to:
- Act as a business person that works in IT, rather than an IT person that works for the business. This involves meeting executive stakeholder expectations, facilitating innovation, and managing stakeholder relationships.
- Align IT with the customer. This involves providing business stakeholders with information to support stronger decision making, keeping up with disruptive technologies, and constantly adapting to the ever-changing end-customer needs.
- Manage talent and change. This involves performing strategic workforce planning, and being actively engaged in identifying opportunities to introduce change in your organization, suggesting ways to improve, and then acting on them.
Become a Strategic CIO Research & Tools
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should become a strategic CIO, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
- Become a Strategic CIO – Phases 1-4
1. Launch
Analyze strategic CIO competencies and assess business stakeholder satisfaction with IT using Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision Diagnostic and CXO-CIO Alignment Program.
- Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 1: Launch
2. Assess
Evaluate strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.
- Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 2: Assess
- CIO Strategic Competency Evaluation Tool
- CIO Stakeholder Power Map Template
3. Plan
Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.
- Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 3: Plan
- CIO Personal Development Plan
- CIO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template
4. Execute
Develop a scorecard to track personal development initiatives.
- Become a Strategic CIO – Phase 4: Execute
- CIO Strategic Competency Scorecard
Workshop: Become a Strategic CIO
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
1 Assess Competencies & Stakeholder Relationships
The Purpose
Gather and review information from business stakeholders.
Assess strategic CIO competencies and business stakeholder relationships.
Key Benefits Achieved
Gathered information to create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.
Analyzed the information from diagnostics and determined the appropriate next steps.
Identified and prioritized strategic CIO competency gaps.
Evaluated the power, impact, and support of key business stakeholders.
Activities
1.1 Conduct CIO Business Vision diagnostic
1.2 Conduct CXO-CIO Alignment program
1.3 Assess CIO competencies
1.4 Assess business stakeholder relationships
Outputs
CIO Business Vision results
CXO-CIO Alignment Program results
CIO competency gaps
Executive Stakeholder Power Map
2 Take Control of Your Personal Development
The Purpose
Create a personal development plan and stakeholder management strategy.
Track your personal development and establish checkpoints to revise initiatives.
Key Benefits Achieved
Identified personal development and stakeholder engagement initiatives to bridge high priority competency gaps.
Identified key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets to track competency development.
Activities
2.1 Create a personal development plan
2.2 Create a stakeholder management strategy
2.3 Establish key performance indicators and benchmarks/targets
Outputs
Personal Development Plan
Stakeholder Management Strategy
Strategic CIO Competency Scorecard