Leaders Unlimited, the strategic partners in Africa of Korn/Ferry International, today revealed the results of a study undertaken by the latter with respect to the development of a statistically valid success profile for CIOs.
The outcome of this research was based on the information compiled from more than half a million top executives, including some 1 500 senior-level IT leaders; and strongly indicated that successful CIOs and CEOs tended to be quite similar in leadership behaviour, but with one key difference, ie their `thinking` styles. The decision-making of CEOs was generally made much more quickly than those of CIOs, who tended to evaluate situations from many more perspectives before coming up with multiple solutions.
According to this study, leading CEOs and CIOs were both adaptive and open to change; very good collaborators and team players; and were likeable and also had a good sense of humour.
"Korn/Ferry`s leadership profile confirms that CIOs do indeed have personalities, which is very different to the perception abounding in the marketplace," commented Lesley Mawhinney, head of the ICT practice at Leaders Unlimited. "There`s long been a myth that CIOs are extremely intelligent, can create systems and deal well with complex data but are not very social or outgoing. This has now been shown to be far from reality and it`s now very clear that the better CIOs design systems that reflect the strategy of the business, interface regularly with other senior management and are not just icons sitting in their offices.
"Korn/Ferry`s executive leadership assessment began as an adjunct to its recruitment database, in which the company had long compiled all kinds of job history and salary-related information on a variety of professionals, from supervisors to C-level executives," continued Mawhinney. "The company then added a leadership component to focus on the behavioural requirements of job openings, rather than matching skills sets, as was traditional in the recruitment business and after evaluating various assessment tools, settled on one created by Decision Dynamics, a firm founded by academic specialists in career assessments.
"Today`s marketplace is extremely complex and all top executives including CIOs need to realise that they need to solicit information from others in order to make the best decisions.
"If users are unhappy and not using the available technology, then the whole IT strategy can fall in a heap; yet linking IT and business together in some sort of coherent fashion cannot be accomplished by an autocrat or `super expert`.
"Therefore, for CIOs to be successful, they need social and behavioural qualities that can help them tap into what their users really need," concluded Mawhinney.
"At a leadership level, CIOs with the best track records in the Korn/Ferry assessment score high on their ability to seek out the input of others and facilitate consensus-building, working through issues with peers and subordinates. From an emotional standpoint, the successful CIOs have been shown to have high levels of confidence and empathy, the latter characteristic being critical to their ability to deal with many different personality types."
For further information, please contact Lesley Mawhinney, Leaders Unlimited: telephone 011 722-1600, fax 011 722-1611, e-mail Lmawhinney@leadersunlimited.co.za
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Leaders Unlimited is a leading global provider of recruitment solutions. Its portfolio of services includes senior-level executive search, specialised skills, middle management recruitment and leadership/management assessment. Leaders Unlimited`s unique value proposition combines the synergy of many years of experience and expertise in international executive search with extensive regional networks and knowledge of the local business environment. It provides its clients with the highest quality, most innovative and professional counsel and services in a collegial, stimulating work environment.
Leaders Unlimited is the strategic partner for the Africa continent of New York-listed Korn/Ferry International, one of the leading global providers of executive human capital resources.
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