A recent survey undertaken by the world`s largest executive recruitment company, Korn/Ferry International, said the way was wide open for chief information officers (CIOs) to advance to CEO level - provided they were dedicated and ambitious and displayed the qualities needed by a successful CEO.
While recognising that a glass ceiling holding back CIOs does exist, it found that like the sound barrier, it can be broken.
Annelize van Rensburg, a partner with the South African alliance office of Korn/Ferry International, Leaders Unlimited Korn/Ferry International, said growing numbers of CIOs worldwide were advancing to the role of CEO or COO by being motivated and learning the skills required to head up major corporates.
"As we move increasingly into a globalised economy where information technology and telecommunications play ever-increasingly important roles, boards have recognised the importance of having technologically savvy people at the head of the company."
She said this did not necessarily signal a change in the emotional and intellectual requirements for a CEO.
"CIOs have to groom themselves to learn the skills required by a CEO to steer a company to maximum growth and profitability."
The survey which tracked some half-million top executives worldwide of whom nearly 1 500 were senior-level IT leaders was authored by highly-respected HR gurus Mark Polansky and Simon Wiggins. They found that the single most important change in mindset that a CIO had to make to advance to the CEO level was to stop worrying about IT and get on with the business of managing and growing the company.
"One Paris-based executive who had succeeded in breaking through the `glass ceiling` and was interviewed for the survey, put it very succinctly: Step away from the comfort zone of technology. Get to know your company so that you can add business value - and stop worrying about IT."
Van Rensburg said one of the important inhibiting factors that came out of the survey was the fact that CIOs often had difficulty distancing themselves from the typical "techie" mindset where issues of paramount importance were making decisions that typically only affected a company`s technological infrastructure.
"They have to break away from this mindset to aspire to the behaviour and mindset that is required for the higher position. Fortunately, these behaviours and competencies can be learnt. The most important issue is the willingness of the CIO to look beyond the borders of IT."
She said successful CEOs viewed their organisations as extended communities of interrelated business units cooperating to achieve "defined sets of goals in defined periods of time". "In other words, think big," she said.
A CEO needs to figure out how to grow a business and understand its key drivers, Van Rensburg said.
The survey found that one common trait shared by most CEOs, CIOs and COOs was that they were inquisitive and listened to what other people had to say as a means of evaluating alternative solutions and were open to changing their view as new information became available. They are "participative" in approach.
Under pressure and with increasing stress, the leadership style of top executives changed. Although they remained open and outgoing in pressurised situations, they did not have the luxury of gathering large amounts of information from many people before acting. Instead they adopted a trial and error approach to problem resolution using quickly attained information.
"It is these abilities to respond to different situations in different ways - all beneficial to the company - that CIOs have to acquire in order to become effective CEOs," Van Rensburg said.
Team building and strong social skills typically are other skills that are important in the executive suite as well as the ability to `hit the ground running` to rapidly adapt to new situations, she said.
Thinking styles of the most successful CIOs differed considerably from the CEO and COO counterparts.
"The primary difference is that CIOs are by custom, training and experience much more analytical and adaptable than their CEO/COO colleagues.
"CIOs reign over a complex and technical portfolio of infrastructure and applications systems with far-reaching and broad commercial impact.
"CIOs live in a world of linking slow-moving technical standards (for IT, telecom) with fast-moving, innovative technology for business purposes. They are under continuous pressure to maximise return on investment."
CEOs and COOs face similar long-term challenges. For them, however, the "call to action" comes much quicker. By training and by instinct they focus on strategic issues. CIOs, on the other hand, face incredible and endless changes in IT systems and developments. They spend their careers responding to technical challenges where there is typically less room to manoeuvre, fewer practical options and hence, less control.
Successful CIOs, CEOs and COOs all share certain "emotional competencies". These include ambiguity tolerance, composure, confidence, empathy, energy and humility (lack of personal ego investment).
The survey clearly found that in general, CIOs had the same competencies - albeit in somewhat different measure.
"Do CIOs have the right stuff to move into the CEO/COO suite? My answer is clearly yes," said one of the authors in the closing paragraph.
The two biggest differences between the CIO on the one hand and the CEO/COO on the other hand is the speed at which they arrive at decisions under pressure and the manner in which they communicate their decisions to the people around them.
Executive coaching can play a hugely important role in helping executives to make the transition from one level to the next, Van Rensburg said.
"The most important single transition that we can help CIOs to make is the realisation that they are no longer responsible for IT/technology alone but for the overall welfare and growth of the company," Van Rensburg said.
For more information, please contact Annelize van Rensburg on (011) 722 1600 or on her cell (082) 338 2646.
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