The Chief Information Officer's Body of Knowledge: People, Process, and Technology

Chapter 3

Career Pathing

Retaining and Developing Your Best and Brightest

Art Klein

Career pathing programs are critical tools that can boost morale, improve productivity, and help IT leaders grow and retain top talent. They give staff members a sense of purpose. In addition, these programs can also serve as a way for an IT executive to stand out as a leader of people and build his or her personal brand. This chapter discusses the relevance of career pathing and presents a model that can be used by an IT executive to define what type of career-pathing program best serves individual personal needs and the corresponding corporate culture.

Introduction: The Challenge of IT Staffing

One of the great understated challenges IT leaders face is that of talent management. Although the topic frequently ranks high in executive surveys as a point of concern, it often takes a backseat to the urgent day-to-day issues IT leaders confront. Today's IT executives grapple with the challenges of balancing the interface with business partners, reprioritization of a constantly changing portfolio of projects, maintenance of operational continuity, and the drive to reduce operational costs across an entire enterprise. However, behind every successful leader is a team of contributors and managers who make it all happen and deliver the actual technical services. Although the statement “People are our greatest assets” may be overused and sounds contrived, it could not be any truer.

It is interesting to ...