The Transformational CIO: Leadership and Innovation Strategies for IT Executives in a Rapidly Changing World

Confronting Reality

Being an executive leader is not easy, and it is not always intuitive. You have to be willing to take some hard knocks, pick yourself up off the floor, and return to the battle. You must not only demand respect from your peers, you must earn it—over and over.

Mark P. McDonald, the group vice president of executive programs at Gartner, is a terrific speaker. I had the privilege of listening to one of his presentations at the CIO Executive Leadership Roundtable in Chicago recently. Mark also writes an excellent blog. One of his posts is titled “General support means no support,” and it describes in somewhat horrifying detail an executive-level meeting in which the CIO of a company presents his vision and strategy for the next three years.

After the CIO concludes his presentation, the CFO asks the CIO if there's anything specific that he needs to achieve his plan. CIO responds by saying that he needs the CFO's “sponsorship.” The CIO does not specify what he needs from the leadership team; instead he merely seeks their general support. Here are snippets from Mark's post:

I almost fell out of my chair. . . . The CFO who had been engaged in the conversation visibly sat back in his chair and disengaged. . . . It became blindingly clear: General support means no support.

Unwittingly, the CIO has missed a “tremendous opportunity” to gather the concrete support and executive engagement that he will need to move forward with his proposed strategy, Mark writes.

It is a ...