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

Your Seat at the Table Is Waiting

It seems like every book written about the CIO in the past 10 years has included the phrase “a seat at the table.” CIOs were reminded constantly that unless they managed to secure “a seat at the table,” they would face inevitable doom.

When you hear the phrase nowadays, it's likely to be spoken with a certain degree of irony. Most new CIOs are expected to sit at the executive table—and they are also expected to perform at the same level as their executive peers.

Think about this for a moment: Back in the good old days, the CIO could hide behind a wall of technology. IT was a mysterious “black box,” and when it didn't work as advertised or failed to deliver real value, people weren't really surprised or terribly disappointed.

Those days are gone. People expect technology to work and to deliver real value. When it doesn't, they hold the CIO responsible. Suddenly that “seat at the table” doesn't feel so comfortable anymore.

My friend Beverly Lieberman is president of Halbrecht Lieberman Associates in Westport, Connecticut. HLA is a “boutique” executive search firm specializing in senior-level IT placements. Over the past three years, Beverly says, there's been a real change in the way that CIOs are perceived by the board and by other C-level executives.

“Now the CIO is expected to be an executive leader with visibility and clout throughout the company,” says Beverly. “Many CIOs already sit on executive committees on a peer level with the heads of ...