The CTO Handbook/Job Manual: A Wealth of Reference Material and Thought Leadership on What Every Manager Needs to Know to Lead Their Technology Team

Tips and Guidelines for Upcoming CTO/CTO's

A recent conversation with my mentor, the late Sam Albert, indicated how much he enjoyed watching those whom he had mentored succeed in life and at work. (113) Over his lifetime, Sam's many developers and engineers were promoted to General Manager and President of their companies.

The importance of good mentoring in our profession is often overlooked. However, as CIOs we have a duty and the privilege to share as much of our experiences and life's lessons as we can with the future of our industry. Some of this is done through associations and clubs and some of this is done through direct experiences. More important, we need to leave the future leaders the keys to successful careers as technology executives and visionaries.

Just as a reporter learns the art of opening the doors of confidential sources, our prot g s need to learn the art of effective strategies. It's not only important to the development of their career, but it is integral to the successful growth and evolution of our industry.

CIO Magazine's 12 Step Program for Aspiring CIO's

CIO Magazine has clearly outlined a 12 step approach that I would like to share with you in this book. He stressed a couple of major points as part of a CIO Mentoring Program. (90)

• Customer Mentality. Every person in your company is your customer. And you should treat every customer as if he has the ability to promote you or fire you.

• Change your dialect. You must be able to effectively communicate with non-technical people. If you cannot have a short dialogue with other department heads on business issues that are not technical in nature, for example, advertising, finance, merchandising, sales, real estate and so on, the prospect of you reaching a successful executive level in any organization is slim. You must develop a habit to interact with as many non-IT managers, directors and executives as possible during the week, and intentionally do not discuss technology. You can ask them about current and relevant issues facing their function. Those types of daily exchanges—especially at the senior level—instill the view, if even subconsciously, that you are a managerial peer, not just the "technology guy."

• Create a service culture. Demand customer service culture from your direct reports. You must have a zero-tolerance rule for bad customer service and a religious desire to recognize good service. The translation of these values will result in a culture of premium service and will help build your credibility as a good manager.

• You're only as good as your team. Remember that your employees are also your customers—so treat them as such. Respect for your subordinates will also help reduce turnover and show senior management that you are a leader

• Never talk to down to anyone.

• Follow up at all cost. Follow-up is more important than all the technical qualifications in the world. IT people will fix something or complete a project but never let the customer know it's done. Always follow up.

• Proactive calls. Make proactive calls to your customers on a regular basis. Ask them how you and your group are doing and if there is anything you can help them with.

• Skillfully manage expectations. Never fall victim to the classic IT pitfall of overcommitting and underdelivering.

• Stay as far away from company politics as you can. Do not partake in petty infighting in your company. If you are approached or tempted to be drawn in, find a business trip and go on it.

• Understand financials. It is important to understand basic financial principles. Finance is the business of business. More specifically, you should know how to read financial statements such as a P&L statement, an income statement, a balance sheet and so on. Identify the relationships and trends between gross margin and sales, how fixed and variable costs impact your company's profitability, the debt position of your company, and so on. Nothing impresses a CEO, COO or CFO more than hearing an IT person intelligently participate in a financial discussion about the business, trends and opportunities.

• Networking There's an old saying, "It's not what you know but who you know." Maintain your contacts with former colleagues, bosses and even vendor account representatives. Join and be active in professional associations, which are well worth the dues, and you will build a great circle of contacts in the process.

• Ethics. Remember Enron. Never compromise Ethics (90)

Four Ways to Move up a Line

Skarzynski mentions excellent ways to start move up the value chain. Here is how you do it. Let's follow this simple but powerful approach. (81) The formula is similar to Gary Hamel's three-part prescription in Leading the Revolution (Harvard Business School Press, 2000):

1. Tighten alignment with business strategy. Ask yourself, "How well do I understand the business?" Chances are, discussing the business side makes you uncomfortable, and your reports even more so. That means it's up to you to demonstrate how IT can help.

2. Increase the IT group's business savvy. Business-conversant CIOs need to be supported by people who can feed them information garnished with the right kind of insights. How well do you understand the benefits your company offers customers?

   Here are a couple of ways to raise your staff's business acumen:

   • Do it yourself first. Take a page out of the playbook of one CEO we know. When was the last time you listened to your company's quarterly call with financial analysts? What might you learn by listening to your CEO's speeches and those of your competitors?

   • Send forth your people. Assign your canniest people to cross-functional teams working on projects for customers—both external customers and IT's internal customers, such as the market-research folks. Make them available to customers as free resources.

   • Bring in others. Import business experts to speak about the business of your largest customers—not about their IT concerns, but about their strategy and operations. Establish a matrix structure and joint hiring process, so that each CTO reports to a business-unit head as well as to him.

   • Partner and integrate. Get close to your CFO. Use the findings and the relationship to build rapport and shared understanding of IT's significance to the business. Show your version of the report card around the company as a way to initiate conversation. Invite the CFO to act as your translator and help you uncover opportunities. Work together on how IT can enact a solution that dovetails with the strategic intent.

3. Isolate the opportunity to innovate a customer process. Infiltrate the customer. Integrate your people, systems, and goals with those of your customers in pursuit of the common good.

4. Develop an innovation agenda. Learn the three rules of "Strategy 101."

   • Strategy has to be different. Copycat strategy is an oxymoron. True strategy is an original.

   • The difference has to have value.

   • The value has to be competitively advantageous (81)