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CIOs: Want to get onto the Board? Just 'running' IT isn't enough

Still bitching about 'the business'? Then you've no business being on the board

A cynical approach

IT is two separate things. As one IT exec put it, “You don’t ask the guy who designed a Land Rover to maintain it.” There is little glory in ops. When it comes to the horror stories El Reg writes about in terms of sites going titsup or leaking data, nearly all get blamed on operations, rather than design, let alone the “vision”.

So positioning yourself as someone who has mastered the business proposition is the place to be. Then you can let someone else take the fall for whatever goes wrong after it goes live. This is one of the reasons CTOs typically last only two-three years; they either skip away to avoid blame, or stay, get blamed and are edged out.

Of the top players in a firm it’s really noticeable that technology directors have a higher staff turnover than accounts, sales, legal etc. That’s a vicious circle that need to be fixed both culturally and financially, which means giving CTOs the sort of long-term incentive plan that the rest of the top layer think the wage slaves don’t know about.

Being a bad boss

When I wrote about spotting bad bosses, I identified the worst kind as the politically weak, who could not get things for their people and allowed dumb HR policies and general internal politics to shaft their team. Being a good boss requires that you have stature within the firm, part of which comes from how you carry yourself.

It will seem odd for a Register article to say “look happy”, but the execs were clear on this as well. The culture of pessimism and black humour which pervades IT departments, can also lower confidence and becomes self-fulfilling.

You need to carry yourself as a leader, which mean sounding more upbeat more often, and as was pointed out, most interactions between IT and the rest of the business aren’t through you, but by the team. If they sound upbeat, the idea that you are leading them to do a good job will pervade the organisation, just as much as bitter jokes about network infrastructure undermine it.

One of the myths about IT people is that we don’t care about the business, and that’s a fatuous lie. I’ve been in tech for 30 years, man and boy (and programmer and CTO) and nearly every IT pro I’ve spoken to wanted to know the business better. But the prejudiced thinking is that we won’t be interested, so we don’t get told, so we can’t advance up the food chain.

What does a board-level IT leader look like?

Well, for a start he doesn’t look female, or short. At least not metaphorically. Let me explain. Our IT execs are a diverse lot but they talked of the ingrained discrimination that makes so many business leaders think that knowing technology means you can’t lead, be entrepreneurial, take risks, understand the business or even be trusted.

Are you thinking Tyrion Lannister? Good. I never said this was easy, it will be a fight, particularly against marketing who are moving hard towards IT as it becomes more outward facing, and the first thing a marketing droid learns to market is himself. As I said, they are worthy foes.

The execs saw no good reason why we can't have IT execs as CEOs not just CTO/CIO/CDO and all the other C-titles. Given the mess accountants like Fred the Shred have made, that's not so unrealistic.

If you’re up for the struggle or have already made it then you need to register for our next season of Register Round Tables, which aren’t only informative and entertaining networking events, they are attended by the guy who is competing for the job you really want. ®

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