Not long ago, Joanne Birkin got an e-mail from her boss, the CIO of a large Midwestern food company, asking for her feedback on his performance. The CIO asked three of his direct reports: What should I stop doing? What should I start doing? What should I continue?

Sounds like a constructive exercise. But not in this case. Birkin huddled with her colleagues, and they decided to limit their "stops" and "starts" to three apiece. "Any more than three would be too discouraging for him," says Birkin, director of the project management office. (Her name was changed at her request.) On the list: Stop micromanaging experienced team members. Start developing a systems road map for the frequent mergers and acquisitions. There were no "continues."

The employees e-mailed their feedback to the CIO. And never heard another word about it. ¿

If you’re tempted to dismiss this CIO as a tone-deaf jerk from fly-over country, consider this: In a CIO survey done in May with TopCoder, a company that hosts a Web-based community of IT professionals, 400 IT professionals almost universally gave their head honchos a thumbs-down. Among the findings:

• 45 percent don’t believe their CIOs communicate changes in IT well enough.
• 52 percent said their CIOs don’t foster a team environment.
• A whopping 93 percent said their CIOs don’t spend enough time developing future IT leaders.

In this article, we explore some reasons for the low scores and what you can do about them (see "Management To-Do List," Page 64, and "Morale-Boosting Moves," Page 68). Another important story in this issue, "How to Launch a Leader" (Page 70), explains the benefits of developing CIOs of the future now and gives ideas for making it happen.

Savvy Managers SOught

Conducted online, our unscientific survey attracted a self-selected group of respondents. Disgruntled individuals are more likely to participate. But to a person, the 10 IT staffers interviewed for this story were professional and measured in their comments. Most were highly frustrated at what they saw as shortcomings in their CIOs.

So, what’s going on here?

For one thing, despite all the emphasis on business-savvy CIOs, many still come up through the technical ranks and are promoted into the role. Nearly 70 percent of survey participants said their CIOs’ primary background was in IT. Only a third said the bulk of their CIOs’ experience was in business. Those results coincide with a survey of 539 IT executives CIO conducted for the "State of the CIO" issue: 82 percent identified IT jobs as influential in their careers. Consulting was a distant second. (For more survey results, see www.cio.com/printlinks.)