CIO Career Coach: Become a digital leader

Welcome to Season 2 of CIO Career Coach, a video series I created in collaboration with CIO.com and IDG.tv, the video division of IDG.

In the first season, we focused on how to run a strategic and effective job search, whether for a CIO role or similar IT leadership position. Episodes covered how to establish your professional brand, write a winning resume, ace your interviews, and negotiate the job offer.

In this new season, “Top Competencies of the Modern IT Leader,” eight episodes will present the skills that top CIOs are developing to be successful in the new era of IT.

What is the new era of IT? It’s a world where all of the sudden, technology belongs to everyone. Unlike even five years ago, today, all of your customers and all of your employees are using all of your tools, all of the time.

What does it take to have a successful IT executive career in this new environment? That was one of the questions I asked over 50 CIOs, primarily of Fortune 500 companies while researching my latest book, Be the Business: CIOs in the New Era of IT.

While writing the book, I compiled a list of the most important skills that today’s successful CIOs have in common. And that’s what this season of CIO Career Coach is all about.

Communication, business acumen and relationship building are all familiar entries on every Top CIO Skills list ever written. While these attributes continue to be important, today they are just a drop in the bucket. In an era where technology belongs to everyone, the CIO must have so much more.

The first episode is all about becoming a digital leader, or what I sometimes refer to as “Stepping into the Digital Leadership Void.” Future episodes will be posted about every two weeks, and will cover more critical CIO capabilities, such as “Changing the Culture in IT,” “Bringing a Product Mindset to IT,” “Creating IT Cost Transparency” and more. I am confident you’ll find these videos helpful, but I also welcome your feedback.

Enjoy Episode 1 in Season 2 of CIO Career Coach: “Become a Digital Leader.”