Develop a strategic plan: Ron Kifer, group vice president and CIO at Applied Materials, created a high-level 90-day strategic plan before his first day on the job. Within his first 30 days, he incorporated specific pain points of the company, the type of CIO leader required and the mandate of the executive team. The plan laid out steps to support the mandate and position IT as an innovation leader. (To download Kifers initial 90-day plan, go to www.cio.com/inprint.)
Track relationships: Vicki Petit, vice president of information services at furniture manufacturer KI, created an Excel spreadsheet to track hours spent per month on building relationships in five areas: vendors, cross-functional meetings, individual business leaders, professional associations and external peers. She sets yearly goals in each area and reports results to her boss monthly.
RELATED STORIES
The CIO Role: First Impressions
Top 10 Priorities of a CIO's Success
Get a coach: Michael Abbene, CIO at Arch Coal, used a coach (a former CIO from a different company) to offer guidance during his first 90 days. They had weekly phone discussions and regularly met face-to-face. The relationship continues today—18 months after he became CIO.
Next read this:
- Top 9 challenges IT leaders will face in 2020
- Top 5 strategic priorities for CIOs in 2020
- 7 'crackpot' technologies that might transform IT
- 8 technologies that will disrupt business in 2020
- 7 questions CIOs should ask before taking a new job
- 7 ways to position IT for success in 2020
- The 9 new rules of IT leadership
- 20 ways to kill your IT career (without knowing it)
- IT manager’s survival guide: 11 ways to thrive in the years ahead
- CIO resumes: 6 best practices and 4 strong examples
- 4 KPIs IT should ditch (and what to measure instead)