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Leadership - A Chief Information Officer's Story:
Technology and Organizational Leadership has always been an integral
part of my life and in so many ways I would have to thank my Father
for gifting me with the passion for both.
As a skilled programmer in the early days of Punch Cards,
Mainframes, and Data Centers, my earliest memories were of him
bringing home stacks of code printout to be debugged and boxes of
punch-card confetti for us kids (which my Mother banned him from
doing again after a fairly predictable indoor incident).
Christmases and Birthdays consisted of Erector Sets, Heathkit
breadboards, radios, clocks, and TVs.
The garage always had something in some stage of assembly or
deconstruction. |
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More importantly however my Father also showed me the importance of Leadership, rising to Vice President positions in Operations for a number of organizations. During that time, I began to realize that while technical success was satisfying, organizational success was more rewarding still.
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Technology skills aren’t enough to
be a successful CIO.
Indeed, while that foundation and passion for I.T.
should exist in every Technology Leader, it’s not the most
important skill to have. |
To get there though requires understanding people, teamwork, and
orchestration.
My career and my life has been to be that Balanced Leader; the technologist who not only “gets” that expertise in a CIO must be a given for anyone who has chosen the vocation, but also the high-EQ person that can create and nurture the culture necessary to bring all the pieces together.
I believe that I have had some measure of success in that effort and
hopefully this introduction will provide some insight into that
history as you seek a candidate to advise your board or lead in your
organization.
