STAYING THE COURSE AS A CIO: HOW TO OVERCOME THE TRIALS AND CHALLENGES OF IT LEADERSHIP The shelf-life of a Chief Information Officer can be shockingly short. Few survive in post for more than a few years. More often each falls prey to insurmountable problems and their careers come to a sharp and ignominious end. In this book, a global CIO with over thirty years of experience in major corporations examines the main reasons why this happens. Readers will understand which types of issue can cause problems for an IT Leader and more importantly, they will learn strategies of how these problems can be minimized or even avoided. IT is often seen a technical backwater, but it is a discipline which has the capability to add massive value to an organisation whether it is in the private or the public sector – provided of course it has the right leadership doing the right things. Aspiring IT Leaders will need to deal with a common set of recurring trials and challenges. These include: · Overcoming the challenge of managing diverse and conflicting stakeholders · How to deal with large and complex projects · Making sense of software and how to handle the rapidly changing technology landscape · Knowing when to outsource and how to get the best out of an outsourcing partner · Harnessing the intellectual power of consultants to help you meet your goals · And last but not least, how to develop a set of strategies that are aligned with your corporate goals and then make sure your resources are properly targetted so that the IT function generates maximum positive impact for the enterprise. For IT professionals looking to fully integrate their function into the enterprise, 'Staying the Course as a CIO’ is a valuable source of practical advice, all based on real experience.

STAYING THE COURSE AS A CIO: HOW TO OVERCOME THE TRIALS AND CHALLENGES OF IT LEADERSHIP The shelf-life of a Chief Information Officer can be shockingly short. Few survive in post for more than a few years. More often each falls prey to insurmountable problems and their careers come to a sharp and ignominious end. In this book, a global CIO with over thirty years of experience in major corporations examines the main reasons why this happens. Readers will understand which types of issue can cause problems for an IT Leader and more importantly, they will learn strategies of how these problems can be minimized or even avoided. IT is often seen a technical backwater, but it is a discipline which has the capability to add massive value to an organisation whether it is in the private or the public sector – provided of course it has the right leadership doing the right things. Aspiring IT Leaders will need to deal with a common set of recurring trials and challenges. These include: · Overcoming the challenge of managing diverse and conflicting stakeholders · How to deal with large and complex projects · Making sense of software and how to handle the rapidly changing technology landscape · Knowing when to outsource and how to get the best out of an outsourcing partner · Harnessing the intellectual power of consultants to help you meet your goals · And last but not least, how to develop a set of strategies that are aligned with your corporate goals and then make sure your resources are properly targetted so that the IT function generates maximum positive impact for the enterprise. For IT professionals looking to fully integrate their function into the enterprise, 'Staying the Course as a CIO’ is a valuable source of practical advice, all based on real experience.

Golfers bring more than their clubs to the course; they also bring doubt, fear and excitement - and a lot of hope. They are so intent on looking good that they often end up looking bad. A host of practical, proven exercises are combined with a whole new way of thinking. This is a book that will change your mind, your play and your entire golfing experience. This is an approach to golf that stresses personal development, practical exercises are combined with a mental approach that will help you to enjoy golf more and to improve your game at the same time.

Recognized as One of the Best Business Books for 2014 by CIO Magazine Based on interviews with more than 150 CIOs, IT/business executives, and academic thought leaders, The Strategic CIO: Changing the Dynamics of the Business Enterprise provides insight, success stories, and a step-by-step methodology to transform your IT organization into a strategic asset that drives customer value, increases revenues, and enhances shareholder wealth. The book details how strategic CIOs from FedEx, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, and other leading companies transformed their organizations. It illustrates the methods these CIOS used to become strategic partners that collaborate effectively within their organizations to leverage information and technology for a competitive advantage. The text will help you assess the key competencies and skills required by IT personnel to partner with your business teams to create new and enhanced products and services that create customer value, increase margin, and enhance shareholder wealth. The book includes powerful methodologies, time-saving templates, proven best practices, and helpful assessments. It also details a four-phase methodology, along with the associated activities and tools, to help your IT organization successfully transform into a strategic IT organization. Gain insight into the four domain competencies and twelve associated skills required to build effective strategic IT organizations. Build your roadmap to success using the transformation methodology described in the text and you will be on your way to making your organization a strategic IT organization. Read Philip Weinzimer’s recent article that appeared on CIO.com.

Great CIOs consistently exceed key stakeholders' expectations and maximize the business value delivered through their company's technology. What's their secret? Sure, IT professionals need technological smarts, plus an understanding of their company's goals and the competitive landscape. But the best of them possess a far more potent ability: they forge good working relationships with everyone involved in an IT-enabled project, whether it's introducing new hardware or implementing a major business transformation. In The CIO Edge, the authors draw on Korn/Ferry International's extensive empirical data on leadership competencies as well as Gartner's research on IT trends and the CIO role. They prove that, for IT leaders, mastering seven essential skills yields big results. This new book lays out the people-to-people leadership competencies that the highest-performing CIOs have in common—including the ability to inspire others, connect with a diverse array of stakeholders, value others' ideas, and manifest caring in their relationships. The authors then explain how to cultivate each defining competency. Learn these skills, and you'll get more work done through others' enabling you to successfully execute more IT projects, generate better results for your company, and concentrate your efforts where they'll exert the most impact. The payoff? As the authors show, you'll work smarter, not harder—and get promoted far faster than your peers.

Becoming an effective IT manager presents a host of challenges--from anticipating emerging technology to managing relationships with vendors, employees, and other managers. A good IT manager must also be a strong business leader. This book invites you to accompany new CIO Jim Barton to better understand the role of IT in your organization. You'll see Jim struggle through a challenging first year, handling (and fumbling) situations that, although fictional, are based on true events. You can read this book from beginning to end, or treat is as a series of cases. You can also skip around to address your most pressing needs. For example, need to learn about crisis management and security? Read chapters 10-12. You can formulate your own responses to a CIO's obstacles by reading the authors' regular "Reflection" questions. You'll turn to this book many times as you face IT-related issues in your own career.

Explore the insights of a world-leading CIO as he expounds on the challenges faced by technology executives and how to overcome them As the pace of change in business continues to rapidly accelerate, Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers are often left with accountability for future-proofing their organizations. Renowned professor, executive, and author Alex Siow shows you how you can meet that challenge while managing the information overload that often accompanies these positions. In Leading with IT: Lessons from Singapore’s First CIO, the author uses his expansive and impressive experience in academia and industry to lead you down a path to achieving success as a CIO or CTO. Filled with practical tips, case studies, and personal insights, the book discusses: The management of legacy information and telecommunications technology The information overload often suffered by technology executives How to motivate and mentor a workforce How to manage change effectively The fostering of innovation The future of money, work, and artificial intelligence Perfect for CIOs, CTOs, and the executives, managers, and employees who work with and for them, Leading with IT delivers an engaging and insightful exploration of what it takes to achieve astounding results at the intersection of technology and business.

Why can't operational managers ever get what they really want from IT? Why is the relationship so fraught with frustration from all parties? IT managers and business leaders simply don't understand each other, the way they think, the pressures they face, and the goals they are trying to achieve. Enter Susan Cramm, the prospective Deborah Tannen of the Business-IT relationship. - Personality-wise, if men are from Mars and women are from Venus, then the IT people are from Microsoft and their business partners are from Apple - In spite of great effort to become more business-smart, line and IT managers have very different backgrounds and experiences which make it difficult to communicate what they do and why and how they do it - Different pressures and incentives further increase the difficulty of forming positive IT-business relationships. While line managers need to "get 'er done now" to support the needs of their function or units (or pay the price in terms of near term business results and bonuses), IT managers need to "get 'er done right" to support the longer term needs of the enterprise (or pay the price in terms of fragmented, fragile systems.) The key to reconciling these and other differences is to figure out how to manage the paradox. If you want to get what you want from IT, you need to shift your perspective and look through the eyes of your IT partners. Doing so will allow you to develop a single version of "truth" and give you the insight necessary to change the relationship for the better. Similarly, this book will help dispel the notion that managers can "hand off" their IT responsibility to the IT organization and will provide the tools to incorporate the management of IT into their daily leadership agenda and repertoire. Business leaders should assume accountability for IT, much as they have assumed accountability for the management of the financial and human resource asset, and build the necessary capabilities into their organization. The core ideas in this book also promise to have applicability to managing other relationships between business units and specialized service providers. Think supply-chain management, or better yet, graphic design.

Kouzes' and Posner's bestselling The Leadership Challenge has been the most trusted source for becoming a better leader for millions of executives. This new guide from Kouzes and Posner, written in conjunction with coaching experts Elaine Biech, provides practical information and tools for integrating The Practices of Exemplary Leadership into a coaching practice or program. Filled with best practices and success stories as well as worksheets and checklists, this comprehensive resource enables coaches to quickly and easily adapt their coaching regimen to include The Leadership Challenge and the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI).

Machiavellians are few in number in IT. The massive pressure on CIOs continues to increase as the opportunities to use technology in business become more prevalent and more competitive. As CIOs often find themselves at the center of business conflict, they must not only familiarize themselves with Machiavellian tactics as a defensive weapon, but also learn to use them as an offensive weapon in extreme situations so that they can increase IT's contribution to their enterprises. As Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli implied, you're either predator or prey, and the animal you most resemble determines your position on the food chain. In The Wolf in CIO's Clothing Gartner analyst and author Tina Nunno expands on Machiavelli's metaphor, examining seven animal types and the leadership attributes of each. Nunno posits the wolf -- a social animal with strong predatory instincts -- as the ideal example of how a leader can adapt and thrive. Technology may be black and white, but successful leadership demands an ability to exist in the grey. Drawing on her experience with hundreds of CIOs, Nunno charts a viable way to master the Machiavellian principles of power, manipulation, love, and war. Through compelling case studies, her approach demonstrates how CIOs and IT leaders can adjust their leadership styles in extreme situations for their own success and that of their teams.