Exploring People in the 90-day plan

There are strong expectations for the CIO to be a leader first and a technologist second. And when I say this, I recognize that the technologist role is a close second, as the CIO has to work across different emerging technologies and the value proposition that this can bring to the board and management. But leading through transformation change is the most critical ingredient.

The CIO must operate effectively in the People dimension. I’ve worked with and seen many naturally shy CIOs who have learned during their careers to be able to overcome their natural tendencies, becoming more outspoken and communicative than they are comfortable with. Being a people person is clearly not mandatory for the new CIO, but their job becomes much harder if they are unable to overcome any natural tendency to be less communicative. During the selection process, there would have already been some testing and consideration of how this new CIO would work with...