The 5 essential qualities for a successful CIO in 2024

The accelerating digital transformation has made the role of the IT manager more important than ever before.

Therefore, it is no longer enough just to have a good understanding of technology. You must also be a strategic visionary leader who can motivate your employees. You must be able to explain complicated technical concepts in a way that all layers of the business can understand. And you must be able to create and formulate an IT strategy that aligns with the company’s overall strategy, while ensuring that you are anchored within cybersecurity.

Thus, great demands are placed on you as a CIO. But this also gives you the opportunity to have more influence.

When we talk to companies, these are the 5 most sought-after qualities in a modern CIO:

1. Strategic and visionary: You can inspire and think creatively.
2. Leadership: You can motivate employees and influence the company’s culture.
3. Business understanding: You can combine the company’s strategy with the IT strategy.
4. IT security: You ensure that as a company you are updated and anchored within cybersecurity.
5. Communication skills: You can communicate to different target groups.

Let’s take a closer look at how these 5 qualities are expressed:

1. Strategic and Visionary

As a modern IT manager, you must have a good understanding of how IT can contribute to the company’s overall goals.

For IT is no longer just the support or support function it has been before. Most companies are deeply dependent on IT. How would a bank, for example, manage without IT today?

So as an IT manager, you must be able to:

• Develop and implement a visionary IT strategy that is in line with the company’s strategy.
• Challenge the company’s top layer as to what IT can contribute today and in 5 years.
• Inspire the entire organization by showing how IT can fundamentally change the way the company works.

Being a strategic and visionary CIO is (along with leadership) the most crucial quality for companies. For some of the other qualities, you can ‘cover’ with the right middle managers or specialists.

But without a clear strategic vision, it will be difficult to drive innovation in the organization. This is crucial to be able to create cooperation and carry out projects. And it can help get the whole organization, both within and outside IT, to support the changes.

2. Leadership

As a modern IT manager, you must be a strong leader who can motivate and inspire your team.

When you need to implement major technological changes in the company (and you probably will), it will inevitably result in some ups and downs for the IT employees responsible for the implementation. And here you as CIO must be able to lead, support, and motivate them through the process.

It is not enough that you can see how an innovative new technology can change the way the company works.

You must also be able to support the organizational and cultural change – and stand up for it.

We know that it is easier to implement an innovative technology than it is to change habits and culture. And you as an IT manager must also be able to support this.

For example, we can look at the wave of upgrades to SAP S/4 HANA, which is really creating changes in the way companies work. But it requires that everyone in the organization can see the advantage of changing their routines and habits.

Otherwise, it will just be another IT system that failed in implementation.

3. Business Understanding

It is not enough that you as an IT manager are only aware of the IT department’s needs, wishes, and goals.

You must also have a good understanding of what the entire company’s needs are. For what is at the top of your agenda is not necessarily the same as what is at the top of your CEO’s agenda. Therefore, you must ensure that your priorities align with the company’s needs.

This requires you to understand:

• The company’s long-term and short-term goals.
• The underlying business processes and mechanisms behind the goals.
• How IT can best support the company’s goals.

Of course, this does not mean that you should comply with all wishes without questioning and being critical. The good IT manager challenges the wishes in a constructive way and ensures that they fit into the overall IT strategy.

But to be able to do this effectively, you must understand how a business operates.

4. Security

In recent years, IT security has moved high up on the CEO’s agenda – and has therefore also become a high priority for the CIO.

You do not need to be an expert in IT security and cyberattacks as a modern IT manager. But you must ensure (typically in collaboration with the CISO) that you are compliant with applicable legislation and security standards and that the reports are executed.

And of course, stay updated on the latest technological trends and requirements.

With real and current threats such as cyberattacks from, for example, Russia, security has received a significant boost in prioritization. For example, with the NIS2 EU requirements, it has become a national duty for companies to be able to withstand cyberattacks.

So your company does not lose large sums of money the same way as, for example, Maersk did back in 2017, when a hacker attack cost them a billion amount.

5.Communication Skills

As a modern IT manager, you must be able to communicate your messages clearly and understandably.

Both to the IT employee and to the manager in finance, who need to have the technical put into a context that makes sense to them.

Otherwise, there can be silo thinking, where the other professional groups in the organization do not understand what IT can help them with and make easier for them.

The same applies when you need to communicate with your CEO and board. If you cannot explain how new technologies can support the company’s goals, you may have difficulty gaining their support and backing – because they cannot see the purpose.

So you must be able to take something complex and make it understandable for other target groups.

The 5 crucial qualities briefly

If you want to be successful as a modern CIO, you must be able to:

• Motivate employees
• Inspire and think creatively
• Influence the company’s culture
• Understand the company’s business model
• Combine the IT strategy with the company’s strategy
• Ensure that you are updated and anchored within IT security
• Communicate to different target groups in an understandable way

Looking for a CIO with these 5 qualities?

Then book a meeting with us and tell us exactly what you are looking for. We will provide a qualified suggestion on who it could be.