In this week's news roundup for IT pros, three articles on leadership, with clear takeaways for business executives and CIOs.
CIOs: Hone these leadership qualities
What does the "I" stand for? 3 CIOs talk innovation, information [MobiHealthNews]: As the CIO role has evolved over the years, does the title chief information officer still accurately apply? Or should it be chief innovation officer? Is there a difference? Jonah Comstock asked three CIOs about the significance of their title, and he got three different answers, but the underlying takeaway is that innovation shouldn't be tasked to one person alone – it's everyone's responsibility.
The one quality that separates great leaders from good ones [Fortune]: Writing for Fortune, Andrea Thompson argues that self awareness – knowing your strengths and weaknesses – makes all the difference in leadership. She says, “Self-awareness is that critical skill that will help influence how you relate to others, how you communicate your guidance, and how you process input from others. Self-awareness underpins all that we do. It’s the difference between good and great.” It's a great reminder for anyone in a leadership role within their organization.
An executive recruiter's plea for CIOs to "Be The Business" [Forbes]: We've already told you about Martha Heller's new book, "Be the Business: CIOs in the New Era of IT." But for those who haven't clicked “Buy” on their Amazon carts yet, Peter High provides even more insights for CIOs from the new book in his Q&A with Heller in Forbes. These include the top five ways CIOs can ensure they are driving business innovation, according to Heller: “Take an investment management mindset to IT spending, bring a 'product management' structure to the IT organization, use business metrics to measure IT, rather than 'uptime' and 'three nines,' take the personal risk to define the 'what' of a company’s strategy, rather than only the 'how.' Finally, become your company’s 'critical capabilities' champion and using your unique end-to-end vantage point to get your vertically oriented executive peers to start thinking about the enterprise as a whole.”
More news for CIOs
What lies ahead for Virtual and Augmented Reality? [ITProPortal]
Tech giants team up to keep AI from getting out of hand [Wired]
Your biggest cybersecurity weakness is your phone [Harvard Business Review]
