How Confident Are CIOs in Their Decision Making?

First the good news: In a survey of about 300 IT professionals released today by SolarWinds, 99 percent reported that they advise their companies on strategic decisions about new technologies. Now the bad news: Only a third of respondents said they were completely confident about giving that advice.

There are a few different ways of interpreting these results. Ninety-five percent of respondents said that they were “somewhat confident” about giving advice, and maybe this just means they’re smart. With the speed at which technology changes, it may be foolish to be completely confident about anything.

But it’s interesting to note that the tech pros in the survey felt there were some very specific gaps in their armor. When asked what they would need to feel more empowered, 52 percent wanted more training in their own areas of specialty. Significantly, 39 percent said they needed a better understanding of the business.

To me, that last item sounds like real progress. Remember the days when tech people thought there was no need for them to know anything about business—that wasn’t their department or their problem? The next step in that evolution was when techies learned what the acronym ROI stood for, and that it might have some relationship to their jobs. But I was both amused and horrified at the ease with which they thought they could understand the “soft” skills of business. I actually read a post on a message board somewhere from an engineer looking for a job. He had a good understanding of the business world, he added, having once worked as a waiter in a restaurant.

So it seems like real progress to me that tech people know what they don’t know and admit that they need additional training to be the most effective advisors for their companies. The next step on the evolutionary ladder will be when they actually get that training.

Minda Zetlin is co-author of The Geek Gap: Why Business and Technology Professionals Don't Understand Each Other and Why They Need Each Other to Survive. Learn more at www.mindazetlin.com.

Minda Zetlin is a business technology writer and columnist for Inc.com. She is co-author of "The Geek Gap: Why Business and Technology Professionals Don't Understand Each Other and Why They Need Each Other to Survive," as well as several other books. She lives in Snohomish, Washington.

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