Reasons to fire the CIO

Earlier this week Computerworld had an interesting article that caught my attention:

Opinion: The 10 secrets of bad CIOs

"In my decade as a CIO, I've seen a lot of turnover in the IT industry," said John Halamka - CIO of CareGroup Health System and Harvard Medical School. "Each time I hear about a CIO being fired, I ask around to learn the root cause." "Here's my list of the top 10 ways to be a bad CIO:"

1. Start each meeting with a chip on your shoulder.

If a CIO presupposes that every request will be unreasonable and every interaction unpleasant, then every meeting will be unproductive.

I find that listening to naysayers, understanding common ground and developing a path forward works with even the most difficult customers.

2. Set priorities yourself.

Although the CIO should make some budget decisions — for instance, on infrastructure maintenance — customer-driven governance committees should help set the priorities for application development.

Good intentions won't prevent mismatches between customer expectations and IT resource allocation.

3. Protect your staff at the expense of the organization.

I work hard to prevent my lean and mean staff from becoming bony and angry.

But I can't just say no to customers, so I work with them to balance resources, scope and timing.

When compliance issues or strategic opportunities suddenly arise, I do my best to redirect resources to these new priorities, explaining that existing projects will slow down.

It's important to tolerate some ambiguity, accept change, support the institution and, if a resource problem evolves, ask for help.

View the rest of John's top 10 ways to be a bad CIO.

What would YOU list as a reason to fire the CIO?

http://www.BradReese.Com

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