Career Advice: Finding common ground with your boss

James M. Swartz ( see his P100 profile here)

Title: CIO and vice president

Company: Sybase Inc., Dublin, Calif.

Swartz is this month's Premier 100 IT Leader, answering questions about relationships with bosses and moving into positions with more responsibility. If you have a question you'd like to pose to one of our Premier 100 IT Leaders, send it to askaleader@computerworld.com and watch for this column each month .

You always hear experts advise IT pros to keep their skills up to date. I've been more than willing, but my boss usually tries to put me off, saying he needs me here to keep things running. "Things" are, as you might guess, legacy systems that won't be around forever. I'm beginning to feel stymied, even sabotaged. What should I do?

Ask your boss to talk with you one-on-one, so you can outline the skills that you have and how you might be able to add more value to the organization by being put on other tasks. Using a direct approach focuses on how your experience will help you meet the company's goals and objectives. Be specific in what you are looking to do and outline what those new responsibilities might be. Try and get responses from him regarding each of the items that you discuss, so that you know your boss understands your concerns. Let your boss know where you stand and where you want to go.

I've been working as a business analyst for a couple of years. I enjoy it but want to do a lot more. To work in a management position, should I pursue various technical skills (and which ones?), or would project management be a better path?

Either path can lead you to a management position, but the only way to lead you to such responsibilities is to start out with a self-inventory of your interests and skills and where you need the most training in order to fill yours and the company's objectives. IT is fairly broad, and it really depends on what specific area you are looking to get into. Regardless of what path you go down, the most important thing is being able to relate to your customers and to articulate a solution that meets their requirements.

What's the easiest way to become a CIO?

You have to be at the right place at the right time with the right set of skills. Most importantly, you have to have a vision of what you can do to help the company meet its business objectives. Historically, IT has been very costly, and if you can find a return on senior management's investment, those managers will feel comfortable that you can help solve their problems and begin to trust you with more responsibility. The leader of an IT organization needs to look beyond a "point solution" approach of managing information systems. This person should take an "ecosystem" point of view, with a goal to streamline IT and business practices, and ultimately increase productivity of the organization. To be able to do so, the task at hand is twofold: 1) Understand overall needs from business units across the enterprise and identify any overlap, and 2) align IT infrastructure to meet business process and data storage needs.

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