On-the-job instruction

You, the IT leaders, are the most important assets within any IT organization, according to META Group. The consulting firm recently released its “CIO Desk Reference” – a report that provides guidance IT executives need to develop leadership skills.

“Beyond constant technological change, today’s CIOs must also deal with underlying economic factors – by current business conditions, global uncertainty, a hardware glut, and vendor consolidation – that have altered the technology landscape,” says Louis Boyle, senior vice president for META Group. “IT executives who wish to compete in the long run will need to understand these factors and transform them into business differentiators.”

According to the findings, the best performing IT organizations have breadth and depth in leadership, and these leaders are motivated by a core set of values centered on trust, teamwork, and truth. However, process and discipline is important too, and CIOs who want to transform their organizations from cost centers into partners in the business must achieve four main goals:

1. Inculcate value management into IT culture.

2. Use IT portfolio management as a communications and investment vehicle.

3. Develop human capital management practices that increase IT employee productivity.

4. Ensure that core IT processes are singular, understood, consistent and scalable.

In addition to citing best practices in the above areas, the CIO Desk Reference breaks down the critical planning issues of enterprise architecture, governance and relationship management.

Published every other year, the CIO Desk Reference has about 500 pages and costs $4,000. Go to https://www.metagroup.com/us/commerce/prodDetails.do?oid=45667 to download a free five-page sample of the research report.