Who will lead the next generation?

Most CIOs have done some recruitment in the course of their careers. Almost everybody at that level of senior management will have been involved in recruitment, from policy and job specifications to interviewing. In good management theory, best practice and all of that jazz, they will also be taking some responsibility for succession planning, talent spotting and development. In larger national organisations especially, most CIOs will have been involved in liaison with educational institutions from career talks to joint third level and academic groups. There has also been a strong tradition of involvement with the Irish Computer Society and Irish Software Association which continues to bring senior ICT people in contact with their peers and, more importantly, their juniors.

As ICT people progress in their careers, there will inevitably be some training involved. Continuing Professional Development may now be de rigueur in most professions but computing can proudly boast that it was there well before most — not least because of the rapid change and technological progression that has been characteristic of all ICT for decades. On the receiving end, anyone paying attention will note the various styles and techniques of good teachers. A goodly minority will be drawn into delivering some training to others, from simple ‘This is how the new system works’ demonstrations for colleagues to serious and even certified training as a guest or part-time lecturer.

“‘You run the department and leave the politics to me’ is a very common approach to delegation, consciously or not. Actually, it is commonly quite explicit and the way the top end of an IT department works”

 

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The point is that no CIO or indeed CTO or IT director, or whatever the head honcho/honcho is called, gets to that rank and role without plenty of exposure to people on their way up, from students and young scientists and trainees to colleague peers and rivals and opposite numbers. In Ireland, there are over 10,000 direct employees in ICT companies and possibly a similar overall number in IT departments and relevant roles. This country being what it is the leaders all know each other, by and large, and no one is more than a single phone call away from an introduction. We Irish were linked-in before anyone thought of commercially systemising it.

Now here’s the question: what have you learned from all of that experience that you will apply when hiring or promoting:

• Your successor, officially or in your own mind?
• Your second in command and/or right hand person?
• A talented person for the one job you have on offer with a bit of depth and scope?

A quick and useful corollary might be the question of whether you would actually look for the same characteristics in your potential successor and the No. 2 to take up that role on Monday morning. Is there something of a possibility that a touch of lingering idealism might quietly suggest higher standards in some respects for your potential successor than for your deputy? Perhaps in any event your current need is for an utterly reliable nuts and bolts type of No. 2 while you expect your successor to be more of a visionary and leader? ‘You run the department and leave the politics to me’ is a very common approach to delegation, consciously or not. Actually, it is commonly quite explicit and the way the top end of an IT department works.

This column and other media tend to laud the virtues of the CIO as a forward looking visionary, strategic leader and all of that. Which is both true and important, although making that the sole responsibility of the role is still uncommon. We still hear the phrase ‘keeping the lights on’ constantly. So what happens in practical terms is that the whole area of mundane responsibility implied by that tends to fall to the No. 2.  It is broadly similar to the General Manager to CEO or CEO to COO relationships, or perhaps closer to the Captain and First Officer (Captain and Executive Officer in the US) on a ship, because the focus is almost totally operational. Yet it is a role that offers almost unbeatable experience as preparation for the golden moment of elevation to the CIO chair. It is a standard paradigm and paradox in business and the professions that the mark of success is that you no longer practise what you have become expert at. ICT is no exception and in fact the more technology-based the business the more true it becomes.