The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO” 2/26/2016

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The “Future of CIO” Blog has reached 1.3 million page views with 2500+ blog posting in 59+ different categories of leadership, management, strategy, digitalization, change/talent, etc. The content richness is not for its own sake, but to convey the vision and share the wisdom. Here is the weekly insight about digital leadership, IT Management, and Talent Management.

The Weekly Insight of the “Future of CIO”  2/26/2016

• How to Maximize IT Value Business paradigm is shifting from the industrial era to an information/digital era, IT plays a pivotal role in such a transformation: the business needs IT to deliver services / solutions that drive productivity and effectiveness; the business wants fit-for-purpose IT solutions that enable them to be efficient in delivering services and products to their market at the right cost to deliver profits to the shareholders; the business needs IT to provide better information as a nervous system to the right people for making the right decision and improving profitability; the businesses are also looking for IT to develop new innovative practices for complexity management, data transformation, quality improvement and agile construction etc. But, how can IT meet so many expectations and maximize IT value to achieve long-term business goals?

• Three Principles for Communication Effectiveness:  Communication is always important, although it is the means to the end, not the end itself. The end is for problem solving and idea brainstorming. A great communicator doesn’t need to be “the everyone’s cup of tea,” but in order to communicate effectively and avoid the miscommunication symptoms such as “lost in translation,” you have to follow the right set of principles and deliver the message persuasively and creatively.

• Five Traits of High-Quality IT Professionals People are always the weakest link in any organization, this is particularly true for IT organizations due to the changing nature and complexity of technologies. IT skills gap is a significant challenge facing IT leaders today, the common complaints from talent managers include: people do not have the right competencies; they can’t find the right skills to fill the positions or their non-IT partners do not understand IT, etc. Are such problems an organization specific, or systematic? what are exactly the skills gaps and what are the resulting symptoms? What are the emergent traits to be high-quality IT professionals regardless of the specific skillset, how to reinvent "IT geek" stereotype and build a healthy and positive IT culture to catalyzing innovation?

• Agility vs. Flexibility: Agility is the ability of a business to adapt rapidly and cost efficiently in response to changes in the business environment. Agile provides greater flexibility and it requires great discipline especially at team member level. Great power comes with great reasonability.

• A Leadership Journey from Good to Great. The reason the great leadership being so rare is that people are more often conditioned throughout education to be followers, to conform, only one right answer, etc. The industrial age required followers, those, including some being put in a leadership position, that would just do their jobs and not to question. However, we are not in the industrial age any longer. On one hand, now at a digital age, there are many informal leaders - who practice professional influence via digital channels - throughout organizations, industry and beyond. More digital leaders are emerging via their power of positive influence; not the title of status quo. On the other hand, digital also raises the bar to be a great leader, because everything becomes so transparent, leadership is no longer just about a few spotlight moments, but a journey of continuous learning and delivery; leadership is also no long only about what you talk, what you act, but about what you think - the thought processes can be much easily tracked down via your digital footprint, so how can you take an ongoing leadership journey from good to great?

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