The important distinction to make when deciding between a CTO and a CIO is that the CTO builds the technology and the CIO buys the technology.
However, the common traits shared by the two should be:
1. Ability to pivot and multitask
The key ability of a tech executive to pivot and multitask as they work is vital to their success. The world doesn't stay still and being able to adjust strategy if the server goes down, if a key member of the team leaves, or an issue arises is imperative.
2. Ability to develop a road map/game plan for going forward in the rapidly changing and dynamic tech ecosystem
In an executive position, it's the CTO or CIOs job to stay up on changing trends. Regardless of whether the technology or idea works today, he or she must be ready to rapidly change in the dynamic tech ecosystem for tomorrow. Being stuck with tunnel vision when great ideas are flowing around will be devastating for the business. While the CTO or CIO isn't required to manually run or make changes to the algorithms being used, they must educate themselves on the practicality of the issues.
3. Ability to sell people on their ideas and vision; to get the non-believers and naysayers "in the boat and all paddling together
The capability of a CTO or CIO to get the non-believers and naysayers "in the boat and all paddling together" will influence the long-term success of the business. Remember the adage "you're only as strong as your weakest link?" that reverberates through. This problem solving, getting employees enthusiastic and on board with your visions and goals, will be tested time and again. Developing that trust where your team knows that you have the businesses best interest in mind is worth its weight in gold.
Charley Polachi
Managing Partner
Polachi Access Executive Search
I was a former CIO and former Senior Partner for Computer Sciences Corporation. For the last 3 years I have written a bi-monthly Leadership column for CIO magazine, and for 5 years a weekly Leadership column for Forbes.com.
The most important trait for any successful technology leader today is adaptability. Unlike the environment surrounding previous generations of IT leaders, today technology platforms, hardware and software change extremely fast. Timelines of mainframes gave way to minicomputers, which gave way to PCs and Unix/Windows servers - and today operates at the speed of new mobile device launches, app developments and cloud services. Where IT departments used to take months to decide on investing in multi-year ERP and CRM programs, today such investments can be rendered obsolete faster than the decision-making or implementation, while new, cheaper solutions are made available every month. To succeed technology leaders have to be adaptable in their thinking and operations in order to deliver the best results at the best value; fast.
Second, IT leaders have to be business-savvy. They cannot take the time for user requirements development and analysis. Instead, they have to know business needs and be able to evaluate the applicability and usability of new solutions extremely fast. IT leaders must understand not only IT metrics, but the impact on the business P&L of their decisions including the ROI, NPV and payback. They have to quickly assess the ability of IT to increase revenue, or reduce costs, and know they can implement for those results very fast. They must be able to discuss solutions without techno-speak, instead using the language of sales, marketing, logistics, and business operations in order to communicate fast and effectively the capabilities - and needs - of IT.
Adam Hartung
Managing Partner
Spark Partners
In my experience as a CEO, I have found great CTO/CIOs who have the following traits:
- can have enough people skills to know their audience (don't make anyone look stupid)
- can figure out the paradigm of prioritizing (i.e. spend their time as an architect instead of a coder)
- have vision
- have an entrepreneurial concept of how they're going to grow their business unit as the business grows itself
Adam Dailey
CEO, LUDUS
I was CTO of a $10M software company for several years, and now operate as the CEO of BoardVitals.
A strong CTO in the $10M-$50M company range should have an understanding of financial statements, strategy, and some level of management consulting (whether in a professional capacity or on the job experience). CEOs are increasingly looking for IT organizations to not just cut costs, but also to provide new strategic directions. By understanding the competitive landscape, and understanding the financial situation of the company, a good CTO will be able to recognize how to adapt the previous IT investments to be profit centers instead of just cost centers. Amazon is a good example of this - the team had already really built and deployed Amazon Web Services. Management realized that there was additional potential if they could take their investment and retool it to generate revenue.
Daniel Lambert
CEO
BoardVitals
CIO and CTO requirements
An eye for efficiency and a bullet proof bullshit detector.
Geoff Howland
I think a good CTO needs to be constantly and deeply in conversation with global thinkers about the emerging and practical aspects of the future of technology. Not a dreamer, but a hard-nosed detective seeking out what's real and not real in emerging technology trends. Because of these a CTO needs access to Venture Capital partnerships and to see what technologies in emerging startups are achieving real sales traction. This kind of information is not available to "industry analysts" who are so often swayed by vendor hype.
Miko Matsumura
Here are 5 tips that CIOs and CTOs can leverage for successful, happy employees and teams:
Recognize employees for good work regularly and openly. A 2012 Globoforce Motivation Worldwide study found that 81 percent of employees claimed recognition made them more satisfied with their work.
Foster accountability by confronting issues or negative behavior as it arises. When issues are addressed days, weeks or even months later, it's difficult to explore what may have been going on or what might have been a suitable alternative.
Be open and honest. Share information regularly and challenge employees, to have open conversations with you whether it's about ways to improve the company or change individual behavior.
Involve employees in the decision making process. Challenge employees to employ creative problem solving, work cross-functionally and take ownership for their work and collaborations.
Solicit feedback. Ask for feedback on projects and input on tough decisions. Employees will feel more engaged and be motivated to think beyond the day-to-day responsibilities of their job.
Keilee Kramer
Fierce, Inc.
Fierce, Inc. has trained companies including Aveda, Coca Cola, Crate & Barrel, and Costco on how to build a communication culture that encourages true appreciation for differing perspectives, ultimately improving productivity and ROI.
Key Traits of a Great CIO/CTO
#1 - Business mindset
#2 - Relationship-building skills & approach
#3 - Patience
#4 - Vision & Curiosity
#5 - Technical acumen without baggage
I was a good CIO 10 years ago at Intrawest. If I'd run a business before that, as I have since, I might have been a great one. Technical knowledge just isn't the key trait. Even for a CTO, at any scale, it's not going to be the top requirement in my humble opinion.
Matthew Dunn
I'm the CTO at Madison Logic (having been a CTO for roughly the past 10 years) and also teach leadership, communication and other skills to MIT undergrads (the plurality of which is computer science majors).
There are what I consider to be 4 types of CTO's...
1) Startup Coder
- Coder with CTO title
- 1-3 people
- Flat structure
2) Hands-on CTO
- 4-10 people
- Flat structure
- Technical strategy and all architectures
- Some coding
3) Midsize CTO
- 11-100 people
- 2-3 levels
- Technical strategy and system architecture
- Corporate strategy
- Team organization
4) Corporate CTO
- 100+ people
- 3+ levels
- Corporate strategy
- Delegation
The mix of skills can differ depending on the type of CTO. Speaking generally, here are the four key responsibilities of a CTO:
Strategy
- Meeting corporate goals with technology
- Using technology to innovate
- Bring technology options to other departments
- Engineers are from Mars, business folks are from Venus
- Explaining to each side what the other is saying
- Setting goals and plans for engineering department
- Preventing others from distracting engineers
- Hiring for growing companies, is key
- Tight labor markets require a lot of time invested in hiring
- Setting the right culture is key
- Mentoring employees
1) Critical thinking
That's important for most jobs, but especially CTO's who are the Chief Project Manager. They need to balance cost/benefits, deadlines, risks, and other factors when setting priorities and adjusting as things progress.
2) Communication skills
The key is being the translator, knowing how to convey the concerns of engineers to business and explain business requirements and strategies in a way that's meaningful to engineers.
3) People Skills
Building on 2, here's a quote from Peopleware (a book by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister), "The major problems of our work are not so much technological as sociological in nature." This is absolutely true and a good CTO knows it's about other people management, not technology management.
This includes knowing how to hire since the right hires can accelerate a team and the wrong ones can bring it to a standstill.
4) Leadership
A CTO is a leader.
Sure, good tech skills, strategy skills, etc. are useful, but those above, I think are the most important.
Mark A. Herschberg
CTO
Madison Logic
Curiosity, without a doubt. The world of technology and its infiltration of every corner of every business is unprecedented. Staying curious is the only way to be open to the levels of change required to stay in step with the changing needs of the CIO/CTO role.
RON J WEST, former CIO and former CTO
Corporate Transformation
1. The most important trait for a great CIO/CTO is the ability to balance a deep understanding of technical/technology issues with management skills and a sophisticated approach to managing technology issues across the enterprise.
An effective CIO/CTO needs to understand and have a passion for IT and technology issues to steer them effectively, but especially in larger organizations s/he spends the most time interacting across the organization: setting policy, dealing with budgeting and legal issues, aligning with marketing/sales, balancing operations with cybersecurity, and in each case interacting with other departments (CEO's office, Finance, General Counsel, Business Development, Security and Risk Management ). S/he must be able to translate technical issues to management-level colleagues for decision and similarly guide technical progress in line with strategy.
2. A second key skill-set is the ability to balance long-term planning with adaptability. Technology issues change very rapidly, and more rapidly than budgets, talent, and policy can keep up. This is particularly true in cybersecurity, where external threats evolve quickly, and new defenses are constantly emerging. At the same time, an organization must follow a strategic direction or otherwise spend endless resources tacking back and forth, planning and re-planning without achieving its biggest goals.
3. For an organization to get the most out of its CIO/CTO, the role must be clearly defined and understood by all parties. What is the scope of the position, what are the responsibilities and authorities? Cybersecurity is a classic case-in-point: organizations that fail to define who is accountable and owns the issue do worse and get less out of CIOs/CISOs than organizations that clearly define roles.
Emilian Papadopoulos
Chief of Staff, Good Harbor Security Risk Management
One of the most important traits is to stay abreast with all the new and upcoming technologies in your domain. And along with that, another trait is to put full trust in your team, its abilities, and its passion for the job. As a CTO, you must give an opportunity for your team to explore these new technologies to evaluate if they can be applied to the business. For e.g. here at Viralheat, we were experimenting with Docker (docker.io) and quickly saw its benefits in that it is a very efficient testing environment for developers.
Vishal Sankhla
CTO
Viralheat
CTO job descriptions vary wildly in my experience; most are primarily IT-focused, while others (like me) are driving technology/IP development. Some manage the engineering organization, some (like me) are leaders/goal-setters but not managers. In my case, the most important abilities are:
#1 Good communication skills. There are many dimensions to this:
- Being a good listener; technology needs to meet the needs of the organization, so stakeholders need to be heard clearly and bought-in to the prioritization trade-offs.
- Communicating out - explaining the technical to the non-technical, evangelizing the benefits of your technology, being persuasive, explaining the trade-offs, closing the deal on coveted hires. Passion helps a lot here.
- Communicating in - getting buy-in from developers that are always under the impossible pressure matrix of soon-cheap-good, and tend to be very smart and highly cynical (AKA "cat-herding"). It's helpful to have a solid pedigree and/or be a participating engineer here to keep your credibility high and to understand the details affecting technology decisions.
Next is a big dose of pragmatism. There is an endless backlog of "critically important" projects coming from all sides -- seeing through the noise and focusing on the real Most Important Things to achieve the business goals is critical. I'm not sure how you measure that in a candidate; since it's more about what you didn't do than what you did ;-)
Finally, it's important in my opinion for the CTO to stay abreast of the state-of-the-art. When the "new hot" technologies or techniques come along, it's important to embrace them if they will improve your key metrics, avoid them if they are a fad or not relevant, and to know the difference. Having a strong network is important here; getting real-world feedback from trusted sources beats marketing hype every time. Some people take this part too far, though - being at conferences 80% of the time is not your job.
Bret Savage
CTO
Memeo Inc.
The three traits that every CTO/CIO should have are knowing how to assemble a team, being a good gambler, and knowing how to say no. Although it may seem that a CTO should always be the smartest guy in the room about everything when it comes to tech, it's not always possible. One of the leadership qualities needed for the position is how to assemble a great team. If there's something you don't know, you should have someone who knows nearly everything there is to know about the subject. A good rule of thumb is to have a go-to guy for the technology you don't know.
The choices that a CTO has to make are not always clear, but it's important to know where to place your chips. Until we can each have our own personal fortune tellers, CTO's will need to know how to gamble, because every choice is a bet that their placing. Know the risk and evaluate if it's worth it or not; this goes for winning big or small. A sinking ship doesn't need to take its captain either, know when it's time to walk away and cut your losses. A paper cut heals faster than a broken back.
The final (and honestly the most important) skill to have is letting that harsh word of "no" be spoken at the right times. The worst thing a CTO can do is become a "yes man" to all of their colleagues. Someone who doesn't know how to say no doesn't know why they are saying yes. This doesn't just apply to outside questions, a CTO must ask himself if the choices he is going to make are right. The position is really exciting, almost like being a kid in a candy store, and getting passionate about choices can cloud judgment. Remember to keep yourself grounded and know exactly why you are saying yes. Over the time your opinions will be held at a much higher regard.
Joey Grover
Mobile Technology Lead
Livio
- Understand the business of their company, including issues and desired strategic objectives.
- Work with the business leadership to align the IT resources and focus to address the key issues and facilitate the strategic direction (see item 1 above).
- Align and motivate the IT organization to understand and focus on the items 1 and 2 above.
- Continually focus on driving down the cost and resources required to "run" the IT systems so that funds and resources can be focused on providing new or enhanced capabilities needed by the business.
- Continually drive IT to be more "nimble" to respond to rapidly evolving key business needs by focusing internal resources on providing differentiating capabilities and to offload the necessary, but not differentiating, capabilities to 3rd party outsourcers, cloud providers, etc. (This is similar to but different than item 4.)
Keith Moody
VP and CIO
Lexmark
A Great CIO or CTO should be able to learn quickly and adapt to new concepts. They need excellent business knowledge and an ability to understand how the technologies they deliver added value to the companies they support. An understanding of technology alone will not make them successful. Another trait is an ability to surround yourself with great talent. No one can know it all these days and it changes very quickly. The ability to build a strong, diverse and trusted team is essential to the survival of the CIO. This also applies to teaming across the enterprise and an ability to negotiate with business unit leaders who consume the products delivered by IT as well as with key vendors who support IT in the delivery of its services. Lastly, the CIO needs strong financial acumen and business judgment to understand how the products delivered add value as well as understanding of how outsourced services and licensing agreement are managed in a way to benefit the company and minimize risk.
Becky Blalock
Author of DARE: Straight Talk on Confidence, Courage, and Career for Women in Charge
Former CIO of Southern Company
