Strategic Leadership, Outside the Ability of Most CIO's

What does it take to transform from a department head to a respected, company-wide strategic leader? Apparently, much more than CIO's are currently delivering, according to a new survey from Chally Group. The performance-measurement firm recently surveyed top executives worldwide for its Global Leadership Research report, to come up with a better sense of what organizations need from leaders these days—as well as which departments typically serve as the farm-team for C-level executives. The bad news for IT? The most elite of the C-suite talent doesn’t generally come from the tech side. On the positive side, the report also sheds insight on valued qualities of senior leadership to which any executive can aspire, as well as leadership-killing characteristics to avoid. Some 1,400 top-level executives worldwide responded to the survey.

Here are the key strategic leadership requirements and the top five leadership killers. The most telling stats are:



Less than one-third of respondents say that “developing an accurate and comprehensive overview of the business” is an essential function for CIO's. Less than one quarter (22%) of respondents say that “creating a strategic vision” is a key role for CIO's and only 10.7 percent of respondents say that CIOs need to be politically astute.

- Just 12.8 percent of C-level executives come from the IT department.
- Top departments for developing C-level execs (percent respondents):
Operations (68.4 percent)Finance (55.6 percent)Sales (48.6 percent)Marketing (34 percent)HR (24.1 percent).

- 70.5 percent of respondents feel that staying on top of technical and business competencies are key functions for CIO's
- 56.5 percent of respondents feel that performing timely and effective execution is a primary role of CIO's
- 44.6 percent of respondents say that being collaborative is a main duty for CIO's.

Here are the top five strategic leadership killers:

1. A failure to build relationships and a team environment (as cited by 40.2 percent of survey participants)
2. A mismatch for the corporate culture (32.4 percent)
3. Failure to deliver acceptable results (25.1 percent)
4. Unable to win company support (25.1 percent)
5. Lack of appropriate training (23.5 percent)

How does this feedback from 1,400 top-level executives worldwide change your view of the CIO. Does it re-prioritize your strategic leadership development plan?