Chapter 9 - The Successor Paradox
One of the author's favorite questions to ask CIOs is whether they have a successor who could step into their role tomorrow. Only about 30% claim that they do. She also asserts that "only a small percentage" of companies honor succession plans when the CIO leads. The author classifies this as a "paradox" - though it really is more in the lines of a pointless task to develop a succession plan that the firm is almost certain to disregard.
The Challenges of CIO Succession
The most obvious explanation for discarding the CIOs succession plan is that companies are dissatisfied with their IT departments and see the departure as an opportunity for them to hire in someone with a different mindset, rather than promoting one of their former CIO's bootlicks, who can be expected to carry on with business as usual.
But this is not the only challenge to developing a plan that will be adopted. One particularly problem is the "stovepipe dilemma" in which employees tend to move up a specific silo, infrastructure or applications, and do not develop the required level of familiarity with both. Another problem is that IT employees tend to be deeply sequestered and are not well known to the members of the executive board. Finally, a lot of CIOs also report a complete lack of desire among their direct reports, who do not want the "anguish and accountability" that comes with sitting in the big chair.
One successful CIO reports a different problem - that she was had worked to be well accepted by the executive committee, and they were more interested in personality type than technical abilities, such that while a number of her direct reports had the knowledge and skills to step into the role, the executive committee did not see them as having the right personality for the job.
The desire to have a clone of the previous CIO is not only unrealistic, but is likely counterproductive. Given that technology is changing rapidly, it's likely that the future CIO must be different to the current one in terms of their skills, approach, and even personality. Each succession likely requires reflection upon and redefinition of the requirements of the role - and as such it is important to groom a successor that is not like yourself, but that is what the company will need in future.
Develop Successors for the Future, Not Today
Repeated: the qualities that will make a person successful as the next CIO are likely different to those that made the present CIO successful. As such, succession planning must be done with an eye toward what will be need in future, not what is needed presently.
This touches on another paradox: that a CIO must maintain a staff of people who are adept at the technology of the present and the past, but needs to also develop talent that can lead in the future - and with the pace of technology change, it is difficult even to identify what those skills might be.
One factor that makes it easier, if only incrementally, is that the leaders in the IT department marshal resources that serve the business: if you can predict where the businesses is headed, you may not be able to identify the exact pieces technologies that will be adopted, but you will have a general flavor of the family or order of technology that is likely to be sought. Therefore if you have a productive and communicative relationship with the business units, you have a better idea of what they will need in the near future.
Choosing a successor can likely also reference your own personal development planning. It is likely that a CIO has an eye toward advancement to COO, and is seeking to gain skills that will make him successful in that position - but also has a contingency plan to remain competent at his present job in case promotion does not occur as quickly as he would like. The skills that your successor will need parallel those on this contingency plan.
Aside of developing your successor by ensuring he is versed in technology, it is also important to ensure he is acceptable to the business community. Many staffing decisions at the executive level are made more on personality than skills - and if your successor is a stranger to the business community, it is likely they will automatically support his ascension to the role.
It is also worthwhile to delegate CIO tasks to your successor. In finding candidates, the author remarks many firms prefer to hire in a CIO who has experience at the role, rather than someone who is a step lower but has never actually done the job. With this in mind your successor must be handed tasks above his station - such as managing parts of the IT budget and making presentations to the board - to demonstrate that he is not only capable of taking on the responsibilities, but that he has experience in having taken them on.
Another effort, which tends to have greater effectiveness for the lower ranks of IT leadership, is a rotational program that will help them to break out of their silos and take a broader view of the department and the business. Aside of rotating people within the IT department, it's also worthwhile to rotate them out to the business side, to work shoulder-to-shoulder with their clients. This should not be done at random, but instead with an eye toward the benefit to both departments: for the business, the rotational candidate must possess skills and knowledge that can be put to productive use (they are not to be a mere observer), and for IT, there needs to be some explicit agreement that the candidate will actually be rotated back.
Build a CIO University
The author speaks of a CTO/CIO of a corporation that rotated him through several of its subsidiary companies, and in each instance he was expected to restructure the IT department, then leave it in someone else's hands to manage. With this in mind, he was focused on succession planning from the very start, and feels he was able to successfully produce CIOs by developing a development program that was similar to the course of study for a university degree.
To begin, he put together a list of skills that a CIO would need, and grouped them into a curriculum that addressed topics such as organizational and personnel management, identifying and service stakeholders, communications, understanding the business, and technology best practices.
He rented a classroom at a local university for lectures, presentations, and seminars. It would be possible to do the same in conference rooms, but getting people into an actual campus environment was helpful in getting them in the mode of learning and exploring ideas. Some sessions were led by people within the business, others were led by outsiders such as consultants and academics. Classroom lectures and discussions were augmented by group projects - real projects back in the workplace - to enable them to apply their learning and stretch themselves.
The program would include thirty leaders for an entire calendar year, which had immediate dividends in skills development, but a broader impact on the entire IT organization. In this sense, his "CIO University" became an instrument for changing the culture of his department, and it became a perpetual program, with thirty new students each year - in effect, improving the skills of hundreds of IT leaders in the organization.
The cost of this program can be kept low by renting classrooms at local universities rather than hotel conference rooms, bringing in internal speakers rather than hiring professional presenters. The latter measure not only controlled cost, but helped students to improve their networks with leaders in other parts of the company and other subsidiaries of the corporation.
It's also mentioned that a careful balance must be struck to prevent the students from becoming an elitist clique. He did notice that some of the students came in with low morale, feeling that they didn't have much of a voice in the company - and the university experience boosted their morale. But in some instances, it boosted it too much, and they became overconfident and overbearing. So at some point, an emphasis on humility is necessary to mitigate this effect.
Sidebar: Leadership Journey Assessment
The author presents a facile magazine-style quiz for assessing how well leaders are coming along in developing key competencies. The quiz is presented in three sections:
- Heads-down skills such as technical expertise, working in teams, serving the customer
- Demonstrated collaboration with other departments and exposure to executives
- Innovation and contribution to strategic initiatives
Each section has a number of checkbox items, and the sections are weighted (first section times one, second times two, third times three) to arrive at an overall score.