Chief information officers (CIOs) face an ever-increasing number of challenges in the workplace.

While they should be responsible for direction, management and execution of IT policy and governance, technology leaders are often measured solely on cost effectiveness and tend to be focused on executing within budget, rather than driving strategy for the future.

How do IT directors respond to such challenges and what roles do they adopt?
Research specialist Vanson Bourne recently surveyed 125 UK CIOs and senior IT decision-makers, identifying four key categories of CIO, covering control, influence, adaptation and mediation.

What CIO category do you fit? The following survey identifies your profile:

1. Which of the following best describes your role?
a) Key controller of IT and outsourced technology suppliers
b) Significant driver behind IT’s role in the business
c) Pivotal role in adapting technology services to the business needs
d) An important intermediary between all IT stakeholders

2. How innovative is your IT department?
a) Innovation is not particularly important
b) Innovation is encouraged but not measured
c) Innovation is encouraged and measured
d) Innovation is a proven part of the process

3. How do your service providers interact with each other?
a) Not at all. They manage their own obligations with no interaction
b) They work together to meet specific requirements and are managed by the internal team
c) Service providers co-operate to ensure that IT delivery is in line with business objectives
d) They are adaptable and their work can be maximised for
corporate advantage

4. What is your main objective in your current role?
a) To manage IT delivery to the best of my ability
b) To ensure that technology services are contributing to company goals
c) To align business strategy and IT more closely
d) To ensure all IT stakeholders are aligned to deliver the business strategy

5. How proactive would you like your IT service providers to be?
a) To only respond to specific service requests
b) To offer innovation and ideas
c) To deliver innovation beyond their contractual obligations
d) To deliver innovation measured as part of the contract

6. How would you describe the business input into your organisation’s IT strategy?
a) Skewed towards technical priorities
b) Business provides input but the strategy is developed independently
c) Addresses up-to-date priorities, but these are predominantly second-guessed by IT
d) Developed simultaneously with business strategy, each influences the other

7. How are you and the contribution of IT measured?
a) Measured entirely on IT outputs
b) Measures take into account business priorities but it is essentially technology focused
c) IT performance is measured as part of broader enterprise objectives
d) Service-level agreements are established to show end-to-end performance of IT-enabled business services

8. How fast can your IT adapt to changing business needs?
a) It cannot adapt to meet changing business needs
b) It cannot adapt easily or quickly
c) New architecture is flexible but legacy
systems still constrain change
d) An enterprise architecture enables IT to change as quickly as the business needs

9. How would you describe your team’s skills?
a) Strong technical skills aligned to separate disciplines
b) Strong technical skills across a number of disciplines and some business understanding
c) Competent at managing customers’ requirements with appropriate technical expertise
d) Deep understanding of business functions with excellent business acumen

10. To what extent do you keep track of what other CIOs are doing?
a) It is not particularly important
b) What other CIOs are doing is of interest but I rarely have time to research it
c) I read reviews and research papers to understand what matters to CIOs
d) I read reviews and research papers, and network with other CIOs

Mostly As ­ Manager
You are a strong manager of IT and outsourced suppliers. You are pre-occupied with managing your workload and fire-fighting. Consequently this leaves you a limited amount of time to ensure that the future IT strategy is aligned to the business strategy. A reliance on service contracts means you rarely engage them in innovation.
Future action: Consider a joint planning and innovation process with the business.

Mostly Bs ­ Influencer
You are a key influencer and see innovation as an important driver. Although you have a reasonable relationship with the business, you are constrained by its expectations of a service delivery organisation. The board spends insufficient time with you on future planning, which means you are generally taking a more tactical approach to innovation to meet short-term needs.
Future action: Consider setting up an innovation forum on a quarterly basis.

Mostly Cs ­ Corporate aggregator
You play a pivotal role in aggregating IT services, both internal and external, for corporate advantage and are agile enough to adapt IT services to meet needs. Skills are maximised for business advantage.
Future action: Consider having simulation labs of new business processes and technologies, and formalised governance between all stakeholders.

Mostly Ds ­ Intelligent mediator
You excel at ensuring that service providers and businesses operate in an open way and work together. You hold a key role as an intermediary within the company and are therefore well placed to enable business and IT to operate in an integrated way.
Future action: Consider a longer-term joined-up strategy with a three-to-five year view and roadmap for achieving it.

Guy Lidbetter is chief technology officer for managed operations at Atos Origin. Sue German is associate partner at Atos Consulting.

How to be a strategic technology leader
Ceri Roderick, business psychologist at Pearn Kandola

Expectations within organisations are ever-increasing, with the workforce subjected to internal and external pressures.

The reduced cycle size for task completion is driving employees to become more operations-focused, a trend that has been a trend for a growing number of years.

CIOs have become very good at fire fighting and technology leaders that specialise in operational management are thriving.

Whilst many CIOs blame the difficulty in becoming involved in driving innovation and business needs on external factors, it is also an imposition that individuals build for themselves.

Technology leaders have become caught in the expertise trap ­ but this is true of any operational job where individuals fall into their stereotype and are happy to continue working in an operational way.

Such a trap is a general problem for professionals in the move from technical to general management. Specialists can also struggle to move on to more classic management or research and development.

CIOs often have the habit of only delegating small tasks, rather than whole project, meaning that they do not aid other workers to develop within their roles.

As a result, the current pressures within the workplace are not only from the work context but also due to the efforts of the individual technology leader.

Many CIOs tend to fall into the operational, rather than the strategic model of management, being highly conscientious with a natural inclination to operational detail. What can be done to change the situation?

What are you paid to deliver?
Ask yourself whether you are paid to be strategic. Too often CIOs have gone down the technical route and when they are promoted, they often still spend time on operational jobs one or two tiers below them.

Look at where your time goes
It is up to you to reduce your load. Are you spending too much time on jobs your colleagues should be doing? The answer is to trust and support your team and delegate effectively.

Get yourself about
The key is to spend time with influential peers and superiors, and connect with them on their level. To avoid arguing in a partisan corner, CIOs should begin to think corporately - understand the business drivers and broader organisational direction to ensure you serve as an ambassador for the firm.

Think global
If CIOs really want to move beyond their functional expertise, to become an integral part of innovation and business development, then understanding worldwide trends is crucial.

Maintain a balance
According to our research, leaders often focus on two of the following areas. Your aim should be to keep a balance between all three factors: focused on tasks, planning and operational functions; focused on thought leadership, vision and strategy; focused on inspiring and motivating people.