What It Means To Be A Leader — EXECUTIVE CORE QUALIFICATIONS

A basic requirement for entry into senior roles within the Federal Government you must provide evidence of progressively responsible leadership experience that is indicative of senior executive level management capability. The information below was taken from the USAJobs.gov website. Every leader, whether or not they are looking for a job in government should be able to answer these questions. It should also be used to rate a CIOs performance.

ECQ #1 – LEADING CHANGE:  This core qualification involves the ability to bring about strategic change, both within and outside the organization, to meet organizational goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to establish an organizational vision and to implement it in a continuously changing environment.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Creativity and Innovation.  Develops new insights into situations; questions conventional approaches; encourages new ideas and innovations; designs and implements new or cutting edge programs/processes.

2. External Awareness.  Understands and keeps up-to-date on local, national, and international policies and trends that affect the organization and shape stakeholders’ views; is aware of the organization’s impact on the external environment.

3. Flexibility.  Is open to change and new information; rapidly adapts to new information, changing conditions, or unexpected obstacles.

4. Resilience.  Deals effectively with pressure; remains optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Recovers quickly from setbacks.

5. Strategic Thinking.  Formulates objectives and priorities, and implements plans consistent with the long-term interests of the organization in a global environment. Capitalizes on opportunities and manages risks.

6. Vision.  Takes a long-term view and builds a shared vision with others; acts as a catalyst for organizational change. Influences others to translate vision into action.

ECQ #2 – LEADING PEOPLE: This core qualification involves the ability to lead people toward meeting the organization’s vision, mission, and goals. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to provide an inclusive workplace that fosters the development of others, facilitates cooperation and teamwork, and supports constructive resolution of conflicts.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Conflict Management.  Encourages creative tension and differences of opinions. Anticipates and takes steps to prevent counter-productive confrontations. Manages and resolves conflicts and disagreements in a constructive manner.

2. Leveraging Diversity.  Fosters an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization.

3. Developing Others.  Develops the ability of others to perform and contribute to the organization by providing ongoing feedback and by providing opportunities to learn through formal and informal methods.

4. Team Building.  Inspires and fosters team commitment, spirit, pride, and trust. Facilitates cooperation and motivates team members to accomplish group goals.

ECQ #3 – RESULTS DRIVEN: This core qualification involves the ability to meet organizational goals and customer expectations. Inherent to this ECQ is the ability to make decisions that produce high-quality results by applying technical knowledge, analyzing problems, and calculating risks.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Accountability.  Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results. Determines objectives, sets priorities, and delegates work. Accepts responsibility for mistakes. Complies with established control systems and rules.

2. Customer Service.  Anticipates and meets the needs of both internal and external customers. Delivers high-quality products and services; is committed to continuous improvement.

3. Decisiveness.  Makes well-informed, effective, and timely decisions, even when data are limited or solutions produce unpleasant consequences; perceives the impact and implications of decisions.

4. Entrepreneurship.  Positions the organization for future success by identifying new opportunities; builds the organization by developing or improving products or services. Takes calculated risks to accomplish organizational objectives.

5. Problem Solving.  Identifies and analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; generates and evaluates alternative solutions; makes recommendations.

6. Technical Credibility.  Understands/appropriately applies principles, procedures, requirements, regulations and policies related to specialized expertise.

ECQ #4 – BUSINESS ACUMEN: This core qualification involves the ability to manage human, financial, and information resources strategically.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Financial Management.  Understands the organization’s financial processes. Prepares, justifies, and administers the program budget. Oversees procurement and contracting to achieve desired results. Monitors expenditures and uses cost-benefit thinking to set priorities.

2. Human Capital Management.  Builds and manages workforce based on organizational goals, budget considerations, and staffing needs. Ensures that employees are appropriately recruited, selected, appraised, and rewarded; takes action to address performance problems. Manages a multi-sector workforce and a variety of work situations.

3. Technology Management.  Keeps up-to-date on technological developments. Makes effective use of technology to achieve results. Ensures access to and security of technology systems.

ECQ #5 – BUILDING COALITIONS: This core qualification involves the ability to build coalitions internally and with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, nonprofit and private sector organizations, foreign governments, or international organizations to achieve common goals.

Leadership Competencies:

1. Partnering.  Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals.

2. Political Savvy.  Identifies the internal and external politics that impact the work of the organization. Perceives organizational and political reality and acts accordingly.

3. Influencing/Negotiating.  Persuades others; builds consensus through give and take; gains cooperation from others to obtain inform

From the Other Side of the Table — CIO Questions to Potential Employers

Sitting on the opposite end on the board room table, CIOs need to understand the type of organization they will be joining. Having been on the other end several times, it is important to get a sense that you will be valuable as a CIO and most importantly have job satisfaction. Below are a few questions I think can help.

• What is your company’s mission and vision? What steps are you taking to accomplish them?
• Can you explain your company’s brand and how it has evolved?
• Can you describe your company’s growth (or lack there of) in terms of revenue and hiring over the last 5-10 years?
• What do you think distinguishes this company from its competitors, both from a public and employee perspective? How is technology used by your competitors? How is a CIO role used by your competitors?
• Can you explain your company’s structure and how a CIO role will fit in?
• How do you see the CIO role contributing to the success of the organization?
• Is this a new CIO position, or did someone leave? If someone left, why did they leave? If this is a new position why are you looking for a CIO now?
• How would you describe the company’s culture and leadership philosophy and style? Could you describe the type of employee who fits well with it?
• What are some of the technical problems facing your staff, and how to do you see the CIO role solving it?
• How is the technology department perceived today? What past steps have been taken to correct this perception? What steps were successful or not?
• What steps have the company done recently to show how it values its technology?
• How does management view the CIO role and the importance of the IT department?
• What is the company’s plan for the next five plus years, and how does the IT department fit into these plans?
• How do other executives view IT?  As a Business Peer/Game changer or Service Provider/Cost Center?
• How have various types of decisions been made (i.e. M&A, process changes, layoffs, loss of business, risks, new business)?
• How will my leadership responsibilities and performance be measured? By whom? How often?
• What would you say are the five most important skills/traits needed to excel in this position?
• What particular achievements would equate to success in this role? What would success look like?
• What challenges will this role face? What advice will you give to succeed?
• Are you most interested in a candidate who works independently, on a team, cross-functionally, or through a combination of them all?
• What is your ideal communication style? Do you meet regularly with your team, rely heavily on e-mail, use status reports or work primarily through other means?
• How much guidance or assistance is made available to employees in developing career goals?
• What resources will be available to the CIO to ensure success?
• How do you see me as a candidate for the job in comparison with an ideal candidate?
• Do you have any concerns about me or about my qualifications that may prevent you from selecting me for the role?

The Rejected CIO

As I look for a new role that is suitable to my experience and background, I often get rejection letters. At first I would delete them but I decided to keep them and periodically review them. Not that I am angry over being rejected. Contrary, rejection letters just make me have thicker skin.

Getting a rejection letter is better then the black hole of no response.

Here are a few of my rejection letters. (Names have been deleted.)

You were impressive but not impressive enough—

Dear Arun Manansingh,

Thank you for taking the time to send your resume and cover letter for consideration for our position for Manager, IT at xxx.  We received many applications and while your qualifications and experience are impressive, there were candidates who more closely matched our needs.

We appreciate your interest in the xxx.  We will maintain your resume on file and suggest that you check our career site and apply for job postings that you are passionate about and for which you qualify.

We would also like to invite you to remain informed about the work that xxx is doing.  The best ways to do that are on our website, or other social media detailed below for example, Facebook and Twitter.

Again, thank you for applying. We wish you all the best.

---

Again you were impressive but we want to continue looking —

Dear Arun,

Thank you for the interest you have expressed in employment with xxx IT for the position of Sr Director IT Service Management.  Although your experience is impressive, our hiring team has decided to continue the search. 

At this time, your resume will be retained for at least one year in our database.  You will be contacted in the event our employment needs should change. We also encourage you to visit our website as new positions become available.

We appreciate your interest in our company and wish you success in your search.

---

We thought you were a match but now you are not—

Dear Arun,

Thank you for submitting your resume for our Chief Information Officer position, and for your interest in our firm.

Your qualifications have been reviewed, and although they are impressive, we do not feel that they are a match for our current opportunity.

We are sure your credentials and abilities will lead to other excellent opportunities, and we wish you every success in your career.

---

Don’t call us we will call you—

Hi Arun,

Thank you for your interest in the VP, Technology & Operations role for xxx. We have received your information and if there is interest in moving forward with your candidacy we will be reaching out to you in the next few weeks.

Thank you for your patience in our reply, as we had many applications for this impactful opening on our team.

---

You didn’t get the job. Here is who did—

Hi ARUN,

Thank you for your application for the position of Chief Information Officer for the xxx.  Interviews for the position were held in early March.

Xxx officials have appointed Ms. xxx as their next Chief Information Officer.  Ms. xxx has most recently served as a Manager of IT Infrastructure and Operations.  Prior to that, she worked in the IT field as a Director for more than 12 years.  Ms. xxx has a Master’s degree in Communication System Strategy & Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. 

Although you were not selected for this position, the xxx and GovHR xxx want to thank you for your interest and effort in competing for this position.  We extend our best wishes for continued success in your professional endeavors.

Please feel free to stay in touch with our office regarding professional opportunities in the future.

---

You were not qualified—

Arun,

Thank you for your application for the CTO/SVP, Architecture, Engineering & Technology search we are doing at xxx.   After reviewing your background, we have concluded that there are other candidates better qualified for this role.  That said, thank you for your time in contacting us. 

With regards,

---

There were too many qualified CIOs —

Arun:

Thank you for your interest and for taking the time to speak with us about the CIO role at xxx.  We were impressed with your experience, but you were one of many qualified candidates whom we considered for this position.  Therefore, we will not be proceeding with your candidacy for this role at this time.

We wish you the best of luck in your future career, and thank you again for considering an opportunity with xxx.

---

Not holding my breadth —

Dear Arun,

We received your application for employment with xxx for the position below.

Job Title: Chief Information Officer

Department: Finance and Administration

 Thank you for your interest in our University.  The screening and selection

process is currently underway and will continue until a candidate is chosen. If

a decision is made to pursue your candidacy, you will be contacted by the hiring

manager.

 Sincerely,

Human Resources

---

The role has been frozen for now— 

Dear Arun,

Thank you for your application for the position as CIO, xxx Group.

 After careful consideration and with respect for current business priorities, we have decided to continue our interim IT Management solution throughout Q4 2013. Consequently the recruitment process for the CIO position has been postponed. We acknowledge and respect the energy you have put into your candidacy and apologize for any inconvenience in this regard. As the recruitment process may continue in a few months’ time, we kindly ask you to let us know, if you wish to sustain your candidacy for the CIO position. If so, please reply to this email no later than October 1, 2013.

Once again we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

 Best regards,

Human Resources, Zacco Group

The Disruptive CIO

There are many types of CIOs-– operational, strategic, and transformational; each has their advantages.  A good CIO is one that has all these traits. There is another trait that has advantages to an organization. That trait is disruptive.

Many CIOs stay within a particular industry. A pharma CIO will normally stay in pharma or a financial CIO will generally stay in financial services. Very few jump industries and very few organizations look beyond their particular industry for a different type of CIO.

However, bringing in a CIO from anther industry has the potential to be a disruptive influence in an organization. Disruptive in a positive way. A disruptive leader is one that fights the status quo; bringing in new ideas and processes – a fresh set of eyes looking at how to improve existing processes.

A disruptive CIO is one willing to step out of the rank and file and acts boldly against the norm that lulls an organization into complacency. He/she acts as a catalyst to move a company from lethargy into positive-changing actions. Being a disruptive CIO is a tough and messy role. Most organizations have a culture of fear and risk aversion that makes it difficult for a disruptive leader to step forward. However, for those that do step out, they have the ability to move a company beyond irrelevance and into a mindset that the status quo is not acceptable and change is good.

Bad Bad Bosses

I read this recently on LinkedIn. It’s sad but I know a lot of “managers” that fall into these categories. The comments following the article are especially good.

The Tell-Tale Signs Of A Bad Boss by Bernard Marr

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130821063221-64875646-top-10-tell-tale-signs-of-a-bad-boss

Mid-Year Staff Performance Reviews

July is our mid-year review. It is an important time to make sure employees are tracking their goals. I am reviewing my staff in 4 areas.

1. Corporate Goals:
Are they meeting the mission of the organization?

2. Departmental Goals:
Are we meeting the goals of the IT departments- KPIs, uptimes, service?

3. Functional Goals 2013:
Areas of individual responsibility. For example – is my helpdesk manager meeting time to resolution or my server manager meeting server uptime? All of which are quantifiable via various metrics.

4. Personal Goals:
This area is general development and fall into the following areas:

Communication
1. Communicates openly & confidently
2. Influences and convinces others in a way that results in acceptance and agreement
3. Shapes Conversations to ensure focus & understanding
4. Speaks frankly, debates at the table, not afterwards
5. Engages in Constructive Confrontation
6. Is a supportive listener
7. Provides clear directions to give desired results

Team Work
1. Works to coordinate efforts/resources within and across teams to deliver on goals
2. Recognizes the importance of teamwork to achieve objectives
3. Brings in ideas, information, suggestions and expertise from others outside the immediate team
4. Proactively supports colleagues and collaborates with the, to help achieve targets
5. Involves the right people (colleagues, vendors, subcontractors,…)to ensure the best decisions are made in a timely manner.
6. Goes out of the way to support other efforts when they notice a gap.

Leadership
1. Carries out systematic and rational analysis to identify the root cause of problems.
2. Provides feedback, input and support to the other parts of the organization for overall organizational improvement
3. Seeks continuous improvement by considering solutions that make novel use of existing ideas, approaches technologies or products.
4. Is able to effectively enlist others in accomplishing a common goal because they want to not because they were told.

Performance review
1. Actively participates in midyear and annual performance reviews with supervisor in a timely manner
2. Ensure development plans are completed as required
3. Identify development needs and take advantage of the training made available
4. Identify processes that could be improved or implemented and head up its development and deployment
5. Actively participate in mentoring of peers outside of core work group

50/50 Employee

Do you have an employee that does some things really well but other things horrible? I call such employees 50/50.

Question, is it worth keeping such an employee on staff? Do employees like this provide value to a team or are they more trouble than they are worth?

Example, you have an employee that is a great technologist. When there is a fire he is the first one in and resolves the issue. When there are no fires, he struggles or most times does not provide the mundane information to monitor the environment. For example, documentation diagrams, KPIs, etc. So other employees have to pick up the slack.

There have been various methods used to tell this employee what is expected. From goal settings, to individual one-to-one meetings, to plain this is how it needs to be done. Yet very little improvement.

So this begs the question, does this employee’s value in a crisis outweigh his value overall to the team and department?

 

Pitching the Technical Solution

Presenting a case to non-technical executives is always a challenge. While executives are focused on ROI and keeping cost predictable and sensibly manageable, some do have an ear for technology solutions that bring value and savings over time to an organization. Not all technology requests have to be feared as long as they are presented in a fashion that makes fiscal sense.

When pitching IT solutions, do not take a technical approach. Leave the technological advantages for last and only after you have captured the attention and interest in your money and resource saving IT virtual solutions. Make the following three points when explaining your ideas.

1- Savings Over Time. Present factors that can ultimately lead to big savings on capital expenditures on hardware/software showing that purchasing fewer systems will improve the bottom line.

2- Time Savings. The idea will lead to more time spent on critical projects that add value and dollars to the bottom line. This free time can be spent on strategy planning and moving the enterprise to a higher operating plane.

3- Increase Performance. Performance can be improved without having to buy more keeping a tight budget.

Back up all the above with KPIs. Hard graphical data trending over time always captures everyone’s attention. It is hard to dispute the cold reality of numbers.

 

A New York CIO

Ahh New York… There is no other city like it in the world.

I have been to cities all over the world but I consider New York home. There is an electricity that resonates from it and an excitement when you are in it.

I am a born and bred New Yorker. Born in Brooklyn, grew up in the burbs, worked in the city my entire professional career. There is more to being a New York CIO then knowing the best pizza joints or being able to curse like it is my first language.

Being a New York CIO means having to hustle every day.  New York CIOs are always on the go. Rushing from meeting to meeting; doing things at 100mph. There is no slow pace for us. We operate at light speed. We talk fast, think fast, work fast. Anything less and we are left behind. We are product of the environment we work in and live it. A city that is always on – 24×7. Going from uptown to downtown in a blink of an eye.

We are the CIOs that have survived blackouts, blizzards, protests, strikes of varying sorts and 9/11.  We tend to walk around with a little more gusto than those who have not experienced such events and can brag how we got through it. We wrote the book on disaster planning .

It is true, if you can make it here you really can make it anywhere….

CIO Blogs for July 2011

Reinvent Your Training Methods by Chris Curran

Available does not equal best by Eric D. Brown

Transitioning IT from a technical focus to a business focus by IT BS Watch

How to Kill Projects and Develop Agile Programs Part 1 by Isaac Sacolick

Free Answers From Google On How CIOs Can Be Better Managers  by Jim Anderson

Aspiring To Be More…

I have a recent master’s graduate on my team who is aspiring to be more. His goal to eventually manage various IT projects outside his core competency which is development. He came to me the other day asking about how he can do more. I gave him the following advice to help him along.

1- Speak Well
The ability to speak to a wide variety of people is essential. Good eye contact, a varied vocabulary and the ability to tailor your language to suit your audience are essential. Practice talking with anyone and everyone you. Being more adept in social situations and being better equipped to network successfully will help you forge working relationships.

2- Confidence
Indecision–I hate it and I hate seeing it especially in the workplace. A good leader is decisive. If you are paralyzed by the fear of getting it wrong, you will end up doing nothing, which is worse than trying something and failing. Learn to evaluate different decisions for their pros and cons, and make decisions that will take you closer to completing a given task. The key is to make sure that your decisions are thought out and reasoned. Be confident in your judgment and believe in yourself to get things right.

3- Accept Responsibility
Accept responsibility, both for successes and failures. If you want other people to respect you, acknowledge your errors rather than trying to blame someone else. Everyone makes mistakes, but the real test is how you react to that. Being able to admit you have made a mistake is a sign of humility.

4- Be Positive
Be positive about work and life. A positive attitude is entirely self-determined and can be helped by accentuating the positives in any situation. Don’t see problems; see solutions.

5-Presentation
Learn how to present yourself to others. I cannot say enough about grooming. Take pride in your appearance. The way you look enhances the way you feel about yourself, making you more confident.

6- Be Organize
Learn to track projects, meet deadlines, and set schedules. Ideally, you will reach a stage when you can get ahead of the curve and start taking on additional projects and responsibilities.

 

 

CIO Blogs for January 2011

Better Communication: Technology Isn’t Always The Best Solution by Mike Schaffner

CIO as General Manager? by Mark Brewer

Can a CIO be successful without IT experience? Define your terms! by Peter Kretzman

Four Models for success for the CTO / CIO- CTOVision by Eric Brown

Why CIOs Need Management Power Maps To Get Anything Done by Jim Anderson

How To Cope When The Boss Is A Bully by Andy Blumenthal