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

Barbarians At The Datacenter

As I continue to look for my new CIO role. I am coming across some organizations that are looking outside their respect industry for talent. I recently interviewed with a publishing company who said flat out they want someone not from the publishing world. “Why?” I asked.  They felt that publishing expertise is lagging behind other industries in their use of technology.  I have seen other firms looking for these barbarians to manage their data. It is a refreshing thought.

This is a great opportunity for an organization to bring onboard an innovative disruptor to shake things up. As I have said in the past, change to some extent is good for any organization. As technology marches forward can any CIO say they are an expert in all areas?  Will a CIO have the experience to try new things? To take chances in order to make progress? These are fundamental questions for any CEO or CIO to contemplate.

I strongly believe that a CIO’s developed skills in one industry can be transferred successfully to another industry. Who’s to say that a medical CIO’s experience cannot be used in publishing? Granted there will be a learning curve, but there will be a learning curve for anyone taking on a new leadership role.

It might be scary for some who find comfort in knowing their respective industry inside and out. Myself- I believe that I am that barbarian that looks for new challenges. Working in different industries allows me to increase my marketability and continue to add to my toolbox.

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

8 hours vs 8 hours Plus – When Is Enough Enough?

How much is enough? Are you productive during your 8 hours? Some organizations expect you to put in more than 8 hours. Not really for anything else but to show your dedication to working 12 plus hours each day.

While there are times when one might put in such long days (i.e. after hours maintenance or systems upgrades), I subscribe to the philosophy that if you cannot complete your task or make progress to complete your task then you are doing something wrong. If you are just putting in hours to show your face and not really accomplishing much then you are not efficient and fully maximizing your day.

Why not be efficient and accomplish your tasks in 8 hours or under? It leads to prioritizing work efficiently and the end result is a better quality of life.

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?

 

Staying Above the Fray

The other day I was talking to someone outside my line about an IT issue and how best to address. During the course of the conversation the topic turned from business to gossip and then into an attack on a person’s character.

CIOs are privy to a lot of information that we come across during our everyday processes and during executive meetings. That is just the nature of the beast and part of carrying the chief in your title. As the conversation devolved into this maligning gossip I quickly recognized what was occurring and stayed quiet. I was hoping that the person would recognize that one I was uncomfortable and two due to my position could not and should not participate in such talk.

Eventually I had to say that I had no comment on the matter and walked away.

I have zero tolerance for gossip in the work place. When I hear it or get wind of it, I tune out. From my experience gossip sessions have a tendency of sweeping everyone into it like a tsunami. And as it builds momentum your name becomes associated with it indirectly.

It is best in the long-run to stay clear, very clear from it.

5 Things Every CIO Should Know…

As CIO, you should …

1. Know when to try harder and when to walk away. (Being CIO means there will be days you will fail. It is part a part of the job.)
2. Know who you can trust, who you can’t. (Politics plays an important role in our careers)
3. Not to apologize for something that isn’t your fault. (Others will be quick to blame you because it is easy.)
4. Believe that you deserve being CIO. (You are CIO for a reason. Be a CIO.)
5. Have a résumé that that shows how strategic you are. (It is documented and ready in the event you need it.)

Mr. CIO Meets the Interns

My company has started a new program to get our interns oriented to process and provide relevant information about various departments. It is called “Jumpstart”.  The goal is to give all our interns a flavor and/or in depth knowledge of various “things” they should know to work effectively. Most firms just throw their interns into the deep end and have them either sink or swim. We are taking the more humane approach in our internship program.

So I was asked to present about what is IT, what we do and some high level overviews of some critical apps. It has been some time since I present such information. Like most CIOs, I usually present to boards and execs, information with a lot more detail, ROIs, KPIs, budget projections, and a bunch of stuff that can make the average person fall asleep. It has been a very long since I was intern, so I had to spend some time thinking back to when I was one what did I want to know?

It was hard. So I created a fluff 40 slide PowerPoint that showcased the MIS department and the critical processes and applications I think any intern should know. I was shocked. It worked out well–very well. I had engaged my audience of 20 somethings by keeping it light and funny or as funny as technology can be.

Something else had occurred that I was not expecting. They started asking questions about why we do certain things and it turned into a brainstorming class as they began to think outside the box on how to improve the organization. Some of their ideas, I must admit, were out there, but I saw the future benefits.

The lesson I learned was to not write off the interns. In fact, as CIOs we should listen to them. They have not been tainted by corporate politics or turned into status quo zombies. They might have fresh ideas that can improve the bottom line of an organization. Think Facebook…

The Guerrilla CIO

A few years back a term was coined – Guerrilla IT. The concept of ‘Guerrilla IT’ meant conceiving and delivering business-oriented products and services quickly and interactively. You don’t hear much about it or if many shops are employing guerrilla IT strategies. I am not sure why this fell out favor in the industry?

Being a Guerrilla CIO means you are focused on striking a balance between agility and innovation, reusing available resources and technology, to avoid unwieldy procurements and their associated risks. As the economy continues to sputter along and IT budgets are still tight, The Guerrilla CIO must allow the delivery of quick wins to the business which can make a real competitive difference in organizations.

All CIOs today are driven by a cost-reduction mantra; many of us have been focusing our organization on a set of core services and then optimizing them, either by strategic sourcing or by reengineering to make them as efficient as possible. Managing our IT project portfolio and helping the business improve processes and enable growth or efficiency through strategic use of IT has always and will always be a CIO’s main objective.

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….