What's Leadership Got to Do with It?

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Leadership   Lessons Learned   Strategy  

Over the past 13 or so years, I have posted numerous articles on the topic of leadership, including:

1. A Case of Leadership Deficit Disorder (2002)
2. Leadership: What Is It, and How Can the CIO Show Some? (2003)
3. Essentials of CIO Leadership (2007)
4. The Yin and Yang of Adaptive Leadership (2007)
5. Alignment Requires Proactive, Progressive CIO Leadership (2009)
6. Leadership and the CIO: Too Little, Too Late? (2010)
7. Leadership and Stewardship: Is There a Connection? (2015)

Suffice to say, I have some thoughts on the subject. After a pondering and pontificating on the topic for so long, more than ever I believe that leadership is still the most elusive capability plaguing CIOs today.

Maybe it’s because CEOs are not screening CIO candidates for their leadership capabilities. Or perhaps CIOs are not being exposed to the leadership development programs like CEOs and other C-level executives regularly participate in. Either way, it is clear that there is much room for improvement amongst the vast majority of CIOs in the leadership department.

One area that can readily be remedied is in the area of leadership development. It begins with some awareness of what programs are out there that can help CIOs foster and hone their innate leadership talents. Virtually every major university offers programs that range from a …

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