Workplace disruptions and ongoing changes to business, operating, and IT delivery models mean CIOs need to rethink their role as digital leaders. Digital leaders can be restricted from developing innovative ideas by “cognitive traps,” Gartner Principal Analyst Apoorva Chhabra told SDxCentral. 

“If the focus is only on ‘checking the boxes’ by completing several quick-win tasks in rapid succession, it can create a feeling of accomplishment,” she said. “But such siloed projects rarely result in transformative improvements.” 

CIOs can no longer evolve with the mindset of just being responsible to run, own, and operate all information technology solely as a function, said Chhabra, indicating that resorting to a “command-and-control governance” restricts autonomy and hinders efficiency. 

As a way to help solve the challenge that many CIOs face, Gartner outlined five key characteristics they should adopt to lead and deliver on digital transformation. 

First, CIO’s should adopt "neophilia" – or a tendency to like anything new. The firm suggested effective digital CIOs embrace the tendency to ask “what do we want to achieve?” rather than “what have we got?” in order to reject current assumptions and pursue innovation.

A successful CIO also possesses the ability to "develop new opportunities." The firm said digital leaders don’t invent and innovate all of the time, but in reality, “successful digital leaders appreciate exactly where their organizations need to be different, where they can copy, and where they should improvise.”

Gartner also encourages CIOs to "pioneer new opportunities" by looking beyond industry boundaries. Gartner dubs leaders who can “actively seek value beyond any specific industry and create whole new industries as they redefine value in any industry they pursue,” as “digital dragons.” The firm noted strategies and digital adoption plans are often made only as a result of a market disruption mindset.

CIOs should never consider digital to be the outcome, but "seek new value creation opportunities," which means digital leaders understand that “digital is a means, not an end,” and that going digital does not necessarily increase value if done incorrectly. The firm recommended digital leaders consider the logic behind a product or service’s value proposition before implementing digital tools, and ask how the digital offering drives business outcomes of customer centricity, greater market share, and revenue enhancement. 

Gartner indicated CIOs should also "focus on technology-driven opportunities," or “geek out on technology.” Successful digital leaders possess a holistic understanding of the technology at hand. The firm added, “It’s challenging to get value out of technology if you don’t understand what it does or doesn’t do.”

Chhabra explained that progressive organizations enable CIOs to capitalize on these characteristics and “extend the strategic reach of their role to best support technology initiatives.”

Accomplishing objectives requires an expansive role for CIOs that “must be woven into everything the organization does,” Chhabra said. The scope of a CIO’s role is “deeply determined” by factors such as a company’s digital ambition, existing maturity of digitalization and technology delivery, and the level of digital dexterity across the enterprise. 

But no matter the size of an organization, Chhabra said, CIOs can guide them to success by building highly functional teams and maximizing the value of financial resources. 

“The key is to achieve optimization as a discipline, not just as a periodic exercise,” she added. “While they must work within the constraints of a limited budget, they can utilize their fundamental ability to be nimble in tactical and strategic execution.”

CIOs additionally can forge relationships with other leaders to expand perspective on digital technology adoption and understand trends and challenges.

“There can be opportunities to co-develop shared technology-agnostic business capabilities to achieve industry vision and enterprise growth ambitions,” she explained. “Mutual competency growth and innovation can be accelerated through close collaboration.”