CIOs need to champion human skills

BANGALORE, INDIA: In this dynamic environment, CIOs need to cultivate the human skills and lead their enterprises smoothly through various transitions. A CIO, who heads the information technology, has to adopt the role of a catalyst or initiator for various process in the organization.

Addressing the need of developing the 'Human Factor' among CIOs, during CIOL Enterprise Next, Virtual Conference 2009, Dr. Nityesh Bhatt, Associate Professor, Nirma Institute of Management said that CIOs need to champion the human skill and act as enablers in connecting the various levels of the organization as one team.

He said, “CIOs need to inculcate a blend of three skills - conceptual, technical and human skills, but most importantly the human skill, as they are the bridge between the top-level and the low-level management.”

He explained that an individual masters in three skills during his work experience namely technical, pre-conceptual and human skill. While a technical skill involves domain knowledge, pre-conceptual skill is about generating an idea, vision for the company and also the challenges ahead and lastly, the human skill is about understanding and interacting with the fellowmen.

The first skill is important for the low-level management, the second is required by the top-level management, while the third skill - human skill - is required by the middle level, especially the CIOs.

He added, “A chief information officer basically performs six activities such as looking at the existing application system, new application development, the IT infrastructure, maintain the applications, operation and information security, where he needs to to tackle issues that involve human element like communication, leadership, team building, interpersonal skills, conflict resolving, decision making, negotiation and many more.”

Touching over the challenges faced by CIOs today, he said that mergers and acquisition and various similar transition are one of the key areas where CIOs need to perform a special role in smooth transition.

He said, “According to reports, more than 50 per cent of the M&A's have been a failure. And this is largely because of the lack of people aspect and lesser due to implementation aspect. The challenges that a CIO faces here are lack of support form top management, low commitment from the team, weak leadership and improper role identification.”

Bhatt said that a CIO with the help of a good rapport with the top management, understanding of the IT assets and true involvement in the entire transition, along with change management, can turn any failure into a success.