CIOs and IT leaders share the best career advice they've ever received
Whether we are just starting out in our professions or are considering our final move, we all benefit from good career advice. CIOs, particularly those who have been at it for a while, tend to have great career advice to share. For this reason, I recently asked readers of our weekly e-newsletter, The Heller Report, for the best career advice they've ever received. We received so much great advice, in fact, that we have had to break it into two parts. As promised, here is the second installment of great career advice sent to us by our readers.”
Read the first installment of career advice
Please share your thoughts in the Comments section below, or 'Sound Off' with the best career advice you've ever received by clicking here. Enjoy!
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"Align the IT business goals and strategy closely with the vision of the board and CEO. Once you have honed and focused your 12 to 18 month plan, review it against the business goals before you spend a dime on it. "
- Steve Snyder, MCCA
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The best career advice I got came from a Finance professor. He was asked what the best course to take to help with a successful financial career would be. His immediately answered “Marketing, because you’ll quickly find that if you can get people to buy into and embrace your ideas and vision, you’ll have success. However, if you cannot get a people to buy into your ideas, no matter how brilliant they are, you’ll never be a success.”- Bill Haser, Tenneco
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“Take the challenge.” I had been an IT manager for several years when I was simultaneously approached by IT (a lateral role) and a global P&L business unit that needed major restructuring. Although I had no prior experience in the latter 3 contexts (global, P&L and restructuring), I accepted the P&L role. While initially overwhelming, it has framed my perspective and approaches ever since...and subsequently presented CIO opportunities
- Mark Dronzek, Resources Global Professionals
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When I was going to pursue degrees in higher education. I looked at many programs and narrowed it down to about 4 options. I couldn't decide, so I went to a senior executive in the company and asked for his advice. He looked at the different programs and asked a few questions about them. When I asked which he recommended for me, he told me to think about our company (a Fortune 100 at the time) and decide who's job I would like to have in the future. I thought about it for minute and said, "Yours." He nodded, picked up the MBA in MIS documentation from the local college and said "This is the one." Worked out perfectly.
- Earl Monsour, Maricopa Community College District
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Some of the best advice I received was not a series of words, but the constant examples from my father: Make and keep commitments, be your word, treat everyone fairly, your customers and employees are everything, and work your tail off doing whatever it takes to make a difference.
- Rob Owen, Microchip Technology, Inc.
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"Discover the authentic YOU." In managing your career, periodically engage in a self-assessment process. It can provide you with invaluable learning. A personal self-assessment is an interlude of appreciating your strengths and accepting (and effectively managing) the limitations of your weaknesses. Discovering who you are, what inspires your passion, and how you can build yourself into a better person is the best advice I can give to all aspiring leaders. Accept constructive criticism throughout your career and realize that it will help to make you a better person. Most seasoned leaders discover that both personal and professional diversions can result in never taking the time to probe their inner self. I have found that self-discovery through a 360 degree feedback program, as well as through team collaboration, is an amazing and rewarding experience. Further developing your strengths will make you more valuable to your organization. I have learned that forming strong relationships and alliances with colleagues that possess exceptional abilities in your areas of weakness is the most effective way to compensate for your weaknesses. It will make you and your team more valuable to the company.
- Barbara Kunkel, Troutman Sanders LLP
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Shed the need to be appreciated.
- Steve Finnerty, Applied Materials
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Many years ago the CIO at Xerox at the time, Pat Wallington, was speaking at a conference and she said something that stuck with me and I have shared it with a number of team members and young people that I have worked with. She said "To be buccesful in our business you need to do two things well - Learn how to learn and learn how to change". This advice has served me well in my career and given the pace of change in our industry I think it is something that is still relevant today. I ran into Pat at a SIM conference a number of years ago and told her the story and how the small thing she said to me had rippled down the line. Funny how things work.- Joe Tait, Strategic Technologies
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"Pick your battles." Constantly waging war is a drain on you and your career. You will always have train-wrecks in progress, just work to minimize the damage caused and try not to lose any sleep.
- Todd Michaud, Power Thinking Media
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"Stick with (and develop) your strengths". In my early years, I worked at a company that required a review with someone two levels up in your organization once you reached 5 years. Having just finished my MBA in Finance, I expressed an interest in moving into that field and away from IT. The Division Head thought that was fine but suggested I stay involved with technology for the "foreseeable future". He then went on to define that as the next 20 years or so. And I did.
- Michael Abbene
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Always remember that your job is to make your boss look good and to help them be successful.
- Martin Davis
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I had a mentor explain a successful career to me in terms so simple they have never left me: Identify your true passions. Realistically evaluate your strongest skill sets. Where those two areas intersect is your career. A successful career will depend on others mentoring you along the way, and you mentoring others as you go. I owe a lot to the person who gave me that advice.
- Bryce Austin, Wells Fargo Business Payroll Services
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Change is not about process, it's about people
- Stu Kerr via twitter
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It is a lonely job, be prepared for it.
- @accidentalcio via twitter
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