The Heller Report: CIOs' Hardest Problem Isn't AI. It's Leading People.

Under pressure, even capable leaders fall back on habits that don't always fit the moment. After interviewing seven technology C-suite leaders and reflecting on her experience, executive coach and former CIO Jessica Kral writes that leaders who are thriving are doing a few specific things: They stay honest about what they don't know. They translate ambiguity into direction. And they keep their people informed even when information is incomplete.

AI excels at producing the resume every other CIO candidate is also producing. Executive resume writer Lisa Rangel explains why the highest-value use of AI in a job search isn't drafting your story—it's interrogating it. She offers four steps to working with AI: interrogate the text, strip the generic, sharpen the distinct, and align to the job category.

With AI prompting enterprises to evaluate cybersecurity roles, security leaders and recruiters are valuing professional judgment over technical knowhow as they consolidate authority over infrastructure, information security and AI, CSOonline reports. Heller CEO Martha Heller told the publication that she sees this pattern in the firm’s work with clients. “Anybody who’s led a really successful cloud migration will know a thing or two about cyber,” she says.

Heller was recently retained by Black & Veatch to recruit an Enterprise Architecture Director. Black & Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting, and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. For this role, we identified Vijay Srinivasan, who most recently served as Director of Information Technology for Champion Home Builders. Srinivasan holds a B.S. from the University of Madras. Congratulations, Vijay!