The Key Obstacles Preventing CTOs from Driving Change
Introduction
Chief Technology Officers are currently experiencing the greatest pressure since they are trying to digitalize their organizations. Although they are strategic in their nature, some CTOs have been battling corporate forces that have greatly limited their effectiveness as change agents. According to recent studies:
- 43% of CTOs report to some other IT executive or the head of a line of business
- Only 38% of them have a separate IT departments budget
This organizational drawback brings about significant resistance in the process of executing transformative efforts.
The challenges have been faced by Anurag Dhingra, Senior Vice President of Engineering and CTO of Webex, who went through the same hardships in the past. Lacking the execution authority, he was now left to work extra hard selling ideas and gaining buy-in with the people who have budgets and execution obligations.
It becomes even more difficult when CTOs need to promote technologies that are not directly controlled by the implementation resources or budgets. Extensive Gartner survey found out various key barriers to CTO effectiveness:
- Conflicts in organizational cultures
- Lack of authority
- Inability to show value of innovation
- Lack of funds
Interestingly, CTOs who have less than five years in the job are more probable to mention internal politics as impediments than the ten-year veterans do. According to Nick Jones, Distinguished VP Analyst of Gartner, there was a surprising result, stating that more than a third of the surveyed CTOs claimed that CEOs or boards were not giving them clear direction. This lack of alignment between the top management and the technology strategy poses extra challenges to CTOs who are trying to move technical projects on track with the business goals.
The Business Impact of Innovation
Proving the value of innovation is one of the most intractable issues of modern CTOs. Alan McIntosh, the CTO of Plexus Worldwide, points out that any strategy innovation project should be geared towards creating quantifiable business value. Rapid developments in AI have added more scrutiny to the investments in innovation. Organizations want to achieve quicker outcomes and CTOs should weigh between the present and the prospective businesses. This force presents a difficult situation in which the conventional ROI analytics might fail to realize the entire potential of transformative technologies.
Master Technology Value Communication
Get effective strategies of proving the worth of technology to the stakeholders.
Contact UsAccording to McIntosh, it may be more effective to have incremental demonstration of value than to seek to demonstrate massive transformational benefits in the immediate future. As an example, instead of saying that the company will cut down its dramatic costs by improving efficiency in software, CTOs can establish credibility in demonstrating progressive improvements that are easy to comprehend and confirm by the stakeholders.
How to go around Organizational Culture and Politics
Timothy Bates, the former CTO of General Motors and Lenovo, is aware that organization culture can kill technology penetration. He noted that in legacy companies the departments tend to be siloed and as such, they tend to compete with each other instead of cooperating. Such atmosphere complicates innovation and difficulty in obtaining funds. Effective CTOs also have to take a considerable amount of time in learning the organizational culture prior to deploying any new processes. Bates has managed this challenge in GM by:
- Meeting the business leaders of various businesses personally to discuss his vision with them
- Developing cross functional teams to eliminate organizational barriers
One of the strategies that may assist CTOs in overcoming political difficulties and encouraging collaboration is the formation of cross-functional trust between departments.
McIntosh admits that internal politics and bureaucracy are inevitable facts to the CTOs. Nonetheless, the leaders have the ability to use their influence to create strategic relationships and reduce the adverse effects when it comes to experienced leaders. The trick is to realize the multifaceted network of organizational relationships, power relations and rivalry of interests that influence internal politics.
Establishing the Right Relationships
Jones points out that soft skills are crucial in the establishment of relationships with the heads of the business units. Good CTOs are communication experts who have hard and soft influence that enables them to work across an organization. The root of the problem facing a number of CTOs is the lack of alignment between the duty and authority. In situations where CTOs are responsible for deliverables and have no control over implementing resources, they need to cultivate an extraordinary influence skill and acquire skills to lead through influence instead of authority. Bhawna Singh, the CTO of Okta, emphasizes on genuine building relationships. Wasting time to see how other leaders prioritize their activities allows making decisions and collaborating more effectively. It is not enough to have technical expertise but CTOs should also invest in learning business and establishing authentic relationships with other employees.
Obtaining Executive Support
The issue of where CTOs turn to in case of an impediment elicits mixed thoughts among the industry players. Some may propose the support of the CIO, yet it has been claimed that the executive should sponsor in a wider way. Dhingra reckons that the most essential support is the level of CEO or general manager. He accentuates the need to foster the relationships of the senior leadership that are based on transparency and trust. It is only based on this that CTOs can successfully argue about problematic topics concerning investment priorities and cultural change.
Despite good executive backing, the CTOs need to make more effort in gaining alignment between teams which do not report directly to them. This involves the creation of some sophisticated influence skills and learning of the art of leading by persuasion instead of power.
Strategic Focus
Strategic value to organizations CTOs cannot lose sight of this despite the many challenges they face. The position of CTO is more important than it used to be since technology has become an integral part of virtually all business operations. McIntosh cautions against being carried away by the issue of politics and the drama surrounding it at the expense of strategic goals. On the one hand, CTOs have to pass through bureaucracy, but they should keep the long-term picture of the contribution to the business success on the other hand. Do not be entangled in red tape. Always remember how strategic you are and what value IT can bring to overall business goals. Effective CTOs:
- Set clear objectives
- Offer resources and support where needed
- Develop a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
Such leadership practices assist in creating high-performance environments which may beat organizational barriers. The CTO position is undergoing continued changes as technology comes to play a more significant role in business strategy. Despite the ongoing issues with culture, politics, funding, and authority, with proper relationships, communication, and strategic focus, the CTOs are able to transform the organization despite these challenges.
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Introduction
Chief Technology Officers are currently experiencing the greatest pressure since they are trying to digitalize their organizations. Although they are strategic in their nature, some CTOs have been battling corporate forces that have greatly limited their effectiveness as change agents. According to recent studies:
- 43% of CTOs report to some other IT executive or the head of a line of business
- Only 38% of them have a separate IT departments budget
This organizational drawback brings about significant resistance in the process of executing transformative efforts.
The challenges have been faced by Anurag Dhingra, Senior Vice President of Engineering and CTO of Webex, who went through the same hardships in the past. Lacking the execution authority, he was now left to work extra hard selling ideas and gaining buy-in with the people who have budgets and execution obligations.
It becomes even more difficult when CTOs need to promote technologies that are not directly controlled by the implementation resources or budgets. Extensive Gartner survey found out various key barriers to CTO effectiveness:
- Conflicts in organizational cultures
- Lack of authority
- Inability to show value of innovation
- Lack of funds
Interestingly, CTOs who have less than five years in the job are more probable to mention internal politics as impediments than the ten-year veterans do. According to Nick Jones, Distinguished VP Analyst of Gartner, there was a surprising result, stating that more than a third of the surveyed CTOs claimed that CEOs or boards were not giving them clear direction. This lack of alignment between the top management and the technology strategy poses extra challenges to CTOs who are trying to move technical projects on track with the business goals.
The Business Impact of Innovation
Proving the value of innovation is one of the most intractable issues of modern CTOs. Alan McIntosh, the CTO of Plexus Worldwide, points out that any strategy innovation project should be geared towards creating quantifiable business value. Rapid developments in AI have added more scrutiny to the investments in innovation. Organizations want to achieve quicker outcomes and CTOs should weigh between the present and the prospective businesses. This force presents a difficult situation in which the conventional ROI analytics might fail to realize the entire potential of transformative technologies.
Master Technology Value Communication
Get effective strategies of proving the worth of technology to the stakeholders.
Contact UsAccording to McIntosh, it may be more effective to have incremental demonstration of value than to seek to demonstrate massive transformational benefits in the immediate future. As an example, instead of saying that the company will cut down its dramatic costs by improving efficiency in software, CTOs can establish credibility in demonstrating progressive improvements that are easy to comprehend and confirm by the stakeholders.
How to go around Organizational Culture and Politics
Timothy Bates, the former CTO of General Motors and Lenovo, is aware that organization culture can kill technology penetration. He noted that in legacy companies the departments tend to be siloed and as such, they tend to compete with each other instead of cooperating. Such atmosphere complicates innovation and difficulty in obtaining funds. Effective CTOs also have to take a considerable amount of time in learning the organizational culture prior to deploying any new processes. Bates has managed this challenge in GM by:
- Meeting the business leaders of various businesses personally to discuss his vision with them
- Developing cross functional teams to eliminate organizational barriers
One of the strategies that may assist CTOs in overcoming political difficulties and encouraging collaboration is the formation of cross-functional trust between departments.
McIntosh admits that internal politics and bureaucracy are inevitable facts to the CTOs. Nonetheless, the leaders have the ability to use their influence to create strategic relationships and reduce the adverse effects when it comes to experienced leaders. The trick is to realize the multifaceted network of organizational relationships, power relations and rivalry of interests that influence internal politics.
Establishing the Right Relationships
Jones points out that soft skills are crucial in the establishment of relationships with the heads of the business units. Good CTOs are communication experts who have hard and soft influence that enables them to work across an organization. The root of the problem facing a number of CTOs is the lack of alignment between the duty and authority. In situations where CTOs are responsible for deliverables and have no control over implementing resources, they need to cultivate an extraordinary influence skill and acquire skills to lead through influence instead of authority. Bhawna Singh, the CTO of Okta, emphasizes on genuine building relationships. Wasting time to see how other leaders prioritize their activities allows making decisions and collaborating more effectively. It is not enough to have technical expertise but CTOs should also invest in learning business and establishing authentic relationships with other employees.
Obtaining Executive Support
The issue of where CTOs turn to in case of an impediment elicits mixed thoughts among the industry players. Some may propose the support of the CIO, yet it has been claimed that the executive should sponsor in a wider way. Dhingra reckons that the most essential support is the level of CEO or general manager. He accentuates the need to foster the relationships of the senior leadership that are based on transparency and trust. It is only based on this that CTOs can successfully argue about problematic topics concerning investment priorities and cultural change.
Despite good executive backing, the CTOs need to make more effort in gaining alignment between teams which do not report directly to them. This involves the creation of some sophisticated influence skills and learning of the art of leading by persuasion instead of power.
Strategic Focus
Strategic value to organizations CTOs cannot lose sight of this despite the many challenges they face. The position of CTO is more important than it used to be since technology has become an integral part of virtually all business operations. McIntosh cautions against being carried away by the issue of politics and the drama surrounding it at the expense of strategic goals. On the one hand, CTOs have to pass through bureaucracy, but they should keep the long-term picture of the contribution to the business success on the other hand. Do not be entangled in red tape. Always remember how strategic you are and what value IT can bring to overall business goals. Effective CTOs:
- Set clear objectives
- Offer resources and support where needed
- Develop a culture of accountability and continuous improvement
Such leadership practices assist in creating high-performance environments which may beat organizational barriers. The CTO position is undergoing continued changes as technology comes to play a more significant role in business strategy. Despite the ongoing issues with culture, politics, funding, and authority, with proper relationships, communication, and strategic focus, the CTOs are able to transform the organization despite these challenges.
