In terms of professional benefits, there’s never been a better time to succeed as an IT professional, but recognizing opportunities for career advancement is just the start.
IT professionals who want to land top jobs need to find new and creative ways to appeal to their organizations’ senior leadership. Harvard Business Review says Smart self-promotion is a delicate art. “People need to be aware of their growth and accomplishments, but no one likes someone who brags.”
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But how do you strike the right balance? Five business leaders share tips for effective self-promotion.
1. Focus on the right topics
Anjali Shaikh, Managing Director and Director of CIO Program Experience at Deloitte Consulting LLP This means they are being tasked more often to communicate how they are using External forum.
“This trend means that personal brand can become as important as company brand, with dynamic and influential CIOs attracting talent and emphasizing the organization’s technological success.” “It is often used as a magnet,” he said.
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Shaikh told ZDNET that technology professionals should be cautious about the topics they choose to focus on outside the company and carefully consider how those areas impact their perception of the organization.
“Companies need to ensure their brand is a positive beacon to technology talent, as well as evidence of the organization’s commitment to technology-driven customer service and product development,” she said.
“Aligning your personal and company brand makes strategic sense as you leverage both your personal credibility and your company’s reputation in the technology field.”
2. Focus on innovative ideas
JP Avelange, CIO at technology specialist Expereo, said the rising position of technology in today’s business transformation means IT executives must have a higher profile. .
“In their ‘new’ role, self-promotion is key to ensuring that CIOs’ contributions are recognized and that they are seen as business partners,” he said.
However, self-promotion must be balanced with business requirements. Havelanger told ZDNET that achieving this balance means putting egos aside.
Successful IT leaders communicate regularly with their business colleagues. They demonstrate how the project creates value through a positive impact on the organization’s bottom line and customer experience.
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Good CIOs also keep an eye on future trends so their business can stay one step ahead of its competitors.
“At the same time, CIOs need to drive innovation by exploring and implementing new technologies that provide competitive advantage,” he said.
“Building a stronger customer experience and developing an agile organization that can respond quickly to changing market conditions should be the two main priorities here.”
3. Fulfill your responsibilities
Atiq Qureshi, chief digital and information officer at Manchester United Football Club, sees the importance of the technology sector as a “land grab” IT professionals need to balance self-promotion with broader business requirements. He said it would be difficult to get it.
“If they think of it as an orchestration exercise, understanding boundaries and working with different people at different levels, they’re more likely to be successful,” he says.
Qureshi explained to ZDNET how that orchestration process works in his role with a world-famous sports team.
Clubs rely on complex systems and data sources, such as fan information in CRM platforms, soccer performance data related to medical, nutritional and recovery systems, and scheduling systems for teams at different levels.
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Add in the matchday platforms, Wi-Fi networks and digital content the club shares with fans around the world, and Qureshi said his reputation is closely linked to public perception.
“I’ve worked for some big brands, but nothing comes close to Manchester United and the number of people who follow you. And for me, that’s a special dynamic.”
“It’s great for a club to have a high profile. It opens doors, it creates conversations, it makes recruitment and retention easier. But it also comes with responsibility.”
Being a successful CIO of a Premier League club means providing systems and services that your company can trust.
“We don’t have a fail-first, fail-quick mentality,” he said. “Our technology has to be robust, it has to work and it has to work.”
4. Appreciate the challenges people face
Ambrose Earle, CIO of Southwest Traders, said the new opportunity comes with a proven ability to work closely with colleagues and help them achieve their goals.
“A big part of my job is process improvement, not technology, and I think that focus allows me to better understand the business and its challenges,” he said.
Earl told ZDNET that his leadership style centers around Lean Six Sigma, a team-focused management approach that aims to improve performance by eliminating resource waste and defects.
Rather than worrying about self-promotion, Earle makes sure people within the organization are getting the most out of the tools the organization has in place.
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Since joining Southwest Traders in 2018, he has worked with experts across the organization to propose technical solutions to specific problems.
“When I was hired here, the big challenge for me was adoption. People won’t adopt technology if they don’t understand it or are not directed to it effectively,” he said.
“If I work with companies and understand their pain points, I think there is a great opportunity to introduce technology that solves their problems.”
5. Show that you’re always learning new things
Omar Grossman, global CIO at technology firm CyberArk, says budding IT professionals should remember that self-improvement is always a work in progress, and business leaders are never finished. I said it was necessary.
“The environment is constantly changing, and to be successful as a CIO, you have to be a continuous learner,” he said.
“I am constantly learning by taking online courses, meeting with customers and listening to their feedback, being active in the CIO network, and consuming information and data.”
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Many CIOs have sought to promote themselves by taking on expanded roles, such as adding words like digital and transformation to their job titles, as part of a continuous learning process.
Grossman told ZDNET that IT professionals who rise to the top, regardless of their job title, are proving to companies that they can leverage a variety of skills. In addition to promoting our company’s benefits externally, we are also delivering excellent results internally.
“Ultimately, I think the CIO will become a largely inward-looking executive who simultaneously unlocks the integrated potential of IT, security, data analytics, and AI.”
