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Confessions of an Interim CIO: Insights into IT Transition and Transformation

Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) is frequently asked to fill leadership roles in our clients’ organizations for a number of different reasons. As interim Chief Information Officers, we are called on to drive complex organizational change, fix underperforming aspects of the information technology function, or maintain operations while helping our clients identify and on-board a high-quality permanent CIO. Regardless of the objective of our engagement, our experience in this role provides important insights into the leadership challenges that are fundamental to IT transition and transformation.

Providing the interim CIO role involves several steps that are relevant to all IT transition and transformation. Interim CIOs baseline the performance of their organization, they set an agenda based on this baseline, they execute that agenda and then they transition their leadership to a permanent CIO. Leading organizations from baseline through transition to a new operating model is the role of all transformational IT leaders.

Our work as interim CIO has identified five insights that are relevant to IT transition and transformation:

“Expect to take a few steps backward to start stepping forward.” Transformation starts with people not fully understanding one another. They may not speak the same language or have the same understanding of the context or priorities. Not only do people need to get on the same page, but organizational structures and implementation processes may need to be established to ensure they stay that way. These steps may take time and will be required before real progress can be made. Transformational leaders must plan and allow time for the team or organization to take a step or two backwards before it can efficiently move forward.

“Killer facts catalyze change.” Interim executives need to create a compelling case for change. Likewise, jumpstarting IT transformation requires that organizations be compelled to action. Sometimes a simple set of facts presented in a useful way can be just enough to challenge the status quo and help organizations to see the need for change. Baselining the relevant aspects of an organization or its performance (e.g., costs, service levels, risks, morale) can provide the critical facts that galvanize an organization’s motivation for change.

“People assessment is the most important leadership skill in organizational change.” Transformational change often means leading people through challenges they’ve never experienced before. The ability to quickly assess capabilities and readiness is critical to choosing high-performing team members, making individual assignments, or recognizing when team members need a break. Leaders are only as good as their teams. Effective assessment requires that a leader identify the characteristics that are most important to the organization and learn how to assess them. Using assessment skills effectively means using them objectively. Transformational leaders need to constantly assess their objectivity as they assess their teams or organizations.

“The hardest decisions that interim executives make concern people and culture.” Most decisions taken during the interim leadership period are closely aligned with the objectives of the interim period, but sometimes decisions need to based on the longer term needs of the organization. The most difficult of these have to do with decisions that concern people or impact the organization’s culture. For example, interim leaders may find themselves in the position of making organizational changes or hiring and firing decisions that are unrelated to their near term objectives, but necessary to address issues that are critical to the long- term health of the organization. These are agonizing decisions for interim leaders because they go beyond the interim remit. The same is true of transformational leaders who find themselves confronted with issues that aren’t part of the transformation agenda, but are necessary for long-term success. Success with these decisions requires partners — human resources, finance, marketing and other stakeholders — who can challenge and ultimately support the decision.

“Leadership is a privilege and even interim leaders have an obligation to really lead.” It is easy for interim leaders to avoid connecting with the people they are leading. Interim leaders are typically focused on a narrow set of priorities for a finite period of time. As such, a broader people agenda is easy to put aside. Transformational leaders can fall into this trap too. Transformational leaders need to actively plan and execute their broader people leadership agenda. Unfortunately there is no playbook to help with this. Every situation requires a different leadership agenda and every leader has a different style. That said, the only unambiguous mistake a leader can make is to not do anything.

Interim IT leadership is a fundamental part of what A&M does. These insights are key to our success in this challenging role. We believe they are important for IT leaders who are driving any kind of change or transition.