Information Week

Building up an AI-enhanced workforce calls for more than telling staffers to use new tools and then hope for the best. Job roles can change, C-suite leadership may need new strategies, and the organization could face a different set of security and oversight concerns. In this episode of the InformationWeek podcast, Michael Fanning, CISO for Splunk; and Andie Dovgan, chief growth officer with Creatio, came together for a Breaking Bread session, tackling the tech and operations aspects of making AI part of the workforce. How should AI be vetted as it introduces new efficiencies — and redundancies — in the workforce? What roles could be affected by AI? What roles cannot be entrusted to AI-enhancement because of sensitivity or regulatory compliance? The session then shifts to a tabletop exercise where Dovgan and Fanning collaborate and respond to potential issues companies might see as they make AI a tool for the workforce. source

Greg Touhill, director of the Software Engineering’s Institute’s (SEI’s) Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) division is an atypical technology leader. For one thing, he’s been in tech and other leadership positions that span the US Air Force, the US government, the private sector and now SEI’s CERT. More importantly, he’s been a major force in the cybersecurity realm, making the world a safer place and even saving lives.  Touhill earned a bachelor’s degree from the Pennsylvania State University, a master’s degree from the University of Southern California, a master’s degree from the Air War College, was a senior executive fellow at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and completed executive education studies at the University of North Carolina.  “I was a student intern at Carnegie Mellon, but I was going to college at Penn State and studying chemical engineering. As an Air Force ROTC scholarship recipient, I knew I was going to become an Air Force officer but soon realized that I didn’t necessarily want to be a chemical engineer in the Air Force,” says Touhill. “Because I passed all the mathematics, physics, and engineering courses, I ended up becoming a communications, electronics, and computer systems officer in the Air Force. I spent 30 years, one month and three days on active duty in the United States Air Force, eventually retiring as a brigadier general and having done many different types of jobs that were available to me within and even beyond my career field.”  Related:Mastering the Art of IT Task Delegation Specifically, he was an operational commander at the squadron, group, and wing levels. For example, as a colonel, Touhill served as director of command, control, communications and computers (C4) for the United States Central Command Forces, then he was appointed chief information officer and director, communications and information at Air Mobility Command. Later, he served as commander, 81st Training Wing at Kessler Air Force Base where he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded over 12,500 personnel. After that, he served as the senior defense officer and US defense attaché at the US Embassy in Kuwait, before concluding his military career as the chief information officer and director, C4 systems at the US Transportation Command, one of 10 US combatant commands, where he and his team were awarded the NSA Rowlett Award for the best cybersecurity program in the government. While in the Air Force, Touhill received numerous awards and decorations including the Bronze Star medal and the Air Force Science and Engineering Award. He is the only three-time recipient of the USAF C4 Professionalism Award.  Related:Tech Burnout: CIOs Might Be Making It Worse Greg Touhill “I got to serve at major combatant commands, work with coalition partners from many different countries and represented the US as part of a diplomatic mission to Kuwait for two years as the senior defense official at a time when America was withdrawing forces out of Iraq. I also led the negotiation of a new bilateral defense agreement with the Kuwaitis,” says Touhill. “Then I was recruited to continue my service and was asked to serve as the deputy assistant secretary of cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security, where I ran the operations of what is now known as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. I was there at a pivotal moment because we were building up the capacity of that organization and setting the stage for it to become its own agency.”  While at DHS, there were many noteworthy breaches including the infamous US Office of People Management (OPM) breach. Those events led to Obama’s visit to the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center.   “I got to brief the president on the state of cybersecurity, what we had seen with the OPM breach and some other deficiencies,” says Touhill. “I was on the federal CIO council as the cybersecurity advisor to that since I’d been a federal CIO before and I got to conclude my federal career by being the first United States government chief information security officer. From there, I pivoted to industry, but I also got to return to Carnegie Mellon as a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, where I’ve been teaching since January 2017.”  Related:How Continuous Learning Paid Off for CTO Pravin Uttawar Touhill has been involved in three startups, two of which were successfully acquired. He also served on three Fortune 100 advisory boards and on the Information Systems Audit and Control Association board, eventually becoming its chair for a term during the seven years he served there.  Touhill just celebrated his fourth year at CERT, which he considers the pinnacle of the cybersecurity profession and everything he’s done to date.  “Over my career I’ve led teams that have done major software builds in the national security space. I’ve also been the guy who’s pulled cables and set up routers, hubs and switches, and I’ve been a system administrator. I’ve done everything that I could do from the keyboard up all the way up to the White House,” says Touhill. “For 40 years, the Software Engineering Institute has been leading the world in secure by design, cybersecurity, software engineering, artificial intelligence and engineering, pioneering best practices, and figuring out how to make the world a safer more secure and trustworthy place. I’ve had a hand in the making of today’s modern military and government information technology environment, beginning as a 22-year-old lieutenant, and hope to inspire the next generation to do even better.”  What ‘Success’ Means  Many people would be satisfied with their careers as a brigadier general, a tech leader, the White House’s first anything, or working at CERT, let alone running it. Touhill has spent his entire career making the world a safer place, so it’s not surprising that he considers his greatest achievement saving lives.  “In the Middle East and Iraq, convoys were being attacked with improvised explosive devices. There were also ‘direct fire’ attacks where people are firing weapons at you and indirect fire attacks where

IT didn’t start the fire but they’re sure feeling the heat. “A big reason for burnout is things outside of a CIO’s control — economic uncertainty, political tension, market shifts,” says Manuj Aggarwal, founder and CIO of TetraNoodle Technologies, an AI and automation company. “When that happens, companies lean heavily on their tech teams to fix things: cut costs, automate, and generate revenue fast.”  This hard push for IT to fix anything and everything isn’t smart or sustainable. Many CIOs know that but assume the burden anyway and push forward rather than push back.  “This strain cascades into performance. Overworked teams cut corners, increasing technical debt and security risks. Worse, CIOs themselves aren’t immune, often mirroring their teams’ unsustainable pace. This vicious cycle, where leaders, drowning in their own burnout, lack the bandwidth to recognize or address staff struggles, says Alex Kratko, founder and CEO of Snov.io, a platform that automates sales on LinkedIn.   The cycle of CIO accelerated burnout often pedals along, picking up momentum despite the growing futility of the effort.  “If the overarching culture of the IT division is highly reactive, then staff burnout is more likely. A highly reactive environment is characterized by unplanned work, shoulder tap requests, heroically putting out fires and a lack of strategic direction,” says Andy Miears, partner, at global technology research and advisory firm ISG.  Related:CERT Director Greg Touhill: To Lead Is to Serve Decades-long, persistent burnout now flames higher than ever under the auspices of CIOs who typically are more misguided heroes than cruel task-masters.   AI to the CIO’s Rescue?  Ah, but what about AI and automation? Surely these advanced technologies will soon lift the burden from the shoulders of CIO and IT staff members alike, right? Not exactly. Or at least not in the short term.  “The rush to implement AI is exacerbating tech burnout as CIOs grapple with unrealistic expectations from boards and shareholders. Under pressure to deliver ROI, many leaders prioritize speed over sustainability, greenlighting overlapping AI projects without aligning them with team capacity,” says Kratko.  Rightly or wrongly, AI is being touted as salvation for beleaguered companies struggling to survive in uncertain times. The C-suite demands IT “make it so” as if they are all captains in Star Trek’s Starfleet.  Meanwhile, IT tends to hope it’s a fix for the growing number of fires that they can’t seem to put out. But while efforts of transformation spring eternal, AI has yet to show up as a reliable rescuer.  Related:Mastering the Art of IT Task Delegation “One of the biggest challenges plaguing workforces today stems from transformation fatigue. This isn’t necessarily exhaustion from too many change programs, rather a frustration and weariness stemming from little to no meaningful progress stemming from those initiatives,” says Alex Adamopolous, chairman and CEO of Emergn, a technology services and business consultancy.   According to Emergn research, 58% of employees report feeling burnout from change initiatives, with 50% of employees blaming leadership failures and bosses who are out of touch with the concerns of their employees for transformation failures.  By all accounts, AI is the gorilla in the data center and it’s pounding out the biggest changes with little care about whether that change works for anybody concerned.   “Execution speed is increasing but operational design hasn’t caught up. Teams are pushed through AI rollouts and security shifts without recalibrating load or sequence. Engineers get pulled in too many directions without runtime control, while the CIO stays too abstract to resolve bottlenecks,” says Nic Adams, co-founder and CEO at 0rcus, a pen-testing software provider.  Developers echo those same concerns.  Related:How Continuous Learning Paid Off for CTO Pravin Uttawar “From my experience leading development teams through high-pressure digital initiatives, including AI implementation, the biggest contributor to burnout isn’t the technology itself, it’s the pace and expectations surrounding its rollout,” says Antony Marceles, founder at Pumex, a software development and technology integrations company.  “CIOs often unintentionally worsen burnout by underestimating the human toll of constant context switching, unclear priorities, and always-on availability. In the rush to stay competitive with AI-driven initiatives, teams are pushed to deliver faster without enough buffer for testing, reflection, or recovery,” Marceles adds.  In the end, it’s the panic surrounding AI adoption, and not the technology itself, that’s accelerating burnout. The panic is running hot and high, surpassing anything CIOs and IT members think of as normal.  “The pressure to adopt AI everywhere is real, and CIOs are feeling it from every angle — executives, investors, competitors. But when that pressure gets passed down as back-to-back initiatives with no breathing room, it fractures the team. Engineers get pulled into AI pilots without proper training. IT staff are asked to maintain legacy systems while onboarding new automation tools. And all of it happens under the expectation that this is just “the new normal,” says Cahyo Subroto, founder of MrScraper, a data scraping tool.   To Err Is Tech, to Burn Out Is Human  The focus on tech overshadows the needs of mortal humans. Which is an odd development, if you think about it, since tech is supposed to help or protect the people it serves and not the other way around. Somewhere along the way, the priority flipped.  “What gets lost is the human capacity behind the tech. We don’t talk enough about how context-switching and unclear priorities drain cognitive energy. When everything is labeled critical, people lose the ability to focus. Productivity drops. Morale sinks. And burnout sets in quietly, until key people start leaving,” Subroto says.  Relieving burnout requires flipping the priority back to human-first.   “To fix this, CIOs need to slow the rollout down — not in terms of strategy, but in terms of how it lands on people. That means setting clear phases. It means choosing fewer tools but supporting them properly. And it means protecting focus time for staff and for themselves. Because burnout doesn’t just erode performance. It breaks trust. And once that happens, even the best tech strategy falls apart,” Subroto adds.   source

Developers typically follow one of two paths: They rise through the ranks to principal engineer or pursue a software development or IT management path. Pravin Uttarwar, CTO at healthcare solution provider Mindbowser took the latter route, jumping directly from a developer role to CTO.   Uttarwar began his career with a Bachelor’s of Computer Science and a Master’s of Computer Applications before joining an IT consulting startup as the second employee.  “The job was not good in terms of pay, but I totally enjoyed the journey because I was doing so many things there like coding as a software engineer and handling client communications,” says Uttarwar. “The most important part was the ownership I was getting. The founders relied on me, so every night of late work was worth it.”  To Uttarwar, the freedom to do many types of jobs meant he had broader experiences than the average developer, which laid the groundwork for effective cross-functional communication and collaboration. After about five years at the company, he and his then-colleague, Ayush Jain, decided to start their own company, Mindbowser.  “I was bit hesitant about whether to start a company or not because there was no advisor, no playbook and no safety net. After talking with family members who encouraged me, I figured there was nothing to lose so no harm in trying,” says Uttarwar. “There’s the money aspect, which I believed would come, but more importantly, it’s a matter of making sure that what you’re doing today really helps others and you to become a better person. That continuous learning mindset set the tone for everything.”  Related:Mastering the Art of IT Task Delegation For example, during its 12-year history, the company has grown from 10 to 200 employees. Not bad for someone who has never been in an IT leadership role before.  “Luckily we had a few good clients and good employees for the first few years, and they are still with us,” says Uttarwar. “Over time, we built credibility with customers who refer new customers and leads. We also transitioned from a service business to a service and solution provider after about seven years. A couple of our solutions failed, so we got some advisors to better align our services and solutions offerings.”  Becoming an Effective IT Leader  Today’s IT leaders need both hard and soft skills, but it can be difficult to find the time for upskilling. Uttarwar and Jain — both Mindbowser founders — came to the US to study technology leadership simultaneously a few years ago while the business continued, back in India.   Related:Tech Burnout: CIOs Might Be Making It Worse “There was a turning point about four years ago when we were stuck, when we were trying to figure out what’s next. We knew we wanted to grow, but we felt we’d be more effective leaders if we took some executive-level classes. I chose the MIT Technology Leadership Program while my partner was at Berkeley. We were trying to figure out the market,” says Uttarwar. “At the time, Mindbowser had a mobile app, ecommerce solutions and we were focused on healthcare and retail. I think the toughest decision we had to make was to just focus on one thing. That’s how our healthcare journey started.”  Pravin Uttarwar That singular focus involved hiring healthcare subject matter experts and enabled the company to expand into various healthcare subsectors, like dentistry and home care.  “Our mentors were pivotal, but we realized there were certain things we had to learn on our own. Luckily, we had hired solid leadership. They made it possible for us to study at MIT and Berkeley, respectively,” says Uttarwar. “My co-founder and I consciously decided to take different leadership programs. I wanted to make sure I was aligned with people and what they want. I was fortunate enough to be in the MIT Technology Leadership Program with seasoned IT leaders when I was the junior person. I learned a lot from them, too.”  Related:CIO Chaos Mastery: Lessons from Vertiv’s Bhavik Rao For example, Mindbowser tries new things each year to retain people. Some of it has to do with innovation and some has to do with unlocking benefits based on tenure.   “If you spend three years, you get a nice gift. If you’re with us for five years you get money to buy a house. At 10 years, you receive an international tour with your family. These are small things, but they help us retain talent,” says Uttarwar. “Last year, we started an ESOP so they could earn stock options. As founders, it’s our way of giving back to these people who have spent a lot of time with us. We also try new things with customers to boost retention.”  Uttarwar constantly analyzes markets for what’s coming. Sometimes, he does a quick POC as an example of what Mindbowser should be doing. He also uses prototypes to customers who want to try new things.   The Biggest Challenges   Growth is what Uttarwar says is most challenging.  “It can be challenging to find new customers and delivering to customers sometimes. For example, at one point, we had multiple employees at a U.S. office, but that didn’t work out the way we hoped,” says Uttarwar. “So, this year, either I or my cofounder will focus on the US completely.”  In the meantime, most of the CIOs and chief medical officers (CMOs) Uttarwar talks to aren’t sure what to do with “new” technologies like GenAI.  “Stakeholders are putting pressure on CIOs and CMOs to do something with GenAI, so we’re trying to help them by bringing in new ideas, helping with change management, planning and execution,” says Uttarwar. “They’re focused on the AI aspect, but they need to do it in a responsible way. Worse, they have a lot of broken systems that are not speaking to each other, and that’s where they need to start first.”  Most healthcare CIOs have been tasked with building AI or building something on top of AI that will help make clinicians’

Task delegation is a critical IT leadership responsibility. Unfortunately, many IT leaders continue to hand assignments to individuals who are either unqualified or already busy handling other tasks.  Delegation isn’t just about offloading work; it’s also about transferring ownership, says Justice Erolin, CTO at software development company BairesDev. “Start with clarity, focusing on the why, what, and expected outcome, then assign tasks based on skills and stretch potential,” he recommends in an online interview. Make sure you’re taking advantage of your team’s strengths and interests and do regular check-ins. “It’s important to keep tabs on [team] progress, but don’t micromanage.”  Don’t just assign tasks, advises Hiren Hasmukh, CEO at IT asset management software provider Teqtivity. “Make sure team members understand how their work contributes to larger goals,” he states in an email interview. Also provide the appropriate tools and resources. “Nothing hinders productivity more than expecting results without [providing] proper support.”  Empowerment without clarity creates chaos, Erolin says. “Oversight without trust breeds micromanagement,” he adds. “The more we delegate well, the more confident and capable the team becomes.”  A Fine Line  Related:Tech Burnout: CIOs Might Be Making It Worse There’s a fine line between monitoring and micromanaging, Erolin says. “Conversations with your team should be about progress and challenges rather than time invested.” The team should know what “good” feels like. “Oversight then becomes a shared responsibility.”  Focus on results, recommends Trevor Young, chief product officer at cybersecurity firm Security Compass. “Use tools like Jira, Trello, or ServiceNow to keep an eye on progress without constantly checking in,” he advises in an online discussion. Daily stand-ups, progress dashboards, and milestone reviews will help keep things moving along. “Most important, create a culture of open communication.”   Another effective strategy is implementing clear metrics and KPIs that teams can self-monitor, Hasmukh says. “When everyone knows what success looks like, monitoring becomes about achieving shared goals rather than watching over shoulders,” he explains.  “Having metrics in place helps to avoid misalignment and ambiguity,” Erolin adds.  Avoiding Mistakes  The biggest mistake is dumping a task on a team or individual without supplying the full picture, Young says. “If people don’t know why something matters or how it fits into the bigger goal, they won’t be as effective.” Another common mistake, he notes, is micromanaging or completely disengaging from the team. “The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle; offer guidance and accountability but allow room for autonomy.”  Related:How Continuous Learning Paid Off for CTO Pravin Uttawar The biggest mistake is delegating without creating support or proper context, Hasmukh says. “Many leaders hand off tasks without explaining why they matter or how they connect to bigger objectives,” he explains. “This creates a disconnect that leaves team members feeling like order-takers rather than valued contributors.”  Yet another trap is false delegation, Erolin says. In this situation, the leader continues to own the outcome, either practically or emotionally. “Delegation isn’t abdication; it’s a transfer of ownership,” he observes. “Leaders must define success upfront and resist the urge to ‘fix’ mid-flight unless absolutely necessary.” To do otherwise means training the team to defer instead of lead.  The key is to delegate with intention, Young says. Assign tasks based on skills, experience, and potential for growth. “Be clear about expectations — what needs to be done, why it matters, and any constraints.” He also recommends using a framework, such as RACI, to define specific roles.  Young advises leaders to provide the tools and support necessary to allow team members to succeed. “If a task is repetitive, automate it,” he says. “People should focus on high-value work, not busywork.”  Related:CIO Chaos Mastery: Lessons from Vertiv’s Bhavik Rao The goal should be eliminating guesswork and keeping all parties aligned, Young says. “When tasks match a person’s skills and aspirations, they stay engaged and perform better.” Meanwhile, a clear structure prevents miscommunication while automation reduces the chance of human error. “Plus, when people understand the ‘why’ behind their work, they’ll take more ownership of it.”  Final Thoughts  Delegation is leadership at scale, Erolin says. “If I’m the only one thinking critically, solving problems, and driving outcomes, then I’m the bottleneck”. A leader’s job isn’t just to get things done but to multiply capacity. Delegation isn’t a transaction; it’s a transformation. “It doesn’t just lighten the load; it lifts the entire team.”  Effective delegation is ultimately about building trust and developing your team, Hasmukh says. It’s not just about distributing the workload. “It’s about creating growth opportunities,” he states. “Some of our best innovations came when team members were empowered to solve problems in their own way.”  source

Few roles evolve as quickly as that of the modern CIO. A great way to prepare for a future that is largely unknown is to build your adaptability skills through diverse work experiences, says Bhavik Rao, CIO for the Americas at Vertiv. Learn from your wins and your losses and carry on. Stay free of comfort zones and run towards the chaos. Leaders are born of challenges and not from comfort. Bhavik shares what he’s facing now, how he’s navigating it, and the hard-won lessons that helped shape his approach to IT leadership. Here’s what he had to say: What has your career path looked like so far?  I actually started my career as a techno-functional consultant working with the public sector. That early experience gave me a solid grounding in both the technical and process side of enterprise systems. From there, I moved into consulting, which really opened up my world. I had the opportunity to work across multiple industries, leading everything from mobile app development and eCommerce deployments to omnichannel initiatives, data platforms, ERP rollouts, and ultimately large-scale digital transformation and IT strategy programs. It was fast paced, challenging, and incredibly rewarding.   That diversity shaped the way I think today. I learned how to adapt quickly, connect dots across domains, and communicate with everyone from developers to CXOs. Eventually, that path led me to Vertiv, where I now serve as the CIO for the Americas, in addition to leading a couple of global towers, such as data/AI and engineering systems, for example. I’ve been fortunate to lead initiatives that drive operational efficiency, scale GenAI adoption, and turn technology into a true business enabler.    Related:Mastering the Art of IT Task Delegation What are the highlights along your career path?  There have been several defining moments, both wins and challenges, that have shaped how I lead today.  One of the most pivotal chapters has been my time at Vertiv. I joined when the company was still owned by private equity. It was an intense, roll-up-your-sleeves kind of environment. Then, in 2020, we went public — a huge milestone. But just as we were ramping up our digital transformation, COVID hit, and with it came massive supply chain disruptions. In the middle of all that chaos, I was asked to take over a large-scale transformation program that was struggling.  bh Bhavik Rao It wasn’t easy. There were legacy challenges, resistance to change, and real execution pressure. But we rallied, restructured the program, and launched it. That experience taught me a lot about leading under pressure, aligning teams around outcomes, and staying focused even when everything feels like it’s shifting.  Related:Tech Burnout: CIOs Might Be Making It Worse Another major learning moment was earlier in my career when I lost a large national account I’d spent over seven years building. That was a tough one, but it taught me resilience. I learned not to attach my identity to any one outcome and to keep moving forward with purpose.  Then, there are the moments of creation, like launching VeGA, our internal GenAI platform at Vertiv. Seeing it go from idea to impact, with thousands of users and 100+ applications, has been incredibly energizing. It reminded me how powerful it is when innovation meets execution.  I’ve also learned the power of being a “player-coach.” I don’t believe in leading from a distance. I get involved, understand the challenges on the ground, and then help teams move forward together.   What’s your vision for the future of sovereign AI?  For me, sovereign AI isn’t just a regulatory checkbox; it’s about strategic autonomy. At our company, we are trying to be very intentional about how we scale AI responsibly across our global footprint. So, when I think about sovereign AI, I define it as the ability to control how, where, and why AI is built and deployed with full alignment to your business needs, risk posture, and data boundaries.  Related:How Continuous Learning Paid Off for CTO Pravin Uttawar I’ve seen firsthand how AI becomes a competitive advantage only when you have governance, infrastructure flexibility, and contextual intelligence built in. Our work with VeGA, for example, has shown that employees adopt AI much faster when it’s embedded into secure, business-aligned workflows and not just bolted on from the outside.  For CIOs, the shift to sovereign AI means:  Designing AI infrastructure that can flex whether it’s hosted internally, cloud-based, or hybrid  Building internal AI fluency so your teams aren’t fully reliant on black-box solutions  Creating a framework for trust and explainability, especially as AI touches regulated and legal processes  It’s not about doing everything in-house, but it is about knowing what’s mission-critical to control. In my view, sovereign AI is less about isolation and more about intentional ownership.  What do you do for fun or to relax?  Golf is my go-to. It keeps me grounded and humble! It’s one of those games that’s as much about mindset as it is about mechanics. I try to work out regularly when I am not traveling for work.  I also enjoy traveling with my family and listening to podcasts.    What advice would you give to young people considering a leadership path in IT?  Be curious, stay hands-on, don’t rush the title, and focus on impact. Learn the business, not just the tech. Some of the best technologists I’ve worked with are the ones who understand how a supply chain works or how a sale actually closes.  Also, don’t be afraid to take on messy, undefined problems. Run toward the chaos. That’s where leadership is born. And finally, surround yourself with people smarter than you. Build teams that challenge you. That’s where real growth happens.  source

Offering constructive criticism is a challenging task for many IT leaders. Whether it’s implementing an employee improvement plan, addressing a specific situation, or conducting a quarterly review, effective criticism can be crucial to a team’s development and performance.  Constructive criticism can be an excellent instrument for growth, both individually and on the team level, says Edward Tian, CEO of AI detection service provider GPTZero. “Many times, and with IT teams in particular, work is very independent,” he observes in an email interview. “IT workers may not frequently collaborate with one another or get input on what they’re doing,” Tian states. “If you can be intentional about constructive criticism, you can better ensure that your IT workers are constantly improving their skills and work outcomes, even as they work independently.” Improving individual workers improves the team as a whole, Tian adds.  Gone are the days of top-down directives, says Jean-Philippe Avelange, CIO at Expereo, a global provider of managed Internet and hybrid networks, SD-WAN, and cloud connectivity solutions. “Today’s most successful IT teams thrive on open, transparent, and data-driven feedback loops, driving real-time course corrections and sustained high performance,” he explains in an online interview.  Related:CIO Chaos Mastery: Lessons from Vertiv’s Bhavik Rao Criticism is simply a matter of pointing out obvious failures or errors, says Ola Chowning, a partner with technology research and advisory firm ISG. “Constructive criticism helps the team improve, and, therefore, believe that they can succeed,” she observes in an online interview.  When using constructive criticism, take an approach that focuses on seeking improvement with the poor result, Chowning advises. Meanwhile, use empathy to solicit ideas on how to improve on a poor result. She adds that it’s important to ask questions, listen, seek to understand, acknowledge any difficulties or constraints, and solicit improvement ideas.  Criticism Versus Constructive Criticism  Criticism looks backward; constructive criticism looks forward, Avelange says. Traditional criticism, he notes, focuses on what went wrong, often leaving teams defensive or disengaged. Constructive criticism, on the other hand, is inherently solution-oriented and directly tied to business outcomes. “It’s not about assigning blame — it’s about enabling teams to see opportunities to optimize, experiment, and push the envelope,” Avelange explains. It’s an approach that requires a mindset shift, moving from correction to coaching — an environment in which leaders act as enablers rather than enforcers.   Related:Pay for Performance — How Do You Measure It? With any IT team there are two key aspects of constructive criticism: creating the expectation and opportunity for performance improvement, and — often overlooked — instilling recognition in the team that performance is monitored and has implications, Chowning says.  Appropriate Situations  Timing matters when offering constructive criticism, Chowning says. “Most teams do poorly when confronted with criticism within the midst of a task or event, as well as in any situation that involves people outside the team, or directly on the heels of a failure,” she notes. Give the team time to take a deep breath and step away from a failure or stressful situation, Chowning recommends. “Additionally, conduct your discussion in a trusted space, such as during a team meeting.”  Constructive criticism isn’t a tool for damage control — it’s a permanent, embedded practice in high-performance IT organizations, Avelange adds.  Avoiding Mistakes  The biggest mistake IT leaders make is treating feedback as a one-way directive rather than a dynamic conversation, Avelange observes. “Too many IT leaders still operate in a command-and-control mindset, dictating what needs to change rather than co-creating solutions with their teams.”  Related:CIO Marvin Clark on Why It’s OK to Move Outside Your Domain Comfort Zone Failing to do anything is probably the biggest mistake IT leaders make when facing a problematic situation, Chowning says. “Confronting poor performance of any kind is difficult for leaders — confrontation is rarely comfortable,” she notes. As a result, many leaders either delay action beyond a time when a detailed approach might be beneficial, or they fail to address the situation at all. Additionally, if there are aspects of the poor performance result that lie beyond the team’s control, it can be a mistake to allow that factor to become an excuse. “A clear understanding and acknowledgement of a constraint is important, but don’t let it stop the team from finding ways to improve.”  Asking questions is the best way to immediately relay disappointment while simultaneously signaling an expectation for improvement, Chowning says. For example: “As you know, we didn’t hit our mark for XYZ this month, but ABC was happening at the same time, and that introduced additional constraints for us. So, what could we have done differently? What should we do differently next time? Let’s talk through it.”  A Final Observation  High-performing teams don’t just execute — they think, challenge, and innovate, Avelange says. “Leaders who fail to embrace this attitude risk creating a passive workforce rather than an engaged, problem-solving team,” he warns.  source

More enterprises have moved to pay-for-performance salary and promotion models that measure progress toward goals — but how do you measure goals for a maintenance programmer who barrels through a request backlog but delivers marginal value for the business, or for a business analyst whose success is predicated on forging intangibles like trust and cooperation with users so things can get done?  It’s an age-old question facing companies, now that 77% of them use some type of pay-for-performance model.  What are some popular pay-for-performance use cases?  A factory doing piece work that pays employees based upon the number of items they assemble.  A call center that pays agents based on how many calls they complete per day.  A bank teller who gets rewarded for how many customers they sign up for credit cards.  An IT project team that gets a bonus for completing a major project ahead of schedule.  The IT example differs from the others, because it depends on team and not individual execution, but there nevertheless is something tangible to measure. The other use cases are more clearcut — although they don’t account for pieces in the plant that were poorly assembled in haste to make quota and had to be reworked, or a call center agent who pushes calls off to someone else so they can end their calls in six minutes or less, or the teller who signs up X number of customers for credit cards, although two-thirds of them never use the credit card they signed up for.  Related:CIO Chaos Mastery: Lessons from Vertiv’s Bhavik Rao In short, there are flaws in pay-for-performance models just as there are in other types of compensation models that organizations use.  So, what’s the best path for IT for CIOs who want to implement pay for performance?  One approach is to measure pay for performance based upon four key elements: hard results, effort, skill, and communications. The mix of these elements will vary, depending on the type of position each IT staff member performs.  Here are two examples of pay per performance by position:  1. Computer maintenance programmers and help desk specialists  Historically, IT departments have used hard numbers like how many open requests a computer maintenance programmer has closed, or how many calls a help desk employee has solved. There is merit in using hard results, and hard results should be factored into performance reviews for these individuals — but hard numbers don’t tell the whole story.   For example, how many times has a help desk agent gone the extra mile with a difficult user or software bug, taking the time to see the entire process through until it is thoroughly solved? lf the issue was of a global nature, did the Help Desk agent follow up by letting others who use the application know that a bug was fixed? For the maintenance programmer who has completed the most open requests, which of these requests really solved a major business pain point? For both help desk and maintenance programming employees, were the changes and fixes properly documented and communicated to everyone with a need to know? And did these employees demonstrate the skills needed to solve their issues?  Related:CIO Marvin Clark on Why It’s OK to Move Outside Your Domain Comfort Zone It’s difficult to capture hard results on elements like effort, communication and skills, but one way to go about it is to survey user departments on individual levels of service and effectiveness. From there, it’s up to IT managers to determinate the “mix” of hard results, effort, communication and skills on which the employee will be evaluated, and to communicate upfront to the employee what the pay for performance assessment will be based on.  2. Business analysts and trainers  Business analysts and trainers are difficult to quantify in pay for performance models because so much of their success depends upon other people.  A business analyst can know everything there is to know about a particular business area and its systems, but if the analyst is working with unresponsive users, or lacks the soft skills needed to communicate with users, the pay for performance can’t be based upon the technology skillset alone.   Related:Building High-Performance Tech Teams in 2025: A Practical Scaling Guide IT trainers face a somewhat different dilemma when it  comes to performance evaluation: they can produce the training that new staff members need before staff is deployed on key projects,  but if a project gets delayed and this causes trainees to lose the knowledge that they learned, there is little the trainer can do aside from offering a refresher course.  Can pay for performance be used for positions like these?  It’s a mixed answer.  Yes, pay per performance can be used for trainers, based upon how many individuals the trainer trains and how many new courses the trainer obtains or develops. These are the hard results. However, since so much of training’s execution depends upon other people downstream, like project managers who must start projects on time so new skills aren’t lost,  managers of training should also consider pay for performance elements such as effort (has the trainer consistently gone the extra mile to make things work?), skills and communication.   In sum, for both business analysts and trainers, there are hard results that can be factored into a pay for performance formula, but there is also a need to survey each position’s “customers” — those individuals (and their managers) who utilized the business analyst’s or trainer’s skills and products to accomplish their respective objectives in projects and training. Were these user-customers satisfied?   The value that IT employees contribute to overall IT and to the business at large is a combination of tangible and intangible results. Pay for performance models are well suited to gauge tangible outcomes, but they fall short when it comes to the intangibles that could be just as important.  Many years ago, when Pat Riley was coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, an interviewer asked what type of metrics he used when

What makes data actionable and real for an organization? Many enterprises capture data as part of their operations and activity but taking that information to another usable level can be a challenge. There may be security concerns, privacy regulations to adhere to, conflicting requirements among stakeholders within the organization. If the world runs on data that fuels the software that gets put into action, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? And how do you not step on too many toes along the way? In this Breaking Bread session, Craig Martell, chief AI officer for Cohesity; and Matt McVaney, chief revenue office for BombBomb, discussed finding common ground between operations and tech to make data useful, and better understand the demands on either side of this dilemma. InformationWeek’s podcast is evolving. The “Breaking Bread” format brings together one CIO, CTO, or other C-suite tech leader to discuss a challenge with an executive from the operations side of another organization. The intent is to allow them the space to exchange ideas and pain points from their respective vantages, and foster discussions that generate new insights for their organizations as well as the audience. source

Some companies have more success in a vertical when their CIO understands the business domain well. Such has been the experience of Marvin Clark, CIO of workplace and asset management solutions provider Accruent, who grew from an IT manager to a CIO in the financial services industry. Eventually, he decided to seek an opportunity outside the financial services industry because he wanted another kind of challenge and believed his knowledge and skills could benefit Accruent.   After earning a B.S. in Business Administration and Management at the University of Northern Colorado, Clark worked at financial services institution Fiserv where he learned the value and necessity of ultra-high system availability.  “Fiserv was the largest clearing firm in the US, so that’s where I started to learn about how financial services and banking and wealth firms operate,” says Clark. “I was there for nine years, working my way up the chain of command. I went from an individual contributor to supervisor to manager.”  After that, he joined startup Techfi Solutions (which was acquired by Advent Corporation) because most wealth services firms were looking at ways to partner with startup firms that were building things quickly. As director, professional services, he was part of the team looking for other startup firms to partner with, so Techfi could deliver more capabilities and functionality to its customers.   Related:Building High-Performance Tech Teams in 2025: A Practical Scaling Guide “Working for a startup taught me how to build technology at a very fast pace and I learned how to run a company at a very young age,” says Clark. “All of us at Techfi were under 30 years old, so there wasn’t a whole lot of experience within the company. But we were working really hard, and we’re all learning as we went. That included the CEO and the leadership team. I ran their back-office systems and customer support.”  Given that financial services entities are highly regulated, he also learned how to deal with regulatory agencies.  “I knew how the industry worked, I knew how the companies worked, I knew how the systems worked. I knew how to kind of connect the dots, and so I was very comfortable in that role,” says Clark. “I had to build things to make sure that they were highly stable and secure. I was always looking at ways to streamline and to create a more efficient way of doing business.”  After that, he continued working his way up the career ladder, rising to director, online advisor services at Ameriprise (an American Express spin off) before becoming chief technology officer at Woodbury Financial Services. From there he joined Wells Fargo as senior vice president, divisional information officer where he learned how a very large company operates and how to take advantage of the central, shared services that Wells Fargo offered. Before joining his present company, Accruent, Clark worked at LPL Financial as SVP, chief information officer, wealth management growth and later SVP, CIO, digital operating platform.   Related:NCSU CIO Marc Hoit Talks Fed Funding Limbo, AI’s Role in Shrinking Talent Pool When he arrived at LPL Financial in 2016, Clark discovered the technology stack hadn’t been updated in a very long time, so working in tandem with executives and individual contributors, he built a new technology stack for financial advisors. Back-office capabilities also improved. These efforts helped fuel LPL Financial’s growth.  “All the things I’d learned and experienced in financial services transferred over really well when I first started at Accruent because we came together as a set of acquisitions. So, I took my learnings of how we connected systems in financial services and started to do the same thing here,” says Clark. “We now have a very efficient back office, and it’s a back office that helps our employees and customers be successful.”  Financial Services Reqs Raise the Bar in Other Industries  Related:John Deere’s CISO Is Always Thinking About Cyber Talent Financial services IT stacks involve four or five active infrastructures at any given time to prevent outages. While the facilities industry in which Accruent operates isn’t burdened with the same requirements, Clark and his team ensure Accruent achieves 99.99% availability in a way that bends the company’s the cost curve, while providing secure infrastructure for its customers.  “I wanted to try something new, and I knew that I had the tools, capabilities and experience that could potentially work somewhere else. Even the interview process at Accruent felt different. It was just a different culture, which was really cool. It was not as fast paced, but still very efficient. I knew I wouldn’t be the expert, and that I wouldn’t know how things work right away, but it was similar enough that I was able to provide value immediately. That said, I’m still learning,” says Clark. “I’m three years in, and I’m still learning about the industry, capabilities and functionality that we should be offering to our customers, how we can integrate our products to deliver even a better experience to our existing customers.”  Based on his experience, he’s now telling friends and those in his professional network that they’d be surprised how much value they can offer to a new industry. (Most of his contacts are in the financial services industry to this day.)  “One thing I always say that probably drives people crazy is, ‘Every time we touch a keyboard, it’s always directly in line with the company mission, goals and strategy.’ We never do technology for technology’s sake,” says Clark. “We’re always focused on delivering something cool for the business or business need, and I would say that that’s been true throughout my career. We have delivered value-add technology that’s helped the company grow and become better every day.”  Upskilling Is a Constant  Clark has learned a lot working for different companies in increasingly responsible roles that involve both business and tech strategy.   “I loved every minute I worked in the financial services industry, but I do love waking up and not knowing everything. I love that I