The CIO's Fatal Flaw: Too Much Leadership, Not Enough Management
CIO, Tuesday, November 7,2023
Compared to management, leadership is what has the mystique. But mystique isn't what gets work out the door.
'He's a manager, not a leader,' my source explained to me, referring to the CIO in a disparaging tone of voice.
I followed up with a few dozen more 360-degree interviews - translation: I talked with a lot of different people - and confirmed the diagnosis.
Except for one thing: The CIO's focus on management was, to use the technical term, a 'good thing.' Because what's frequently missed in the perennial leadership vs. management fracas is that management is about getting work out the door. Leadership is an important collection of techniques managers use to get the people in their organization to embrace the direction they're trying to set.