What Makes A CIO Legendary? Developing The Human Side Of IT
CIO, Thursday, September 4th, 2025
What does it take it to build and lead a resilient technology organization, spearhead ambitious digital transformations, and deliver game-changing value again and again? For truly great CIOs, it all starts with people.
Over the past three years I've had the great fortune to sit down with some of the top CIOs in the industry for candid conversations on the Tech Whisperers podcast and in this column. These executives have opened their leadership playbooks and shared lessons from career journeys that, taken in whole, illuminate a clear path to greatness in IT.
One key theme in common among these conversations has been the importance of 'Developing the Human Side of Technology,' a phrase our firm, Ouellette & Associates, coined back in 1984, when doing so wasn't something people in IT were really talking about. Fortunately, there were enough forward-thinking leaders who 'got' it, helping to propel the message forward, and now, more than 40 years later, the notion of developing the human side of the equation seems almost prophetic. Based on the experiences of the best CIOs around, it's certainly never been more relevant.