Chief Interrupted Officer

Times are getting better for most CIOs with economy looking up, growth back on the agenda, business wanting to create a digital enterprise, the hype around various technologies like Cloud, Social Media and what have you dying away. CMOs and CIOs have figured out a way to work together while CFOs have set the governance on budget management and are not obsessed with Return on Investment as the only measure. IT budgets are beginning to show signs of revival and so are expectations on the new projects and possibilities.

Some mature companies used the lean period to reinvent themselves and reengineer processes; they invested in refresh of not just the servers and other hardware which could be had for a steal with piled up inventories with vendors, they also used the spare capacity with people to upgrade their ERPs and build new systems. Many CIOs were busier in the last few years than they had been when business was booming. They also started seeing attrition in the team with the job market opening up which added to the challenge.

Good times bring a lot of events, seminars, offsite meetings, and invitations to all kinds of gatherings which have great headlines to attract all and sundry. One of the CIOs whose spouse was traveling mentioned that she hadn’t cooked for a week by just accepting these. Except that they rarely offer any major learning or insight; after a while even the networking turns stale with the same people ending up in every event. It is another matter that the structure of events has remained the same over the years defying logic and evolution.

I was thus surprised to hear about a CIO who never attended any events or seminars or exotic trips that are organized by the friendly vendors. No one had ever seen her in any of the events despite the long years she had put in into the industry. She never responded to any phone calls, messages or emails or any attempts to reach her. It did not matter who was inviting her, Chairman, CEO, Account Manager, she remained a hermit. Her reclusive ways created many stories and not all of them were flattering or positive.

Her team did not know how to react to such a situation; they wanted to network and socialize and get exposure to what was happening in the world outside. They were reluctant to ask as they never saw their Boss ever accept any or go to such gatherings; her demeanor did not invite anyone to venture to ask. New team members who came from different environments found this quite unusual. A few who were bold enough to participate on their own enjoyed the benefits; their rationale, it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

So when I met with one of her brave team members I thought I would attempt to unravel the mystery. I was perplexed by what I heard. Her calendar was double booked many times with internal meetings; she was always flitting between meetings without spending enough time to get to the bottom of the issue or to understand the impact or action items. She almost always turned up late for the appointment and would be out of the room no sooner the meeting started with a phone call interrupting her transient presence within the first five minutes.

She spent a lot of time on the phone, but then she never took calls from the vendors and most people internally found her phone busy. Few who had spent long years with her knew it was not her partner. The interruptions had become part of her persona that people no longer saw that as abnormal behavior. Within her company they had gotten used to meetings without her even when she accepted them. Someone dared ask her about the calls; if looks could kill, the poor inquisitive lady would have died on the spot.

Everyone speculated about her leadership, effectiveness, longevity and survival; difficult to comprehend unless your family owns the business or there was a relationship of another kind (neither was the case). Her team was at the receiving end of rebukes while she remained immune to the environment. Her team was adequately effective and the business had limited expectations from her. Working at her lowest level of inefficiency she had rarely been challenged for innovation or transformational leadership.

I wonder what would happen to her should she join another company ?