The Denver Nuggets are NBA champions. I know I write to people who are passionate about other teams, or who don’t really care overall. But I live in Denver, and I’m happy about it.

Our superstar is Nikola Jokic. He was the 41st pick in the 2014 draft. Now, he is a two-time league MVP and a championship series MVP. He made some great comments after winning the championship. 

His first great quote was, “The job is done, we can go home now.”

Later, when reflecting on the Nugget’s commitment to him through the years, he said, “First you need to be bad. Then when you’re bad, you get good. Then once you’re good you need to fail. Then once you’ve failed, you can figure out.”

Earlier in the year, after losing the MVP vote this season, said, “I don’t think about MVP’s anymore…People are just mean in saying (Joel) Embid shouldn’t have won it.”

Nikola Jokic is very focused. He improves himself, is focused on serving his team, and is about the season more than the sensations. What he isn’t is spread too thin. Depth is his strength.

If I’ve Heard It Once….

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: “You have to communicate the business value of IT in a language business understands.”

Nope.

Hey, I know what they are trying to say, and there are elements in there that must be considered. After all, no one likes to talk and not be understood.

It is advice that was true in a context, but that context has changed.

Following on the heels of this advice, people emphasize that CIOs need to master business basics or prove the value of IT.

All of which falls under the drive to get a “seat at the table.” What if you don’t need a seat at the table?

I can hear the unruly crowd shouting, “What do you mean not get a seat at the table?! Of course we need a seat. We’ve been undervalued, overlooked, unappreciated!”

Yes, you have. And some of you may still feel the same. CIO Mastermind started five years ago so that I could advocate for technology leaders to earn that coveted seat.

And…

You don’t need a seat at the table if you already sit on the throne.

Your god Is Too Small

You have several major problems believing that you need to communicate IT business value in business language.

• You and others are asking too much of you
• You dilute your expertise
• You fracture partnerships with LOB rather than strengthen. You have been operating out of persuasion mode rather than explorer/solution/hero mode.
• You and others share a mindset that is stuck in the past.

The god of the seat mentality reigned for years prior to the pandemic. Four major forces have unseated it.

First, market competition requires your company to excel in digital business.

Second, consumer demand compels your business to satisfy their digital-based expectations.

Third, cyber war commands a unified and safe digital strategy.

Fourth, talent pools are looking for innovative companies.

In years past, CIO advancement, or influence if you will, was an internal battle. Today, a larger war has been brought to the business, and business and technology cannot but help fight together if survival, let alone victory, is to be experienced.

You may not be the CEO, but you are royalty. 

I want you to shift your mindset. You are not fighting for a seat. You are already in the best seat in the house. It’s time for others to come to your roundtable. 

A Tale Of Dilution

Unlike Nikola Jokic, many CIOs are not improving themselves, dialed in only on serving the team well or staying focused on the season. They believe the press that they need to master knowledge and language not their own.

I never knock gaining more knowledge, but I do raise a flag if essential knowledge is sacrificed for expansive knowledge. 

One more sports analogy. I am a Denver Broncos fan. My Co-Founder is a Seattle Seahawks fan. We have an interesting relationship when it comes to Russell Wilson, the former quarterback for Seattle and the current quarterback for Denver. The Broncos acquired Wilson before the start of last season. We expected greatness. He had his worst season ever.

I fully expect him to be the comeback player of the year this coming season. But my partner and I have speculated on what happened, since the guy has immense talent and past success. Our guess: he spread himself too thin.

In addition to football, he has endorsements, appears on tv shows, has started a clothing business with his wife (a powerhouse entertainer in her own right) and is involved in other significant investment opportunities. It doesn’t appear his energy is only football and then offseason. He is always on. And then, on the football field, literally the field of his dreams, he was off.

People are trying to get you to do too much, when you already have enough to do in the stadium you built to play in.

Changing The Narrative

Yes, you need to be in on key business decisions. No, LOB should not commit to major strategies without your counsel. Yes, most of you should report to the CEO. 

How you get there has changed. Stop fighting to be heard. Let me introduce you to a better way, the way to do it when you are the one setting the table, the way I have helped others to do it.

One. Commit to deepening your IT knowledge. I don’t know how many CIOs have recently said to me, “I’m being asked to lead out on AI and I need to learn about it myself.” 

Two. Be very consistent in having 1:1 meetings with your LOB. Build the relationship for relationship sake. We recently had a CIO in our group who was struggling with getting buy-in on an initiative. We advised her to focus on relationships with the decision makers. She did, and she secured the decision she needed.

Three. Learn the business from the business. Seek to understand the outcomes the business is seeking to accomplish. You want the business to communicate their needs in a language that IT understands.

Four. Feel their pain. C.T. Studd said,

“Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.”

The business has a desired state they are trying to get to. They live in a current state (hell). Master the ability to discover and focus on their needs.

Five. Bring solution. Now you have good news that leaders will listen to. People don’t often see the light until they feel the heat. CIOs possess the answers that people seek. 

True, leaders try to find technology solutions outside of IT consultation. That’s like trying to sneak into a game without a ticket. Security is the price of admission. Enforce it. The threat is your friend.

(I have a CIO friend who couldn’t get the CEO to believe his warnings about security, primarily because the CEO was avoiding financial investment. Then they were the victims of a ransom attack. Now, he has all the funding he needs). 

The New Advice

Help leaders communicate the needs of the business in a language you can understand so that IT is positioned as the solution-partner not the permission seeker.

Then, you are not the kid who wants to play ball; you are the MVP whose team others want to be on.

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