For years, IT leaders have been told they need to understand (and speak) the language of business to guarantee investment, trust and success.
The message has penetrated: according to Gartner, the percentage of CIOs coming from non-IT backgrounds tripled between 2015 and 2018. Today, more than a quarter of new CIOs start the role without traditional IT experience.
There is a real benefit to this, Jeremy Cooper – head of IT at Apollo Therapeutics – told delegates at the IT Leaders Summit 2024. IT is (finally) embraced as part of the business, and tech strategies are acknowledged as company strategies.
But it also brings a challenge. What do you do when "the IT leader doesn't understand what IT does"? It can mean they over-simplify in their talks with senior leadership, or even don't understand the implications or risks of what they're saying.
"I think there's a bit of a shift back coming," said Jeremy. "You need a tech-savvy IT leader who is also a business leader... You need a hybrid approach."
A hybrid leader is someone who can translate IT to business language, accelerate innovation and understand if there's a technology that can do it.
Crucially, the hybrid leader also needs to understand the business at all levels.
At Apollo Therapeutics' cell therapy site in the Netherlands, a printer going down is a priority one issue. A leader solely focused on IT may not understand why and could even dismiss a report, but a hybrid leader would know the need for printed labels at that site means it is literally a matter of life and death.
"To be a great hybrid leader you need to be keeping up with tech; be continuously learning; and keep looking at the business trends."
Making sure your team is a hybrid of IT and business people can help you get advice from both sides. It also means there's a useful amount of cross-pollination going on!
What inspires you?
The modern leader needs a team they can rely on, because the expectation on modern IT is "really high." The consumerisation of IT hasn't helped here: business users, especially the SLT, are so used to simple, seamless tech that they often can't understand why enterprise applications are so fiddly.
"They probably don't want to give you a massive apps team," said Jeremy.
Media coverage doesn't help (sorry – Ed.). Senior leaders who see press releases and media reports about security breaches and new technologies immediately turn to IT.
"The pressure on us is incredible," which can make some people try to change who they are.
"People often feel they need to change when they become a leader. A woman I talked to started wearing power suits and shoulder pads because she felt she needed to be authoritative. You need to be true to yourself."
Jeremy is passionate about helping people past this point. He's open and honest about his own experience with burnout, when he piled pressure on himself to chase "the next big thing." The major effect was he "ended up burned out with anxiety and didn't like leaving the house."
He says there are three key points to focus on:
- Work on what inspires you. What are your values? What are your goals? Once you know, set smaller (but still ambitious) goals to help you get there. Direction + intention = success.
- Quality over quantity. "This is really hard in IT, there's always too much work to do," but the more you focus on quality the better you'll feel about what you've achieved. It starts with dividing your work so you know what to focus on; for example, using the Eisenhower Matrix. The formula here is Stress + Rest = Growth. "Yes, you should try to push yourself out of your comfort zone, but you can't live there - that's how you end up with burnout."
- Finally, Get a life. "Having a life outside of work will make you better at work." Hobbies expose you to new people, new ways of thinking and force you to stop thinking about your job. All work + No play = Jack a dull boy.
You will get "loads" of advice on management from trends, hype circles and influencers. At the end of the day, Jeremy said, be true to yourself: "Be your great leader."
