Lonely at the top?

by Beverley Head

June 12, 2006 —

Two men: both have reached the top of their game in significant organizations; both are responsible for the information systems underpinning their businesses. Yet they have very different emotional responses to the position.

Mark Newton, the CIO of Mortgage Choice, says: "I can't say I've ever experienced a strong sense of loneliness." PricewaterhouseCoopers's CIO, Graham Andrews, meanwhile, says the role can get "bloody lonely".

Workplace isolation can be a serious issue; it is not something that people can or should be instructed to "just get over". According to the National Heart Foundation, depression or social isolation can be as great a factor in determining a person's risk of developing coronary heart disease as factors such as high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure or smoking.

Although Chris Gillies, a former CIO and now a board director who also provides mentoring and coaching services to senior executives, believes loneliness is a state of mind, she stresses that there are antidotes that ought to be sought out by people in such a position. "If you do feel isolated and lonely then you are not doing your job properly. It is critical that you network and are not in your own little world," Gillies says. "When I was a CIO I was never lonely. It can be hard to be a CIO. You can walk into the CIO role and suddenly be part of 'that IT lot who never get it right'. But you have a choice. You can be a victim or part of the solution.

"Just because you are at the top of the tree doesn't mean you have to take your decisions in isolation. You have your direct reports, and part of your job is to grow them into your job anyway. Also you have joined an executive team and they can become confidants."

When Gillies was CIO of the Bank of Melbourne in the late 1990s the CFO was one of her closest confidants -- a great source of ideas and suggestions, she says. "A CEO with the right relationship can also be a source of ideas. The CIO should be helping the rest of the executive team on the management of their information assets. The executive team really wants IT to work -- so don't be too proud to ask for help."

Gillies does acknowledge, though, that loneliness can be real. "I come over as overconfident -- but there are times when I think: 'Whoa, I'm out there on my own'. That's where your network is really important and you need to be out there constructing networks of people in similar positions to you and not hesitate to call on them for support and advice.

"You may act alone, but you should not make your decisions in isolation. If you make decisions in isolation and act alone then very likely you will screw up. If you do it without consultation then you're a fool. If there is a feeling of loneliness from non-communication then I would seriously question how well you are doing your job."

It is a little like the difference between the "Level 5 (great) manager" and "Level 4 (good) manager", described in Jim Collins's book Good to Great. The Level 5, more successful manager, sees themselves as one spoke of a management wheel, where the Level 4 manager wears the mantle of "genius with a thousand helpers".

Always a team player

Mortgage Choice's Newton feels very much part of a team. While he himself is not lonely at the top, neither is he agnostic about CIO loneliness, and says he has seen many CIO peers suffer from it. What has shielded him has been an "innate capability to identify an issue" and know who to talk to about it.

"It is such a changeable environment. You can't put yourself in a position where you think you will know everything. You need to be recruiting good people to give support and feedback." Some people are not able to do that, though, and like to hold all the cards, he says. "You can see it in CVs sometimes where they go from job to job. These are very clever people but they don't have the courage to share."

They also do not like to deal with failure. "The worst executive is the person who doesn't like to deliver bad news to people. You need open, working relationships," Newton says.

It is that type of frank, open relationship that buffers Newton from loneliness. He has invested heavily in developing strong relationships with other CXOs, since, "to the extent that I might be lonely, then so are they".

With 100 staff and 800 users in the franchises, Newton says Mortgage Choice is reasonably compact. "So in some respects we have a more intimate relationship. You do need to manage the relationship up and down. The place that you might be lonely is in working out whether you are ahead of the competition," he says.

"My role is to provide services to the business and it's clear what the business requirements are. The next step is identifying the solutions and whether they the right solutions. We are in a very changeable technical area. I have good relationships with outsourcing partners and previous colleagues and I turn to them for comfort: that the things you are doing are what other people are doing. It gives you a heads-up to look into new technologies and areas."

As Newton notes, organizational scale may be a trigger for CIO loneliness. Gus Jansen is CIO of the Australasian Performing Right Association, a 220-person business with a fairly small IT team that he describes as "an agile bunch, which spends a lot of time interacting". As to loneliness, he says: "I don't suffer from that particular angst." As well as a close team, Jansen says he is part of regular management team meetings, and his organization goes to some pains to ensure everyone understands what is going on.

"I don't suffer loneliness. Perhaps that means I'm in the wrong job; I'll have to go and think about that," he quips. Jansen, however, believes that isolation is "very much a function of the size of the organization". The bigger the pyramid under the CIO the lonelier it is at the apex, perhaps.

Talk to your peers

On the wall in Con Colovos's office is a management inspiration print trumpeting "Tough times never last, but tough people do". As executive director of the CIO Executive Council, Colovos believes the organization can provide a framework for other CIOs to see them through those tough times. Loneliness is one of the issues he says CIOs have to tackle. "When I was a CIO I didn't have anyone to talk to. I was battling the structure, the project, the culture, and I did not have a group to talk to."

With the Executive Council he is attempting to address this issue of isolation by creating a forum where CIOs can talk with other CIOs without any vendor influence. Members who want to talk through issues can call up their Executive Council program manager, who will arrange an opportunity to talk with other CIOs on the particular issue. "This is an opportunity for CIOs to interact and swap experiences," Colovos says.

PwC's Andrews is not so sure. "I think it's always counter-productive to take a sounding off someone else. If the other CIO hasn't thought of it, then they will say, no don't do it. And if they have, then they'll say, yes do it. Either way it's the wrong idea. I'd never countenance doing that." He does seek feedback, though.

"It's important that once you make your call you are receptive to other people saying it won't work." That said, Andrews warns "the subject matter experts will tell you not to do it. Or a vendor will tell you to buy something that no one's used before. You do need to consult deeply and widely, but at the end of the day you are on your own. Anyone at the top is lonely. I wish it wasn't that way but it's the only emotion."

Andrews believes a little loneliness goes with the territory and is not a bad thing. "If you are thinking about doing something that no one else has done, or are stopping doing something everyone else is doing, then the only emotions you can feel are loneliness, terror, trepidation and fear," he says. "It can be bloody lonely. That's true with any leadership position because you are breaking boundaries and are automatically on your own. A pioneer in any leadership position is lonely.

"The typical CIO has no one to go to and ask permission. You've just got to take the decision and live with it. You gain confidence as you make the calls, but it's not necessarily less terrifying. You become more comfortable that you are likely to be right. But it's almost like theatrical stage fright -- even actors who have played Macbeth hundreds of times feel it. Maybe it's important they do."

So after 13 years at the top of the IT tree, how does the mantle of loneliness feel? "Comfortable might be an exaggeration," Andrews says, but acceptable works."

Keith Roscarel is deputy executive director of the CIO Executive Council, and until late last year CIO of the Channel 9 television network. He, like Andrews, acknowledges the sense of aloneness that comes with the job.

"Along with every other C-level manager you are at the top of the tree. There are times when it can be difficult to talk to your peers because they have their own pressures that aren't yours. You may work together on an initiative or project that binds you together", but apart from those occasions Roscarel believes other CXOs have only limited interest in the issues the CIO faces.

Although during his time at Channel 9 Roscarel knew his opposite numbers at rival networks Channel 7 and Channel 10, his best sounding boards were the other CIO-level people within the Packer PBL/CPH stables. All up there were about 15 such executives. "We could have good fireside chats while remaining within the four walls," Roscarel says. However, he realized he was missing out on conversations that identified "parallel opportunities", which he might have learned about if he had the opportunity for discussions with CIOs from other industry sectors.

Within his own team he was keenly aware of the difficulties of sharing too much information. "Also specific to the CIO are the Chinese walls that need to be created, both inter- and intra-company," Roscarel explains. "You are trusted with a plethora of private information, such as strategy and commercial information, and you need to be very careful who you can or can't tell. That is a big driver for loneliness.

Roscarel sees the CIO wedged between the archetypal rock and hard place: Tell the team what you know and you compromise the relationship with senior management that trusted you with the information. Tell the senior management what your team is saying and you damage the relationship with the team. "That takes 90 percent of the social space away," Roscarel says.

Compounding the isolation, according to Roscarel, is the tendency of people within the business to treat the CIO as some sort of technological high priest. "Everyone talks to you as if you are an oracle. It's like you are sitting on top of the mountain cross-legged, saying 'What news from the south?'"

Isolation no longer comes with the territory for Roscarel. As the deputy executive director of the CIO Executive Council, he regularly interacts with other CIOs at a number of levels, from individually to various committee meetings and larger networking events. "While the council charter is clearly about CIO advocacy, and that's where we invest the bulk of our efforts, it's also a bit of a safe haven where we can openly discuss the issues CIOs deal with day in, day out -- and loneliness is one of them. Whenever it's broached, there are always more heads nodding in agreement than not," Roscarel says.

More than ever, the CIO is one of the "suits", he says. "It's a many-sided position requiring an assortment of skills. You've got to be a bit of a guide, a bit of an evangelist and even a counsellor at times. And, yes, the job can also be lonely. But I don't think any CIO would say it's always lonely at the top. I think it's more the occasion of loneliness.

"There are a multitude of forces both within and without that are changing the way organizations view -- and deal with -- technology today. Take outsourcing for example. It's not a model I'm personally fond of, except for something basic like the desktop, but there are CIOs out there who are being pressured for financial reasons to go down that path and it can be a very lonely time. You've got relationships with your team, a team that has worked hard and invested huge amounts of integrity into the systems, and now you're considering cutting them loose or hiving them off to another employer.

"Another instance is when a project starts heading south you can feel very much alone. Sure everyone talks about business sponsors being critical to a project's success but not every sponsor walks the talk, and then all fingers point to IT. It seems like the mantra 'there are no IT projects, only business projects' has a short shelf-life when things go wobbly and at that point it becomes solely an IT project."

Technology has been demystified to a large extent, but it hasn't made the CIO's role easier Roscarel points out. If anything, IT's pervasiveness has led to an interesting consequence, one that he says makes it more difficult to impress upon the rest of the executive team the importance of aligning IT projects with the business.

"IT has become the object of simplistic observations," Roscarel says. "In other words, everybody thinks it's easy. Because everybody can run down to Harvey Norman and pick up a PC and go home and turn it on, it's hard for them to understand why there's so much cost and so much complexity in implementing a business information system. It can be a very difficult role, and the degree of difficulty is related to how diverse the business is. What you often find in trying to come to a solution that's for the greater good, you're not always optimizing the individual pieces, which is a difficult position to be in sometimes.

"All of these things -- and basically I'm talking the tip of the iceberg here -- can leave you with a sense of 'aloneness'. Now you're frustrated because internally where are you going to let off steam or get advice? People either don't understand the particular issues or are dealing with their own. And you certainly don't want to take it home.

"What I'm hearing from Executive Council members is sure the advocacy stuff is great, the knowledge database is great, the ability to tap expertise globally is great, but the unanticipated plus is that there are people, and these are your peers, who understand what's happening and have probably been there and dealt with the same situation."

Keep it at the office

Former CIO Gillies thinks that in general it is best not to take too much home in any case. "The thing is to separate work and personal life because you can get to a senior position and take yourself so damn seriously that you eat, drink and sleep it. Then you can get lonely because home treats you like an alien too.

"That happened to me, but luckily I have kids to say: 'Get over it; don't develop too much of an ego'." That is particularly important, she says, when accepting a new assignment. "If you are finding it too hard, and sometimes we get promoted when we are only just ready for the job, the first six months can be hell. You are afraid to let your team know, and you really don't want to let the executive team know."

Gillies believes that is the time when many CIOs would benefit greatly from a professional mentor, which is not surprising in that she herself takes on mentoring roles. In her experience loneliness of itself is not something often raised by CIOs as a problem, however, they do "want someone to bounce ideas off", who is prepared to sit and listen to them.

"With a mentor you have got someone who listens and brings a different perspective to the table. It really does have to be someone that you trust and respect; someone who has been there and done that, walked to the other end and been a success. They can provide you with options but they won't make your decisions for you."

"I've never had a professional mentor," Mortgage Choice's Newton says, "although I have had mentors through my working life. The relationships that develop can be more powerful than a professional coach. You can talk through the issues with direct reports. I think it is very important to talk through strategy with them and be seen to be involving the team in strategy formulation. Part of that ensures that people in the team feel a sense of accountability and responsibility, which can be empowering.

"I also go to conferences, especially industry body organized conferences where there is a cooperative industry initiative. For example the Lending Industry XML Initiative, which is developing methods for electronic sharing of information in the industry. Through that I meet my equivalent in other mortgage brokers. It's a very powerful place to meet and network with people, including competitors. Also outsourcing partners; I take up opportunities to meet people through our outsourcing partners because they target market segments and their other customers face similar issues to us."

What about a good old-fashioned whinge? Who does he turn to for that?

"For that I fall back on the other CXOs. I think it's important that CIOs maintain a strong relationship with CXOs because if there is a problem with IT there will be an impact. I could have a whinge to them because often they are in a position to fix the problem; for example, if we're not getting the support we need from the business.

"It's important that the CIO is not in an ivory tower. I work really hard to develop relationships with key users. Six years ago [when Newton joined Mortgage Choice] the relationship between IT and the business was atrocious. It was dysfunctional." But after the firm explored the option of outsourcing all its IT, it recognized the symbiotic relationship between the business and IT in financial services, and the relationship improved. "You can't abdicate those responsibilities," he says.

"In some way that was a cathartic period when the CXOs woke up to the fact that IT can't do it on its own and really reinforced the fact that this is like a marriage," Newton says. "If you're not communicating then you're not going to fix anything."

CIO Australia