Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age

Mike Rollings, Research VP for Gartner Inc.

Are Non-Technical skills really as important or more important than Technical Skills? (Part 1 of 3)

In the first of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief Digital Office for IT World Canada and Mike Rollings, Research VP for Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. The move to Digital Business requires some fundamentally different skills as the nexus of Cloud, Social, Mobile and Information usher in the Digital Age. These technologies, used together are changing the expectations of the business users on how they work with the IT department. In this new world where non-technical skills grow in importance, organizations are having challenges finding people with the right skills. Mike also reveals why this is not just an IT problem – it’s embedded in our HR and recruiting processes. Organizations not only don’t search for the right talent, they may be turning away highly qualified and desirable people as they recruit tomorrow’s candidates with yesterdays requirements.

Skills for the New CIO (Part 2 of 3)

In the second of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief Digital Office for IT World Canada and Mike Rollings, Research VP for Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. The narrowly defined skills of yesterday’s IT don’t given employees the competency base to do their job. We have to become more business focused. We extend our discussion from employees to CIOs and the new skills that they require to be successful future. Mike has designed a set of questions to help organizations understand how their goals are linked to the skills and behaviours of their employees.

The Language of Leadership – Fixing the Skills Gap (Part 3 of 3)

In the second of this three part series, Jim Love, CIO and Chief Digital Office for IT World Canada interviews Mike Rollings, Research VP for Gartner Inc. discuss Skills, Talent and Leadership in the Digital Age. We talk about the importance of Leadership language and behaviour. We discuss the hidden messages that we pass on to our staff and the impact that it has. We look at what changes are necessary from recruiting and interviewing to day to day management. Keeping the right people requires addressing more than money – passion, contribution and purpose are as important or perhaps more important than title and compensation. Even organizations that can’t compete on pay can still attract great people by offering personal development and enabling the employees to fulfil their true passions.

CIOs need to take a long look at their own skills. The skills that made us successful in the past might not be what it takes to be successful tomorrow.

About the CIO to CIO series:

Fair warning – this series is for those who want to get to a slightly deeper level in some complex topics. Our discussions are still at a strategic level – we aren’t ‘in the weeds”. But we don’t simply “skim the surface”. The length and the depth of the discussion may go beyond what you are used to in typical internet videos. So I’ve broken them up into bit sized chunks at about 6 minutes each. Grab a cup of coffee. Close the door and let some of Gartner’s leading analysts bring you up to date on key issues.