“CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 4 CIO as Talent Master Introduction

People are always the most invaluable asset in any business. “Hiring the right person with the right capability for the right position at the right time,” is the mantra for any forward-looking organization. The point is how would you define the right people, how do you define wrong, average, mediocre, good, great or extraordinary person? It IT skills gap fact or fiction? Shall you hire character, mindset, or skills? What’s the best way to build a solid digital pipeline for discovering authentic and high potential leaders and digital professionals for the business growth?
Discover the right talent at mindset level: It’s important to find the right people through what they think and how they act. The right mindset is utmost quality for being a right fit because the power of the mind is the force to change for the better business and the world. And then, you could look at the behavior that you expect to see. The “positive energy” the employees bring to the workplace can catalyze the culture of innovation and translate into positive actions as well. When it comes to finding the right people, one must first assume the goal is to find the right person who not only fulfills the required needs of the job at the moment, but also has the potential to lead organizations to the next level. The right person who can not just fit in, but also rejuvenate the organizational culture to accelerate business execution.
Close IT skills gaps: There’s always a debate regarding IT talent supply and demand, does IT skills gap really exist? Are they “skill gaps,” or simply “misunderstanding” or “miscommunication” gaps? And how to not just fix the symptoms, but dig through the root cause and build the long term talent management strategy and develop a set of best and next practices for talent management innovation? IT is transforming to reach high level of maturity, it should take a preponderant importance in the coming years to make sustainable IT-Business relationship. IT talent needs to have both technical and business skills, the high quality IT professionals are those who can work independently, have excellent problem-solving skills, well-disciplined, have a “customer focus,” and communicate well. It’s also important to hire really bright energetic and positive people who may have less specific skills, but have the traits described as intelligence, problem-solving, creativity learning agility, communication skills, etc.
Data-driven Talent Management: Information is permeating every corner of the business today, especially in talent management space, rather than following traditional subjective HR model, forward-looking organizations should experiment, develop and mature data-driven talent management for leapfrogging digital transformation. More specifically, data-driven talent management will bring business leaders together across the organization to share their insight wherever there is a gap in the system, streamline and identify root cause, and give practical guideline for improving talent management, engaging workforce planning, deployment, and talent development, forecast talent demand, and embrace futuristic trends such as visualization and proactive presentation., etc.  Though it’s challenging, but integrating data-driven tools into talent management will elevate the organization to be more fact-based, more objective and cost-effective.
Bridging so many gaps in IT talent management is obviously not an overnight job, and it takes a thought-out planning and practices. Whether IT can attract the brightest talent or not also depends on how effective the CIO is marketing his/her organization. And the best way to attract talent is to offer excellence in everything you do such as the workplace, training, communication, positive culture, and the most important thing is insightful talent management.

“CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 3 “CIOs as Change Agent” Introduction“CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 2 “CIOs as Digital Visionary” Introduction“CIO Master” Book Preview: Chapter 1 “Twelve Digital CIO Personas” Introduction"CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Introduction"CIO Master - Unleash the Digital Potential of IT" Book Preview
CIO Master Order Link on AmazonCIO Master Ordre Link on Barner & Noble
CIO Master Order LinkOn IBooks
Follow us at: @Pearl_Zhu