Once you reach the executive suite, solid career advice is harder to find, but more important than ever.

July 2008

By Fawn Fitter, CIO's Custom Solution Group

CIOs often consider it their responsibility to help rising members of their team find mentors, or even to fill that role themselves. But from whom do CIOs seek professional feedback? The need for savvy career advice doesn't vanish when you reach the topmost layer of management-it increases.

Top executives, by definition, swim in a much smaller pool; peers and role models can be hard to find. It's especially tough for CIOs, who must manage people and technology, and are often more skilled at one than the other. Balancing these diverse needs while finding a mentor who can help you do your job effectively and plan your future career path is critical.

The Wisdom of Peers

By the time you reach the C-level, you've probably spent years, if not decades, managing and supervising both a physical infrastructure and the IT staffers who maintain it. Nonetheless, the view is different from the top of the organizational chart, and you're bound to encounter new challenges-especially those involving strategic and political issues within your team or the company as a whole. If you work well with and respect other members of the executive team, you can turn to one or two of them to help sort out what's happening internally and strengthen your position on the team, says organizational consultant Beth Gulas, president of WorkForce Management in Los Angeles.

But when it comes to career-building issues, she says, it's better to take them to someone outside your company. "The CEO position in your company is taken," she explains. "Your CEO might feel threatened unless it's very clear you aren't after that specific job, and you probably have colleagues who want the position just as much as you do."

Instead, she advises that you seek out other people who face the same issues, but aren't competing with you for advancement. You can find C-level peers through professional networking groups-like Microsoft's CIO Network or CEO Roundtable groups-and industry-specific organizations such as the CIO mentoring program run by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

That strategy is working well for Jesus V. Arriaga, principal consultant at CIO Strategic Solutions LLC, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based firm that provides interim CIO services. Arriaga, who is currently interim CIO at Bosley, a hair transplantation company, hopes to eventually parlay his CIO experience into a COO or CEO role. In the meantime, he's on the lookout for opportunities to learn.

"I actively seek out other executives because business has become such an important part of the CIO role," he says. "Right now I speak regularly to several C-level executives whom I've known for several years-not on a formal, scheduled basis, but certainly once every month or two to exchange insights and advice."

The Value of External Expertise

"Having several sources of advice is always the best bet when you're at a high level," says Gulas, who recommends adding a professional coach, an executive career counselor or even a very senior human resources executive to your personal "board of directors" for truly unbiased career guidance.

"Interview several people-after all, they'll be working for you," she says. "Ask for references of other C-level people they've worked with, but just as importantly, make sure you have a rapport and a gut feeling that this person knows what they're talking about."

Arriaga relies on regular meetings with an executive career counselor whose advice he sought after being offered a position that would have required a move from Southern California to Pennsylvania. Without the counselor's advice, he said, he would have accepted the job-a choice he now believes would have been the wrong one for both his career and his family.

"I was in my previous position for seven years, and everything about the job market has changed dramatically since then," he says. "Having that unbiased external advice about everything from possible opportunities to presentation is invaluable."